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February 28, 2008

R.I. high court upholds conviction of motel owner's killer

PROVIDENCE -- The state Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction and life-without-parole sentence of Roger Graham, who went into Founder's Brook Motel and Suites in Portsmouth six years ago and shot the owner in front of his 8-year-old son.

"The cold-blooded and shocking nature of this act reveals a heart of stone and a character unconcerned with the standards of a decent and law-abiding society," Supreme Court Justice Francis X. Flaherty wrote in the court's opinion out today. "We cannot in good conscience say that the citizenry ever would be safe if again exposed to this callous criminal. Therefore, we affirm the sentence of life without parole imposed by the trial justice."

Graham appealed his February 2005 conviction in Newport County Superior Court. Graham, an immigrant from Barbados who had been living illegally in New York City, became the 22nd convicted felon in Rhode Island sentenced to life without parole possibility. The prosecution said Graham had been hired by the victim's brother-in-law to kill motel manager Sanjeev Patel on New Year's Day 2002.

Patel's bullet-riddled body was found by his wife, the high court opinion says.

There were two consecutive hung juries before a third jury convicted Graham and concluded the crime met the conditions that is was a murder for hire, enabling the judge to consider the life-without-parole sentence.

Graham's appeal argued the Superior Court judge gave improper jury instructions, incorrectly ruled on certain evidence matters, incorrectly denied the defendant’s motion for acquittal on the conspiracy charge; erred in life-without-parole proceedings and sentence, and erred in not appointing additional legal counsel for the defendant for his third trial.

The Supreme Court said Graham's "troubling character, record, and propensity for criminal activity persuade us that it is unlikely that he could be rehabilitated" and that he "has been engaged in a life of crime, including selling bootleg tapes and compact discs, installing bootleg cable, selling weapons, and selling drugs."

The high court adds it was "unable to find any indication" that Graham has, "to this day, shown any real remorse for what he has done."

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with Journal archival reports

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 12:30 PM | Permalink

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