Ricardo Natividad was sentenced to death by the State of Pennsylvania for the murder of Michael Haven
According to court documents Ricardo Natividad and an accomplice would carjack Michael Haven who would be robbed and murdered
Ricardo Natividad would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Ricardo Natividad Photos
Ricardo Natividad Now
Parole Number: 9323V
Age: 54
Date of Birth: 02/24/1969
Race/Ethnicity: BLACK
Height: 5′ 10″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: LIGHT
Current Location: CHESTER
Permanent Location: CHESTER
Committing County: PHILADELPHIA
Ricardo Natividad Case
At 2:00 a.m. on November 9, 1996, Michael Havens was preparing to unlock his car, a dark blue Lincoln, when two men, one of whom Mr. Havens later identified as Appellant, approached him. Appellant faced Mr. Havens while pointing a stainless steel revolver at him, as his cohort approached him from behind. Mr. Havens surrendered his wallet and keys to Appellant, who then ordered Mr. Havens into the car and threatened to kill him when Mr. Havens initially hesitated. Mr. Havens sat in the backseat, and Appellant sat in the front seat, facing and pointing his gun at Mr. Havens while Appellant’s cohort drove. Appellant repeatedly demanded cash from Mr. Havens, and when he found the cash Mr. Havens had on hand unsatisfactory, he threatened to shoot Mr. Havens unless he withdrew more cash from an automatic teller machine. Mr. Havens, however, convinced Appellant that he had no available cash in his bank account, so Appellant and his cohort abandoned him on the side of a road and drove off.
At 7:00 p.m. that same evening, Appellant picked up his friend, Byron Price, in a blue Lincoln, which Mr. Price had never seen Appellant drive before. Appellant pulled the car into a nearby gas station and instructed Mr. Price to wait in the passenger seat. Mr. Price testified to hearing a gunshot, then seeing Appellant run back to the car with a chrome revolver in his hand. Mr. Price observed a man, later identified as Robert Campbell, lying on the ground next to a gas pump, at which point Appellant sped away from the gas station. When Mr. Price asked Appellant why he shot the man, Appellant replied, “He drew on me.” Commonwealth v. Natividad, 565 Pa. 348, 773 A.2d 167, 172 (2001) (Natividad I) (Opinion Announcing Judgment of Court), cert. denied, 535 U.S. 1099, 122 S.Ct. 2300, 152 L.Ed.2d 1056 (2002). The Johnsons, who lived across the street from the gas station, further testified that they saw the victim raise his hands in the air and fall backward right when they heard gunshots. The Johnsons indicated that they saw the shooter run into the driver’s side of a dark Lincoln while wearing a lumberjack-style jacket, although they were unable to identify Appellant specifically as the shooter
On November 11, 1996, police recovered the charred remains of a dark blue Lincoln. They found a lumberjack-style jacket in the car, and Mr. Havens identified the car as his. He also identified the jacket as his, claiming that he had left it in his car at the time of the robbery.
Several of Appellant’s acquaintances indicated that he took credit for the gas-station murder the day after the incident. In December 1996, Keith Smith gave a .357 revolver to his attorney, who immediately surrendered it to homicide detectives. Carl Harris testified that he saw Appellant approach Mr. Smith several weeks after the murder and take Mr. Smith to a private area. When Appellant left, Mr. Harris noticed Mr. Smith carrying a chrome .357-Magnum gun. Police arrested Appellant in March 1997, and Mr. Havens identified him from a photographic array. Mr. Havens also identified the .357 gun as similar to the one used to rob him of his vehicle. Tests revealed that the fatal wound to Mr. Campbell at the gas station was consistent with injuries caused by a .357 Magnum.