SHELTON – A Shelton resident previously accused of firing a stolen semi-automatic rifle in the air in Waterbury was sentenced to three years in federal prison March 4.

Police said a 2022 investigation in Shelton uncovered bullet-proof vests, a shotgun, and high-capacity magazines inside Miguel “Macho” Rivera’s 1993 Honda parked at his residence on Coram Avenue.

The three-year sentence for the Shelton crime is on top of the five-year sentence Rivera, 33, is already serving for the Waterbury incident. Both convictions have to do with possessing weapons as a convicted felon.

Waterbury Shots Fired

On July 5, 2020 just before 2 a.m., Waterbury police responded to a ‘shots fired’ call near the intersection of William and Laurel streets.

Responding officers said they saw Rivera in the area climbing a fence, according to federal court documents. They apprehended him as he attempted to scale a second fence.

Police said Rivera was wearing a bullet-proof vest, and he had a bullet in his pocket. Police also said they found 23 spent shell casings and a loaded GP WASR-10 rifle, which police compared to an AK-47, in the area where police first spotted Rivera. 

The rifle, which police said Rivera admitted was his, had been reported stolen out of Massachusetts, according to court documents.

A memo from the prosecution in that case alleged that Rivera told police a group of people had fired a weapon at him earlier in the evening. He got some friends together and went back to the scene, where one of his friends fired the rifle into the air, according to the memo. Police noted he wouldn’t provide any names.

A jury eventually convicted Rivera of being a felon in possession of a weapon. Rivera is appealing the conviction, according to paperwork filed in May 2025.

Shelton Investigation

His residence, which had at least two apartments, was the subject of a state police drug investigation starting in March 2021.

In June 2022, while Rivera was free on bond as his Waterbury case went through the system, the Statewide Narcotics Task Force raided the Coram Avenue property where he lived on the second floor. 

Police said they used a warrant to search his apartment, where they allegedly found a scale with an unspecified residue, an indication of possible drug distribution, police said. 

Police also searched his Honda, which was parked in a detached garage on the property. Inside, police said they found 9 mm bullets, a ski mask, two bullet-proof vests, a 12-gauge shotgun, 50 rounds of shotgun ammunition, and many gun accessories.

Some of the ammunition and accessories had been reported stolen from New Canaan in December 2020. 

Police said they found Rivera’s fingerprint on the shotgun.

The resident from the property’s third-floor apartment, Allister James, was arrested on drug charges, including operating a drug factory. James was sentenced to three years probation on June 1, 2023.

Meanwhile, Rivera’s case was prosecuted federally because of his past felony convictions. A federal grand jury indicted Rivera on June 17, 2025, charging him with unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition in connection to the Coram Avenue discoveries.

‘Undeniably Serious’

The prosection in the Shelton case recommended Rivera be sentenced to 63 months in federal prison, with 17 of those months to serve at the same time as Rivera’s Waterbury gun conviction.

A prosecution memo to the court remarked that the Shelton offense is “undeniably serious.”

“The number of senseless, gun-related violent incidents that occur in our local communities and nationwide is staggering,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Natasha M. Freismuth wrote.

The prosecution noted Rivera’s first conviction was for carrying a pistol without a permit when he was 19. Freismuth also noted Rivera’s criminal record includes a 2013 conviction for third-degree robbery and a 2015 conviction for first-degree burglary.

Rivera had “thus far, spent most of his adult life placing others at risk for his own benefit,” Freismuth wrote.

Troubled Childhood

Rivera was represented in the Shelton case by federal public defender Tracy Hayes.

Hayes, in arguing for a lighter sentence, wrote that most of Rivera’s life has been like living in a war zone.

He sustained a traumatic brain injury in a horrific car crash while a youngster growing up in St. Croix, where he lived in poverty and routinely witnessed violence. He came to Ansonia as a child to live with an older sibling. He also grew up in Bridgeport and Waterbury. 

Rivera started using marijuana at age 13 and then alcohol at age 16.

Rivera has been in jail since 2022. He’s taken more than a 100 classes behind bars, an act indicative of his desire to turn his life around, Hayes said.

Sentencing Day

Rivera was sentenced March 4 by U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford federal court. The case was prosecuted by Freismuth and Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia Stolfi Collins.