A Vista man who strangled his girlfriend and left her lifeless body in a mobile home will spend the rest of his life in prison, a judge ruled Friday.
Nathan Carmello Rivera, 43, was convicted for the Nov. 18, 2016, murder of Donna Hixon, 49. At a hearing Friday, he was sentenced to 75 years behind bars.
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Hixon was found dead inside a mobile home parked on La Rueda Drive in unincorporated Vista. The position of her body inside the mobile home at first threw off investigators but, ultimately, they determined Hixon’s death was suspicious.
An autopsy by the San Diego County Medical Examiner would later confirm Dixon died of strangulation. Her death was ruled a homicide.
Rivera was identified as the suspect in Dixon’s killing. He had been arrested on suspicion of stealing a car one day after the murder. On Nov. 19, 2016, he was booked once more into the Vista Detention Facility on one count of first-degree murder.
