Background: The Seminole County Jail in Sanford, Fla. (Google Maps). Inset: Kyle Riva (Seminole County Sheriff”s Office).
A Florida man is accused of choking a teen walking through his backyard and snatching the boy’s phone before throwing it into a nearby lake.
Kyle Riva, 70, has been charged with third-degree battery by strangulation and third-degree robbery by sudden snatching — both felonies — and first-degree misdemeanor damage of property between $200 and $1,000, Seminole County court records show. He made his first appearance in court on Tuesday and is no longer listed in the Seminole County Jail.
On Monday at about 7:10 p.m., a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy were walking through Riva’s backyard on Tigua Island Court in Seminole County, Florida. The area is just northeast of Orlando.
An arrest report obtained by Law&Crime states that Riva’s wife noticed the boys and exited her home and asked them to leave. The 13-year-old boy reportedly cursed at her, and she went back inside and told her husband.
Riva emerged “angry,” the court document states, and the 13-year-old “pulled out his phone and began to record” the man. Riva allegedly then “pushed” the boy “once near the collar bone,” but the teen continued recording.
The teens suggested it wasn’t as much of a push as a choke. They stated that as soon as Riva walked into his backyard, he approached the older boy “aggressively,” prompting the teen to start recording “because he felt he was in danger.” Riva reportedly then grabbed the 13-year-old “by the neck and began to squeeze.”
The defendant “then grabbed the phone” from the teen’s hands “and threw it into Lake Antigua, which backs up to Kyle’s backyard,” according to the report.
After the incident, the teens returned to the older boy’s house, where his father prompted them to call 911. Authorities say the injured boy had bruises on his throat that “clearly show the impressions of fingers which had wrapped around his throat.”
The father then reportedly expressed his desire to press charges.
Riva is expected to return to court to be arraigned on Aug. 25.
