NEWPORT -- Roger Graham has become the 22nd convicted felon in Rhode Island serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. Superior Court Judge Stephen P. Nugent yesterday handed down the state's most severe sentence along with a scathing indictment of the hired hitman.
"There is no possibility of rehabilitation for Mr. Graham. He has no conscience. He has no decency. He has no regard for human life," Nugent said. "Mr. Graham appears to this court to be a sociopath."
Graham, an immigrant from Barbados who had been living illegally in New York City, was convicted in February of shooting and killing Portsmouth motel manager Sanjeev Patel at the Founder's Brook Motel and Suites on New Year's Day 2002. The prosecution said that Graham, an admitted marijuana dealer, had been hired by the victim's brother-in-law to commit the murder.
Following two consecutive hung juries, a third jury convicted Graham and ruled that the crime met special conditions -- specifically, that it was a murder for hire -- which allowed the judge to consider the sentence of life without parole.
Because he was convicted of first-degree murder, Graham was facing a mandatory life sentence. Yesterday's hearing at Newport County Superior Court was to determine whether the 30-year-old would be granted the possibility of parole, and thus a chance to spend some of his senior years outside of prison.
In light of yesterday's ruling, Graham will die in state custody, barring a state Supreme Court reversal.
The victim's 11-year-old son, Jay Patel, addressed the crowded courtroom, filled primarily with the victim's family and friends and the media. The boy was 8 when he witnessed his father's murder in what initially looked like an attempted robbery gone bad.
"My dad was always there for people who needed help," said a composed Jay, speaking in a steady voice. "And when he was lying in front of me dying, I was there. But still, I couldn't help him. That pains me constantly."
Defense attorney Robert Mann argued that life without parole was an excessive sentence based on court precedent.
He referenced 12 cases since 1990 in which defendants received such a sentence. In each one, the crimes were especially gruesome, there were multiple victims or the convict had a criminal history.
In one case a victim was stabbed 65 times; another was an arson that resulted in six deaths, two of them children; another victim was strangled, beaten with a flashlight and crushed with a car; another case involved the rape of a 73-year-old double amputee who was tied to a bed.
Just one case, Mann argued, involved a gun. And though he acknowledged selling drugs, Graham had no criminal history. Nor did he have a history of violence.
Nugent was not impressed with the argument.
He said the harsh penalty should serve as a warning to criminals entering Rhode Island. "The word must go out: You come to this state as a hired gun . . . and the ultimate penalty will be imposed."
The man who hired Graham, Tajendra Patel, was convicted in a separate trial, in 2003, of first-degree murder and conspiring with Graham. The police believe he blamed Sanjeev Patel for breaking up his marriage. Tajendra Patel was given consecutive life sentences for his part in the murder, but he has the possibility of parole.
Superior Court Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg was barred from considering life without parole in Tajendra Patel's sentencing, said Pamela Chin, special assistant attorney general, who cited different evidence in that case that didn't meet the legal standard for such a ruling.
Thunberg presided over Graham's first two trials. She was rotated to a different court shortly before the most recent trial, giving way to Nugent.
Graham, dressed in dark pants, a white shirt and a black striped tie, sat stone-faced at the defense table during Nugent's ruling.
Unlike the victim's son and widow, he did not make a statement.
"When Roger Graham shot my husband, he took away my soul mate, my friend, my mentor, and the father of my son," the widow, Prena Patel, said in a tearful statement to the judge. "It feels as if I have been given a life sentence by Roger Graham because of his taking my husband's life."
The Patel family and friends did not make a sound as Nugent announced his ruling. After the hearing, they lingered in the hallway outside Courtroom 2, shaking hands and hugging prosecutors and police officers.
They were relieved, said Prena Patel, but none of the family members was smiling. Nor was there crying. After 3 1/2 years, countless trips to the courthouse and the witness stand, the court cases were finished.
Prena's father, Arun, said there were mixed feelings. The family is glad that the trial is over, but Sanjeev is greatly missed.
Nugent said he hoped the sentence would give the family some sense of comfort.
"Jay Patel should not have to worry for one second that Roger Graham will ever see the outside of the prison walls," Nugent said. "Nothing will bring back Sanjeev Patel, this court hopes that in some way, in some small measure, this brings comfort to the victims . . . that justice has been served."
To contact Steve Peoples phone (401) 277-7459 or e-mail SPeoples [at] projo.com
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