OPINION Chief Justice SUTTELL , for the Court. The defendant, Kevin Storey, appeals from a Superior Court judgment of conviction for one count of assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of simple assault and battery. After a jury trial, the defendant was sentenced to a term of fifteen years at the Adult Correctional Institutions, with five years to serve and ten years suspended, with probation. On appeal, the defendant argues that the trial justice erred by: (1) denying his motions...
OPINION Justice GOLDBERG , for the Court. The defendant, Brian Verry (defendant), is before the Supreme Court on appeal from a judgment of conviction entered after a jury trial in the Superior Court. He was convicted of one count of felony assault, for which he received a twenty-year suspended sentence with twenty years of probation; one count of simple assault, for which he received a one-year sentence to be served concurrently with the other sentence imposed; and one count of first-...
OPINION Chief Justice SUTTELL, for the Court. The defendant, Allen Wray, appeals from an order of the Superior Court denying his motion for credit for time served while awaiting trial and sentencing. This case came before the Supreme Court pursuant to an order directing the parties to appear and show cause why the issues raised in this appeal should not be summarily decided. After considering the parties' written and oral submissions and reviewing the record, we conclude that cause has not...
OPINION Justice INDEGLIA, for the Court. The plaintiffs, Simcha Berman and Sarah Berman, 1 appeal from (1) a judgment entered after a jury verdict in favor of the defendant, the State of Rhode Island, in the plaintiffs' civil action seeking damages and (2) the trial court's denial of motions for judgment as a matter of law, a new trial, and to vacate judgment. The defendant cross-appeals the denial of its motion for judgment as a matter of law. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the...
OPINION Justice ROBINSON, for the Court. The defendant, John S. Miguel, appeals pro se from a Superior Court order denying his motion to reduce what he contends was an illegal sentence imposed upon him pursuant to Rule 35 of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure in January of 1992. In the underlying criminal case, the defendant pled guilty to second-degree murder and received a life sentence. On appeal, he argues: (1) that his life sentence is illegal because he should have been...
OPINION Justice GOLDBERG, for the Court. This case stems from the brutal, late-night beating of a young man that occurred on the East Side of Providence. The complainant suffered a head wound that required eight stitches, a severe concussion, a broken nose, and multiple lacerations and contusions over his entire body. After a four-day jury trial, the defendant, Antonio O. Whitfield (Whitfield or defendant), was convicted of two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of simple...
OPINION Justice ROBINSON, for the Court. The defendant, Darnell Hie, appeals to this Court from a November 17, 2011 judgment of conviction after a jury found him guilty of two counts of second-degree child molestation sexual assault in violation of G.L.1956 11-37-8.3. On appeal, the defendant contends that the trial justice erred in refusing to declare a mistrial and in denying his motion for a new trial. This case came before the Supreme Court pursuant to an order directing the parties to...
OPINION Chief Justice SUTTELL, for the Court. On April 2, 2010, Michael Patino (defendant) was indicted for the first-degree murder of Marco Nieves, the six-year-old son of his girlfriend, Trisha Oliver. The state's case against the defendant was constructed largely on the basis of incriminating text messages purportedly sent by the defendant to Ms. Oliver, messages which were discovered on her cell phone by officers of the Cranston Police Department. The defendant filed a number of pretrial...
OPINION Justice ROBINSON, for the Court. The defendant, Mohamed Nabe, appeals from a judgment of conviction on one count of carrying a firearm in a motor vehicle without a license. This case came before the Supreme Court pursuant to an order directing the parties to appear and show cause why the issues raised in this appeal should not be summarily decided. After a close review of the record and careful consideration of the parties' arguments (both written and oral), we are satisfied that...
OPINION Justice ROBINSON, for the Court. The juvenile respondent, J.S., 1 appeals from a judgment entered by the Family Court finding him delinquent for committing an assault with a dangerous weapon. This case came before the Supreme Court pursuant to an order directing the parties to appear and show cause why the issues raised in this appeal should not be summarily decided. After a close review of the record and careful consideration of the parties' arguments (both written and oral), we are...
OPINION Chief Justice SUTTELL, for the Court. The defendant, Pedro Marte, appeals from a Superior Court judgment of conviction for possession with intent to deliver cocaine. After a jury trial, the defendant was sentenced to a term of ten years at the Adult Correctional Institutions, with two years to serve, and eight years suspended. On appeal, the defendant argues that the trial justice erred: (1) by not excluding evidence that the defendant was carrying cash at the time of his arrest; and (...
OPINION Justice ROBINSON, for the Court. The defendant, Mark Ceppi, appeals from a judgment of conviction on one count of domestic felony assault, pursuant to G.L.1956 11-5-2 and G.L.1956 12-29-5, and one count of domestic simple assault, pursuant to 11-5-3 and 12-29-5, which judgment was entered on August 5, 2010, following a jury-waived trial in the Newport County Superior Court. The defendant contends that the trial justice erred in denying his motion to dismiss a criminal...
OPINION Justice ROBINSON, for the Court. The defendant, Adam Lake, appeals to this Court from a judgment of conviction after a jury found him guilty of two counts of first-degree child molestation sexual assault. The justice of the Superior Court who had presided over the trial sentenced the defendant to two concurrent terms of forty years imprisonment, with twenty-five years to serve and fifteen years suspended, with probation. On appeal, defendant contends that the trial justice abused her...
ORDER This case is before the Supreme Court on appeal by the applicant, Jose L. Garcia, from an order denying his application for postconviction relief. On July 11, 1995, the applicant was sentenced, after a jury trial, to six terms of life imprisonment, two of those terms without the possibility of parole, upon conviction for multiple counts of arson, conspiracy to commit arson, and felony murder in connection with the deaths of six family members in an arson fire in Providence that was set...
OPINION Justice INDEGLIA, for the Court. The defendant Thomas Mercurio (Mercurio or defendant) appeals from his conviction on one count of resisting arrest. The defendant contends that the trial justice abused his discretion by permitting the prosecutor to inquire about three prior convictions for assault and, during cross-examination, erred in permitting the prosecutor to reveal that two of the defendant's prior assault convictions in question were upon police officers. This case came...
ORDER On April 19, 2004, the defendant pleaded nolo contendere to third-degree sexual assault and possession of cocaine. On the same day, the defendant received a sentence of five years imprisonment for the sexual-assault count, all of which was suspended, with probation, and a consecutive one-year sentence for possession of cocaine, with thirty days to serve and the remainder suspended. A little over a year later, on July 5, 2005, defendant filed a motion to vacate his plea. We note that a...
OPINION Justice ROBINSON, for the Court. The defendant, Luis Barrios, was convicted by a jury on two counts of second-degree sexual assault, and he has appealed from that conviction. This case came before the Supreme Court pursuant to an order directing the parties to appear and show cause why the issues raised in this appeal should not be summarily decided. After a close review of the record and careful consideration of the parties' arguments (both written and oral), we are satisfied that...
OPINION Chief Justice SUTTELL, for the Court. The plaintiff, JPL Livery Services, appeals from a January 2, 2013 judgment in favor of the defendants, the Rhode Island Department of Administration and the Rhode Island Department of Health (collectively, the state). 1 The plaintiff and the state were parties to a service contract in which the plaintiff agreed to provide livery services for the transportation of human remains. The plaintiff challenges the trial justice's findings that the...
OPINION Justice GOLDBERG, for the Court. On the night of May 6, 2009, three men savagely attacked and robbed Cesar Lopez (Lopez or complainant), who had unwittingly arrived at an abandoned house to deliver pizza. The attackers made off with about $20. Several days later, a chance encounter with one of the robbers led to his arrest, and that perpetrator implicated the defendant, Markus Matthews (defendant), in this brutal crime. The defendant was tried and convicted by a jury of a single count...
OPINION Justice FLAHERTY, for the Court. The defendant, Kayborn Brown, appeals from a judgment of conviction for incidents occurring on August 4 and August 6, 2008. As a result of those events, the defendant was charged with ten offenses in a single indictment: the murder of Jorge Restrepo in violation of G.L.1956 11-23-1 (count 1), conspiracy to commit murder in violation of G.L.1956 11-1-6 (count 2), first-degree robbery in violation of G.L.1956 11-39-1 (count 3), conspiracy to commit...
