Robert Pizarro, Kidnapping and Murder, New York 2016

Crime journalist investigates sentencing of Robert Pizarro, 39, and Juan Rivera, 42, both of the Bronx, New York, for attempted robbery, kidnapping, and murder of federal cooperating witness Robert Bishun on September 20, 2016.

Bishun, a federal cooperating witness, was viciously kidnapped and murdered by Pizarro and Rivera because of his cooperation with the government. The defendants attempted to rob Bishun at gunpoint inside his auto body shop, binding two customers with zip ties and locking them in separate vehicles.

Upon learning that Bishun was a federal cooperating witness, the defendants kidnapped him and strangled him to death with a plastic zip tie. They then abandoned Bishun's body in the back of his own vehicle on the side of the road.

This is not the defendants' first offense. In January 2015, Pizarro and an accomplice stormed into Bishun's auto body shop and robbed him at gunpoint, taking approximately $10,000 in cash.

The investigative efforts of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the New York City Police Department, and the Special Agents of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York were praised by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman.

Pizarro, 39, of the Bronx, was sentenced to life in prison plus 14 years, while Rivera, 42, of the Bronx, received a sentence of life in prison plus seven years.

The case is being prosecuted by the Office's Violent and Organized Crime Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Jason Swergold, Jessica Fender, Jared Lenow, and Margaret Graham are in charge of the prosecution.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/robert-pizarro-and-juan-rivera-sentenced-life-prison-kidnapping-and-murder-federal