State v. Juan Rivera

Summary

The Supreme Court of Rhode Island affirmed Juan Rivera's convictions for first-degree murder, conspiracy, and related firearm offenses arising from the 2021 shooting death of Jorge Garcia at Roque's Café in Providence. The court held that Detective Michael's digital-forensics testimony—establishing that the seized DVR hard drive was in a read-only format that could not be altered, that he did not manipulate the footage, and that he maintained the chain of custody—satisfied Rule 901's slight authentication burden for the surveillance exhibits without testimony from a custodian or percipient witness. The court declined to reach the merits of the admitted statements of the now-deceased Josue Calderon under the Rule 804(c) good-faith exception and of Segura's 'word on the streets' redirect testimony, holding both arguments waived because defense counsel failed to make timely, specific objections at trial.