PROVIDENCE

Car, motorcycle collide on Route 95 north

A car traveling north in the high-speed lane of Route 95 Tuesday lost control, spun around and hit a motorcycle before going over a barrier and rolling over by the Thurbers Avenue ramp, the state police said.

Capt. Kenneth Marandola said the driver of an Acura lost control around 2:50 p.m. The car spun around and hit the motorcycle, which was traveling north one lane over, Marandola said.

The Acura then crossed over two more lanes to the Thurbers Avenue ramp, went over the barrier and stopped on the grassy area past the ramp.

Both drivers were taken to the hospital and are expected to recover, Marandola said.

Maria Armental

Man charged in West End mugging

An alleged gun-wielding mugger faces multiple charges as a result of a holdup of three women and a man as they left a church meeting on Dexter Street in the West End.

The incident occurred late Thursday as the foursome came from a meeting at St. Charles Church, 178 Dexter St., the police said. They were threatened with a pistol with its hammer cocked, they said, and the assailant escaped with three purses and a wallet.

Recognizing a suspect from the victim’s description, Patrolmen Nicholas Froncillo and Jonathan Desmarais went to a first-floor apartment at 22 Diamond St., where they arrested Paul Rezendes, 21, who they said lives there.

Rezendes was charged with four counts of robbery, one count of felony assault and one count of using a device similar in appearance to a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence. At his arraignment in District Court, he was ordered held without bail as an alleged violator of Superior Court sentences in cases involving possession of drugs and possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

Gregory Smith

SOMERSET

Man accused of holding woman against her will

The police have charged a man with kidnapping after he allegedly forced his girlfriend to remain at his house for two days and injured her.

Christopher Mello, 35, of 185 Fourth St., was taken into custody Sunday when officers spotted him driving past the police station while the victim was giving a statement.

The victim told Officer David Labreche and Detective Tracey Costa, a domestic violence investigator, that Mello held her against her will and intimidated her because he did not want to let her end their relationship.

The officers said that scrapes and other marks of injury were still visible several days after the alleged incident.

Mello was also charged with assault and battery, intimidation of a witness and destruction of property. He was ordered held at the Bristol County House of Correction in lieu of $20,000 bail.

Staff report

NORTH SMITHFIELD

Police urge residents to secure cars

The Police Department is urging residents to keep their cars locked after a rash of larcenies.

Capt. Tom R. Lafleur said in a news release Monday that on Friday night and Saturday morning several residents reported the theft of GPS units, loose coins and other personal items from unlocked cars in the area of Greenville Road, Follet Street and Providence Pike.

Staff report

WOONSOCKET

Man found guilty of trafficking drugs

A Woonsocket man has been found guilty in federal court of trafficking crack cocaine.

U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha announced the verdict against Stephfon Cover, 37, that was handed up on Monday by Chief U.S. District Judge Mary M. Lisi. He is being held pending his sentencing on Feb. 12. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

A codefendant in the case, Stephanie Fath, 32, who lived with Cover, is serving a five-year federal prison sentence for her role in the drug distribution conspiracy.

During a non-jury trial in August, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie S. Browne presented evidence that in the summer of 2008, Fath sold crack cocaine in Cranston. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force monitored the drug sale.

In entering her guilty plea, Fath admitted that she had also sold crack cocaine another time in Cranston and once in Newport.

Lisi found Cover guilty of conspiracy and distributing crack cocaine, while Fath pleaded guilty to conspiracy and three charges related to the distribution of crack cocaine.

W. Zachary Malinowski

SMITHFIELD

Guillotine found to have ‘safety mechanisms’

SMITHFIELD — Deputy Police Chief Richard P. St. Sauveur said Tuesday that his department received calls from concerned people after they read a Journal story Monday about a working guillotine displayed in a front yard next to the high school track.

St. Sauveur said Tuesday that he called the device’s owner, Robert Croft, and explained that he “was not in any way challenging his right to express himself, but I was concerned about the safety of children in the area.”

He said Croft “was very cooperative,” and agreed to meet with a supervising officer at the site on Pleasant View Avenue to show how he had rendered the guillotine inoperable.

Lacking specific standards for securing an outdoor guillotine, St. Sauveur said, the officer determined that “appropriate safety mechanisms were in place.”

Donita Naylor

WARREN

Couple accused of swindling elderly woman

A local couple has been arrested on charges they swindled more than $300,000 from an elderly woman for whom they had been running errands, the state police said.

Jaime Resende, 62, and his wife, Maria Resende, 69, of 510 Child St., were arraigned Monday on felony charges of exploitation of an elder and obtaining money under false pretenses, Capt. James Swanberg said. They were released on $500,000 personal recognizance and are due back in court on Jan. 4, according to Swanberg.

Swanberg said Resendes had been running errands for a 77-year-old East Bay woman, including taking her shopping and to doctors’ appointments. The woman paid the two large amounts of money by check.

A state police investigation, following a complaint filed by the person who holds power of attorney over the woman, found that the Resendes had taken $360,850 from the woman between 2007 and 2009, Swanberg said.

Maria Armental