Opinion ID: 2556812
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Investigation, Arrest and Trial

Text: Four days after the crime, on February 4, 1997, the state police made a traffic stop of Laurence and his accomplice. Then the police, who were assisting in the Gardiner investigation, invited the pair to the state police barracks to discuss her disappearance. During their conversation, Laurence requested to speak with counsel and called attorney John O'Connor (O'Connor), with whom he was acquainted through Nelson. O'Connor previously had represented Nelson in various legal matters. Laurence failed to reach O'Connor by telephone, but O'Connor did receive a message to call the barracks, and proceeded to make contact with the state police himself. The state police informed O'Connor that Laurence was not in custody, under arrest, or charged with any crimes. O'Connor advised Laurence to simply leave the station; Laurence did so. In the months that followed, Nelson continued to keep Laurence's secrets about Gardiner's disappearance. However, on May 13, 1997, with the help of her attorney, O'Connor, [1] Nelson brokered a deal for transactional immunity with the state, told the police what she knew about the crime, and agreed to testify as a state witness. That same night, a warrant was issued, and Laurence was arrested. Prior to his arrest, Laurence had spoken with attorney Paul DiMaio (DiMaio) at his office. DiMaio advised Laurence that if he were to be picked up for questioning he should remain silent, call counsel, either [DiMaio] or someone else. However, during his post-arrest interview on May 13-14, 1997, Laurence did not request DiMaio or any other attorney. Instead, after the police read him his rights, Laurence signed a waiver form and confessed to killing Gardiner. Laurence subsequently was indicted for murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He also was indicted on the charge of breaking and entering, which triggered these horrific events, and the two cases were consolidated. Attorney Russell Sollitto (Sollitto) represented Laurence at the pretrial hearing on the motion to suppress Laurence's statements to the police of February 4, 1997, and May 13-14, 1997. The trial justice denied the motion, but Laurence was permitted to address the court after the ruling. Laurence argued that Sollitto's representation was inadequate because Sollitto, who Laurence claimed had worked with O'Connor previously, failed to call O'Connor as a witness or raise the issue of O'Connor's alleged collusion with the police. Laurence vehemently maintained that O'Connor was his attorney at that time and, therefore, O'Connor should not have assisted Nelson in obtaining transactional immunity in exchange for information that led to Laurence's arrest. Laurence indicated that O'Connor's alleged conflict was relevant to the voluntariness of his confession of May 13-14, 1997 and his right to counsel. Laurence also objected to Sollitto's failure to raise Laurence's alleged psychological and physical abuse by the police during his arrest, which Laurence alleged was supported by photographs of his bruised shin that Sollitto did not enter into evidence. Laurence lastly argued that Sollitto failed to focus the court's attention on whether Laurence even was psychiatrically able to provide a voluntary statement to police on May 13-14, 1997. Laurence represented to the trial justice that [b]efore the murder [he] was told by half the State of Rhode Island doctors [that he] was suffering [from] a mental illness. The trial justice was not stirred to adjust his suppression-motion ruling based on Laurence's criticisms of his attorney, and, after this colloquy, Sollitto immediately moved to withdraw. Once Laurence indicated he was amenable to having another attorney appointed, the trial justice granted Sollitto's motion. Ultimately, however, Laurence refused to work with several other court-appointed attorneys and eventually embarked as his own defense counsel. As part of his trial strategy alluded to at the pretrial suppression hearing, Laurence sought to subpoena O'Connor. In response, O'Connor filed a motion to quash, which was heard before the trial justice on January 7, 2000. At this proceeding, O'Connor testified that he never represented Laurence, and the reason he called the state police on February 4, 1997 was because he routinely returns phone calls from individuals at police stations who attempt to make contact with him. O'Connor explained that he was representing Nelson when he called the state police barracks on February 4, 1997, and, in fact, had represented Nelson on several matters in the past. Although the trial justice determined that O'Connor had some sort of attorney/client relationship with Mr. Laurence on February 4, 1997, he also found that O'Connor did not ever divulge anything to the state police about Gardiner's murder. Instead, the trial justice concluded that the information Nelson provided to the police on May 13, 1997, that proved detrimental to Laurence was from her own personal knowledge. Accordingly, he granted O'Connor's motion to quash the subpoena. On January 27, 2000, after a thirteen-day trial, a jury convicted Laurence of first-degree murder (committed as an aggravated battery), conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and breaking and entering. The trial justice denied Laurence's motion for a new trial, and then on April 25, 2000, sentenced Laurence to life in prison without parole for the murder, ten years for the conspiracy to commit murder, and five years for breaking and entering. The sentences were to run concurrently. C