As reported in the February 27, 2013 edition of the Providence Journal, the Portsmouth Police have arrested a man and charged him with domestic homicide. The man is accused of stabbing his ex-wife to death while riding on a RIPTA bus. He is currently being held without bail at the ACI. The man has a long criminal record including felony assault, drunk driving and possession of stolen motor vehicle.
Pursuant to Rhode Island General Laws 11-23-1, first degree murder is defined as the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought is murder. Every murder perpetrated by poison, lying in wait, or any other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing, or committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson or any violation of § 11-4-2, 11-4-3, or 11-4-4, rape, any degree of sexual assault or child molestation, burglary or breaking and entering, robbery, kidnapping, or committed during the course of the perpetration, or attempted perpetration, of felony manufacture, sale, delivery, or other distribution of a controlled substance otherwise prohibited by the provisions of chapter 28 of title 21, or committed against any law enforcement officer in the performance of his or her duty or committed against an assistant attorney general or special assistant attorney general in the performance of his or her duty, or perpetrated from a premeditated design unlawfully and maliciously to effect the death of any human being other than him or her who is killed, is murder in the first degree. Any other murder is murder in the second degree.
The penalties for first degree murder include every person guilty of murder in the first degree shall be imprisoned for life. In addition, every person guilty of murder in the first degree shall serve not less than fifteen (15) years of his or her sentence before being eligible for parole. The penalties for second degree murder include every person guilty of murder in the second degree shall be imprisoned for not less than ten (10) years and may be imprisoned for life.