PA Man Admits To Maple Shade Motel Killing: Prosecutor

BURLINGTON, NJ - A Philadelphia man pleaded guilty Monday to killing a woman inside a Burlington County motel last spring, authorities said.

Alexander Rivera, 27, admitted to first-degree aggravated manslaughter in exchange for a 25-year term in state prison as part of a plea agreement with the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.

The charge stems from a May 11, 2022 call around 11:30 a.m. to the Maple Shade Police Department regarding an unresponsive female at the Bel-Air Motor Lodge on Route 73, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office said.

Michelle Johnston, 36, who had “previously lived in multiple locations in the Burlington and Camden county areas,” was found dead in room 410 upon police arrival, the prosecutor’s office said.

An autopsy found the cause of death was strangulation and multiple stab wounds.

U.S. Marshals arrested Rivera in his Mayfair home on November 4, Bradshaw and Fletcher said. He was jailed in Pennsylvania before being extradited to New Jersey. It’s not immediately clear how Rivera and Johnson knew each other, if at all.

Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 18.