Reyes- Tavares

PROVIDENCE — A soldier from Providence was ordered held on $50,000 bail yesterday after he was brought before a District Court judge on a charge of murder.

Richard Reyes-Tavares, 20, stands accused of killing Betsy Rodríguez, 22. Judge Michael A. Higgins set bail at $50,000. Reyes-Tavares entered no plea, which is customary when felony charges are brought in District Court. If the case goes to trial, the Superior Court will have jurisdiction.

The police say that Rodríguez and Reyes-Tavares were in a car in his mother’s driveway on Wendell Street on Monday when a .40-caliber gun went off. She was taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where she died.

The police said at first that it was possibly an accidental shooting, and it was believed that Rodríguez would survive. But she died yesterday morning, the first homicide victim in the city this year.

State Rep. Peter John Petrarca, who represented Reyes-Tavares, said after the court appearance that Rodríguez’s slaying appeared to have been an accident. He said he had not had a chance to interview his client in depth or speak with his family. The police said Reyes-Tavares and Rodríguez had a 4-year-old child.

Detective Capt. James Desmarais of the Providence police said that Reyes-Tavares is assigned to Fort Lee, Va. The suspect was home on leave and had been expected to return to duty shortly, Desmarais said.

Maj. Thomas F. Oates III said Reyes-Tavares’s case will go before a grand jury. He said an initial investigation found no indication of past domestic violence either in Providence or at Fort Lee.

The public affairs office at Fort Lee said Reyes-Tavares is a specialist assigned to the 108th Quartermaster Company of the 49th Quartermaster Group.

amilkovi@projo.com