As reported by John Hill in the March 22, 2013 edition of the Providence Journal, a Providence man has been sentenced in connection with a Pawtucket murder. The man is currently serving a life sentence in connection with the murder of his girlfriend. He was sentenced to two additional life sentences for the murder of a man driving a car and the attempted murder of his passenger.
Pursuant to Rhode Island General Laws 11-23-1, there is first and second degree murder. The unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought is murder. Every murder perpetrated by poison, lying in wait, or any other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing, or committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson or any violation of § 11-4-2, 11-4-3, or 11-4-4, rape, any degree of sexual assault or child molestation, burglary or breaking and entering, robbery, kidnapping, or committed during the course of the perpetration, or attempted perpetration, of felony manufacture, sale, delivery, or other distribution of a controlled substance otherwise prohibited by the provisions of chapter 28 of title 21, or committed against any law enforcement officer in the performance of his or her duty or committed against an assistant attorney general or special assistant attorney general in the performance of his or her duty, or perpetrated from a premeditated design unlawfully and maliciously to effect the death of any human being other than him or her who is killed, is murder in the first degree. Any other murder is murder in the second degree.
The penalties if convicted of first degree murder are imprisonment for life. There are certain offenses of first degree murder which carry a life sentence without the possibility of parole. The penalties if convicted of second degree murder is imprisonment for not less than ten (10) years and may be imprisoned for life.