State v. Sabetta

• Citation: 680 A.2d 927
• Decision Date: 10 July 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-67-C,95-67-C
• Parties: STATE v. Robert SABETTA. A.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Rhode Island

Page 927

680 A.2d 927

STATE v. Robert SABETTA.

No. 95-67-C.A.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

July 10, 1996.

Annie Goldberg and Aaron Weisman, Providence, for Plaintiff.

Paula Rosin and Richard Casparian, Providence, for Defendant.

OPINION

MURRAY, Justice.

This case comes before us on the appeal of the defendant, Robert Sabetta (defendant), from judgments of conviction following a jury trial on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of assault with intent to commit murder. The defendant was sentenced to consecutive life sentences on each count of murder, and he received a twenty-year sentence on the assault-to-commit-murder charge. We affirm. The facts of the case insofar as pertinent to this appeal are as follows.

On the evening of April 13, 1993, the murder victims in this case, Frank Sherman, his brother, Charles Sherman (Frank, Charles, or the Shermans), and a friend, Jeremy Bullock (Bullock), were working on their cars in a garage at Wilson's Auto Sales located on Route 6 in Foster. The Shermans' cousins, Darrell Drake (Drake) and Michael Clausen (Clausen), were also present in the garage, working on their cars.

Around midnight the Shermans' black Labrador retriever, Chocolate, began to bark continuously outside the garage; Charles told Frank to go outside to investigate why the dog was barking. Clausen, who was at that moment getting under his own car to fix its transmission, testified that he heard something that sounded like firecrackers and feet scuffling around in the dirt. The next thing Clausen heard was a noise inside the garage which sounded like a gunshot. He heard Bullock grunting "like he was in pain, like something was hitting him." From beneath his car Clausen peered out and saw Bullock's feet pointed upward, as if he had fallen backward. As he attempted to retreat under his car, he heard someone say, "You're going to die." He then heard another shot. From underneath his car, he could see a person wearing a pair of dark blue pants that had a light blue stripe down the side. Clausen recognized the colors of the pants as those he associated with a Foster police officer's uniform. The person was also wearing a pair of black boots. Clausen could not see the assailant's face. He watched the person walk around to the passenger side of his car, where Charles had been sitting. He then heard two shots and a gasp from Charles. The next thing he saw were shell casings falling to the floor near the assailant's boots. Clausen waited a short while before crawling out from beneath his car. When he sat up, he observed that Charles had been shot in the face. Clausen ran out of the garage, and as soon as he got outside, he saw Bullock lying on his back, also apparently shot. Clausen was able to get into his car and drive home where he reported the shootings to his parents, who summoned the police.

At the time Frank went to investigate the dog's barking, Drake had been sitting in the front seat of his car, working on his radio. He testified that he heard loud bangs which shook the garage. He then saw a dark-complected man, with short hair and glasses, pointing a gun at him from a distance of about six or seven feet. Drake jumped out of the way, and heard another shot, and jumped across the console of the car and onto the floor. He fell out the passenger-side door, where he saw the body of Bullock lying on the ground. Drake saw a person who was wearing black boots heading toward the back of the garage. Drake then got up and ran out of the garage. As he was running, he heard more shots being fired in the garage. Drake then realized that he had been shot. He stopped on the side of the road because he was experiencing difficulty breathing. From this position he heard the sound of squealing car tires. He then saw a light-colored Grand Marquis or Crown Victoria drive quickly past him with its headlights off. Drake then ran to the first house he saw and asked its residents for help. Police responded to the call to the location, and Drake was taken by ambulance to a hospital for treatment of his injuries. On April 14, 1993, while he was hospitalized, Drake picked defendant out from a police photo lineup as the person who shot him. Drake also made an in-court identification of defendant at trial.

Sergeant Samuel Mooney, a member of the Foster police department, was on duty the night of the shootings and testified that he responded to the call to the garage. Foster Sergeant William Chapman had already arrived and was waiting for additional police units to respond before searching the garage. A number of State Police units also responded to the call. The defendant immediately became a suspect in the shootings on the basis of information received by law enforcement authorities. Several municipal police units, including those in Johnston, Cranston, and Scituate, were notified to be on the lookout for defendant's car, a gray-colored 1990 or 1991 Ford LTD Crown Victoria bearing Rhode Island vehicle registration No. 77712.

At approximately 3:30 a.m. on April 14, 1993, defendant was observed driving his car in Cranston, where he resided. Cranston police officers stopped defendant's vehicle without incident, and defendant was taken into the custody of the State Police. He was arrested and arraigned for the murders of the Shermans and Bullock, and he was charged with assault with intent to commit murder on Drake.

At the time of the murders defendant was suspended without pay from his position as a Foster police officer after having been indicted by a grand jury on March 23, 1993. The defendant was indicted for assault with a dangerous weapon upon Frank in an incident occurring in January 1993 during a vehicle stop by defendant while he was on duty. This incident, and defendant's subsequent indictment and suspension from the police force, served as the basis of defendant's motive to commit the murders.

Law enforcement authorities did not immediately locate the gun which was believed to have been used in the shootings, a Ruger .357 magnum revolver. However, two weeks after the murders a similar gun was found by a person who was fishing beneath the Gold Star Bridge in Groton, Connecticut. The serial number on the gun had been removed, and the barrel of the gun had been ground down. There were six spent cartridges remaining in the gun, which was immediately turned over to the Groton police. The defendant possessed a weapon similar to the gun which was found while he was employed by the Foster police department.

After the State Police obtained the .357 magnum found in Groton, in order to determine whether the guns were the same they extracted bullet projectiles from a tree upon which defendant had used a gun to practice target shooting. A ballistics expert testified that the bullets extracted from the tree had been fired from the .357 magnum found in Groton.

Police also obtained metal filings from defendant's residence for examination. Federal Bureau of Investigation forensic metallurgist, William Tobin, testified that the particles seized from defendant's residence were similar in composition to the material making up the barrel of the revolver which had been recovered by police.

The defendant was found guilty by a jury on June 11, 1994, of the first-degree murders of the Shermans and Bullock and of assault with intent to commit murder upon Drake, from which verdict he has filed the instant appeal. On appeal defendant raises five issues which we shall address in the order in which they are presented in defendant's brief. Further facts will be supplied in later portions of this opinion as necessary.

The defendant's first assignment of error on appeal is that the trial justice erred in denying his pretrial motion to suppress statements he made to the police following his arrest after he unequivocally asserted his right to remain silent.

State Police Trooper John Leyden (Leyden) had a conversation with defendant in the rear seat of the police cruiser where defendant was being held following his arrest. Leyden advised defendant of his Miranda warnings from a printed Miranda warning card. After Leyden advised defendant of his rights, Leyden asked defendant if he understood them, to which question defendant responded, "Yeah, I'm a cop." The defendant then made several statements to Leyden. He said, "Wow, this is big. I must be in some trouble." Then defendant, nodding toward the northern part of the state, said, "What, another one up there?" Leyden asked defendant where he was coming from. The defendant responded that he was coming from Mister Donuts. He then indicated that he had his off-duty gun on the floor of the rear seat. Leyden asked defendant if he had any police uniforms in his car, to which question defendant responded negatively, indicating that he was "on suspension for another thing in Foster." The defendant then informed Leyden that he did not wish to talk further because there were too many television cameras around but that he would speak with him further at police barracks.

The defendant was then transported to State Police headquarters where he made additional statements to police. Sergeant Gerald Prendergast (Prendergast), who was in charge of the murder investigation, spoke with defendant in a conference room along with Prendergast's partner, Detective James Demers (Demers). Prendergast read defendant his Miranda warnings from a printed form, which defendant signed, indicating that he understood his rights.

Prendergast and Demers asked defendant questions in respect to the crime scene and his participation in the crimes. The defendant did not answer the questions directly but responded, "Wow, this is big, ain't it?" He also stated: "I'm in a lot of trouble. You don't understand the pressure I'm under. The war is over. I really don't want to waste your time, but I don't want to talk about it right now. I understand you're doing your job. I don't want to talk about it right now. You...