The blood-chilling true story behind photograph of California actress crouching on a roof as intruder closed in
It was a photo that terrified the nation: a half-naked Los Angeles woman followed onto her roof by a home intruder.
Actress Melora Rivera was 29 years old when a homeless man with a lengthy rap sheet broke into her Venice, California, home just three weeks after she moved there in September 2014.
She bravely crawled on to her roof and called police as an area blogger snapped the infamous picture of the intruder Christian Hicks lurching behind her.
Rivera told the Daily Mail at the time: ‘I felt like I was becoming the plot to a horror movie; it was terrifying, all my instincts told me I had to get out of there.
‘This guy had kicked my front door in, chased me up to my bedroom and followed me out the window on to the roof; all I could do was hide.
‘If the police hadn’t got there when they did, who knows what could have happened. I thought I might have to jump off the roof. My mind keeps playing over, and over all the possible ways this could have played out.’
Police promptly rescued Rivera and immediately arrested Hicks; however, court records viewed by the Daily Mail show he received a plea deal and was sentenced to just three years behind bars for the incident.
A few short years later, Hicks, now 41, was released and quickly fell back into his criminal ways, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Actress Melora Rivera was 29 years old when she bravely crawled on to her roof and called police after a homeless man broke into her home in September 2014
The intruder, identified as Christian Hicks, had a lengthy rap sheet, but received a plea deal and was sentenced to just three years behind bars
In 2018, he was arrested and charged with burglary and forcible touch, but received another plea deal and was sentenced to less than a year behind bars.
Then, in 2021, he was arrested on rape, sodomy, sexual penetration with force and kidnapping charges.
After years of back and forth in court, he was finally sentenced to 37 years in prison in 2023 for egregious crimes, and records show he will be eligible for parole in September 2043.
Rivera, who is a TV writer and had an acting role the 2012 Whitney Houston film Sparkle, recounted being fast asleep when Hicks first started scoping the house, then being jolted awake by someone jiggling the knob to her front door.
‘My bedroom is in the loft, and there’s a ladder coming up from near the front door so the sound woke me up. I looked at my phone and the few people it could have been hadn’t texted to say they were coming round,’ Rivera said.
‘I hesitated for a second, and eventually I came down and looked out of the window and saw the guy walking away. He was talking to himself; it sounded like he was commenting on a car parked in the street.’
Shrugging off the visit, Rivera contemplated taking a shower ready for work – but instead she decided to go back to bed.
Fifteen minutes later, the intruder was back and this time he meant business.
Rivera, who is a TV writer, previously told the Daily Mail she felt like she was living in a horror movie. She is pictured in 2014
A passer-by witnessed the incident and flagged down a police officer, and Rivera called 911. Police promptly rescued Rivera and immediately arrested Hicks
Hicks showed no remorse as he was taken away in handcuffs after the assault on Melora’s home. A few short years later, he was released
He started ramming the door with his shoulder.
‘I looked down from my bedroom and could see the door buckling with every charge,’ said an animated Rivera. ‘It seemed relentless; this guy was going to carry on until he got in, I was scared. I called 911 and told them someone was trying to break in my house.
‘I was giving them my address when a big chunk of my door broke inwards, and I saw the guy’s hand coming inside to unlock it.’
Rivera decided her best plan was to escape. Her bedroom was in the eaves of the house, meaning her windows are low down.
She slid back the glass door of one of the windows and kicked the screen panel out.
‘I literally crawled through the window, and as the intruder steps one foot in my house, I step one foot on the roof,’ she said.
‘But he didn’t stop there. He came up the steps to my bedroom, and as I’m crawling around the roof I see his head pop out through the window. The next thing he’s on the roof with me.’
A passer-by witnessed the incident and flagged down a police officer; meanwhile, Rivera was on the phone with 911.
Rivera says the whole incident lasted up to 30 minutes, and she managed to take some photos as it all unfolded
Police managed to coax Hicks down from the roof after firefighters gave Rivera a ladder to climb to safety
Hicks is serving a 37-year prison sentence for rape, sodomy, sexual penetration with force and kidnapping charges from a 2021 incident
Police managed to coax Hicks down from the roof after firefighters gave Rivera a ladder to climb to safety.
Amazingly, Rivera says the whole incident lasted up to 30 minutes, and she managed to take some photos as it all unfolded.
‘There were six cops pointing their guns up at me and a helicopter overhead, and a bunch of people were watching from the sidewalk, and I’m stuck on a roof with no pants on, it was crazy,’ she said.
‘It was a weird sensation to feel like your life is in jeopardy and people are watching it; I wasn’t trying to be a Law & Order episode; I didn’t want to die before the credits.’
