Dauphin County man sentenced up to 120 years in prison after being found guilty of raping spa workers at gunpoint

A judge sentenced a Dauphin County man to 60 to 120 years in state prison last week after a jury found him guilty of raping two workers at a Penn Township spa at gunpoint before an officer eventually shot him.

Judge Jeffery Conrad handed down the sentence to Christopher A. Rivera, of Middletown Borough, on Friday.

A jury had found Rivera guilty of two counts each of robbery, rape forcible compulsion and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse forcible compulsion as well as four counts of sexual assault following a three-day trial in October.

Rivera, 38, held the victims at gunpoint with a pellet gun at the spa located in the 1200 block of Lancaster Road the evening of Aug. 27, 2024.

At first Rivera demanded the two victims give him money, but after they surrendered more than $800 from the store’s proceeds he then forced them both into a massage room where he raped them.  

Surveillance footage from inside the spa showed Rivera pointing the weapon at the victims and forcing them into one of the massage rooms, then fleeing out a rear door as police entered the business.

A Northern Lancaster County Regional Police officer who responded to the scene shortly after 8 p.m. ultimately shot Rivera as he was fleeing, ignoring lawful orders and produced the pellet gun, which closely resembled that of a semi-automatic handgun.  

District Attorney Heather Adams later determined that the responding officer was legally justified in firing at Rivera.

Assistant District Attorney Fritz Haverstick prosecuted the case.

Lancaster County Detective Brent Shultz filed the charges.