State v. Gahlil Oliveira; State v. Victor St. Hill

Summary

The Supreme Court of Rhode Island reversed the first-degree felony-murder convictions of Gahlil Oliveira and Victor St. Hill, holding that the predicate in G.L. 1956 § 11-23-1 — 'manufacture, sale, delivery, or other distribution of a controlled substance' — denotes transfer of drugs to another, not receipt from another, and that attempting to acquire a large quantity of cocaine with intent to redistribute, without any further act toward delivery or distribution, is not a substantial step toward the attempted predicate offense. It directed the Superior Court to enter judgments of acquittal on the murder count. The court affirmed the drug-conspiracy convictions of all three defendants, rejecting claims concerning a cautionary jury instruction, a refused credibility instruction, limits on cross-examination, coconspirator hearsay, and redirect examination of a police detective, while declining to reach the photo-array challenge as unpreserved.