State v. Gahil Oliveira

Summary

The Supreme Court of Rhode Island affirmed the convictions of Gahil Oliveira, Jason Ferrell, Pedro Sanders, and Robert McKinney for the revenge killing of John Carpenter and related assault and conspiracy counts. The court rejected challenges to Rule 16 discovery sanctions, eyewitness identifications, collective juror questioning about press coverage, a codefendant attorney's comment on the defendants' silence, the trial justice's refusal to recuse during her nomination to the court, her 'assassins' remark, lay opinion on shoe prints, admission of a witness's statement (affirmed right-for-wrong-reason), sufficiency of the evidence against Ferrell on a Pinkerton vicarious-liability theory, unpreserved double-jeopardy and juror-remark claims, cross-examination limits, denial of severance, due-process notice on the assault charge, tattoo evidence, and letter authentication.