Rhode Island v. Bunnell
Annotate this CaseOn October 31, 2004, three-year-old Thomas J. Wright died as a result of extensive injuries that tragically had been inflicted upon him by his aunt and her boyfriend after they returned home from a night of drinking. Defendant Katherine Bunnell was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder and of conspiracy to commit the offense of murder. As a result, she was sentenced to consecutive terms of life imprisonment at the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI) for the murder conviction and ten years to serve at the ACI for the conspiracy conviction. Defendant appealed her conviction on two grounds: (1) that the trial justice erred by excluding from evidence certain portions of an interview given by her boyfriend, Gilbert Delestre, at the Woonsocket Police Department the day before TJ died; and (2) the trial justice erred in denying her motion for a new trial. Finding no error in the trial justice's decisions, the Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's conviction.
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