Esteban Carpio has a history with police spanning almost 10 years, but most of the charges against him have been dropped and he has spent only a few months in jail.

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, April 23, 2005

BY MICHAEL CORKERY and TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writers

Before Esteban Carpio was accused of killing Providence Detective Sgt. James L. Allen, he had been charged with 20 separate offenses in Massachusetts and Rhode Island over the past five years.

All but two of the charges were dismissed, often at the request of prosecutors.

The charges ranged from marijuana possession to an allegation that Carpio had put a gun to a woman's head in Boston and demanded money.

But Carpio, 26, served only a few months in jail, awaiting trials that never happened.

Twice he was accused of beating the mother of his child, in Providence, but the woman never testified and the charges were dropped.

When Carpio was accused of robbing the Boston woman at gunpoint, a judge let him out of jail and gave him a map of Chinatown -- the neighborhood where the reported crime took place. The judge told Carpio to stay away from the area outlined on the map.

Less than two months later, Carpio was arrested within the prohibited area. The Boston police said he had a loaded gun.

What emerges from Carpio's court records is an alleged pattern of violent behavior, mostly against women, that stretches from Boston to Lynn, Mass., to Providence.

The allegations started early. Carpio was 17 when the Boston police charged him with a robbery -- a charge which appears to have been reduced and then dismissed.

Carpio attended public schools in Weston, Mass., as part of the METCO program, which allows city students to attend more affluent suburban schools. In this case, Carpio, who lived in Boston's Roslindale section, attended one of the best school systems in Massachusetts.

While in Weston, Carpio got into a fight with an older student, an eighth grader, and broke his nose. In an interview, the victim said Carpio was suspended as a result of the assault.

According to Massachusetts records, Carpio was first arrested as an adult in January 2000, when he was brought to Roxbury District Court on a charge of knowingly receiving a stolen car. The charge was dismissed less than two months later.

Carpio was 22 when the Boston police took a report from Kelley Wilkerson, who said that while she was inside room 921 of the Radisson Hotel in Chinatown, Carpio put a small-caliber handgun to her head and demanded the money in her hand.

After a brief struggle, Wilkerson, then 29, said she gave Carpio the money. When she tried to leave the room, another man, who was with Carpio, punched her in the face, according to the police report.

There were two other women in the hotel room at the time, whom the police described as "common night walkers in the downtown area."

Wilkerson told the police that as she walked out of the room and to the elevator, the man who was with Carpio pushed her face first into the elevator doors.

The police said they did not recover a gun and, after identifying her assailants, the victim refused medical attention.

Carpio was charged with armed robbery, a charge later reduced to larceny from a person, and pleaded not guilty. He was held in jail for seven days, then released on personal recognizance on Dec. 27, 2000.

In setting him free, Judge Raymond G. Dougan Jr. ordered Carpio not to contact his accuser, and to stay out of the area where the crime allegedly took place.

Carpio's court file contains a photocopied map of Chinatown within the marked-off perimeter.

A month later, on Jan. 23, 2001, Cindy Rodrigues, of Lynn, told the police that Carpio, whom she identified as her boyfriend, had "put a trash barrel through the rear window" of her 2000 Mazda and threatened several times to kill her because she wouldn't let him borrow her car.

The court sent Carpio a summons in the mail. The case was later dismissed "at the request of the prosecutors."

Carpio returned to Chinatown, defying the judge's order. On Feb. 3, 2001, he was arrested there by two Boston police officers who were monitoring gang activity.

The police officers responded to a call about a fight involving a "large number of people armed with multiple weapons."

The police said they observed two men running from the area of the fight to a car. At about the same time, they heard over the police radio a report of shots being fired on the same street.

The officers said they approached the car and saw one of the men shove an object under the front passenger seat. They ordered the men out of the car, which they then searched.

They found a loaded .25-caliber semi-automatic handgun with three rounds and one in the chamber. They also seized two plastic bags of a "green herb substance" believed to be marijuana.

While being booked, according to the police report, Carpio made a phone call and stated in Spanish, "the piece is hot," referring to the gun.

The police said they seized $369 from Carpio and $57 from the man he was with.

Carpio was held in jail, without bail, for violating the terms of his release.

He was charged with carrying a firearm without a license and possession of marijuana.

This time, Judge Dougan ordered Carpio to remain in jail for nearly two months. But then he released him again on his own recognizance on March 28, 2001.

One month later, over the prosecution's objection, Dougan ruled that all evidence seized from the car would be inadmissible because the police had made an "illegal stop, search and seizure."

In a written decision on April 27, 2001, the judge said that the officer had "no reasonable suspicion that would support the type of pursuit or stop that occurred in this case but instead had only a hunch or an assumption that the defendants were participants in a fight that had been reported over the police radio."

The judge also said the police had no probable cause to place the defendants under arrest and that nothing justified a search of the car.

Three weeks later, the gun and marijuana charges were dismissed at the request of prosecutors in the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.

On that same day, May 18, 2001, the charge involving the woman at the Radisson was also dismissed.

The reason stated in the court file was for "want of prosecution."

LESS THAN TWO MONTHS after the Boston charges were dismissed, Carpio's contacts with the law moved closer to Rhode Island.

He was picked up by the Seekonk police on July 5, 2001, and charged with stealing a White Isuzu from the Ramada Inn on Fall River Avenue.

A judge in Taunton District Court placed him on one year's probation in October 2002.

On Jan. 23, 2003, while Carpio was on probation, Samein Phin of Providence, the mother of his child, complained to the Providence police that Carpio "tried to strangle and shove" her, stole $300 from her purse and her car keys and drove off in the car.

Phin also told the police that Carpio had tried to hit her with the car.

Carpio wasn't arrested until the Rhode Island State Police picked him up on Oct. 6 -- about 10 months after the alleged assault on Phin.

The case was dismissed in January 2004 by an assistant Providence city solicitor.

A note in the case file states: "The alleged victim Samein Phin failed to appear to testify at trial."

About three weeks after that case was dismissed, Phin again called the Providence police and told them that Carpio had hit her, then dragged her by the hair to the ground, punching and dragging her across the house.

He then fled in a car, according to the police report. At that point, Carpio was living with Phin on Violet Street in Providence.

The police drafted a warrant for his arrest. He was picked up on April 1. The following month, the case was dismissed.

The file states, "alleged victim Samein Phin could not be located."

Four months later, on Sept. 9, 2004, the police were called to 22 Handy St., in Providence, where Carpio and Phin were then living, for "a report of a disturbance with a knife." In the apartment, the police said, they found Carpio holding a large knife, standing next to an open window.

They ordered him to drop the knife and lie down on the floor. Carpio complied and he was taken into custody.

The police said they observed a punctured air bed and large amount of destroyed clothing that had been thrown outside a window.

Phin told the police that she and Carpio had argued that evening. That was a difficult day for Phin. She had to gone to court and pleaded no contest to a Cranston prostitution charge. She was given a one-year suspended sentence and placed on one year's probation.

Carpio was charged with maliciously injuring property. The case was later dismissed.

The reason, according to the court file, was "victim does not appear."

CARPIO'S LAST recorded arrest -- before the fatal shooting on Sunday -- was in Brookline, Mass., not far from his family's Roslindale home, on Nov. 6, 2004.

A Brookline police officer pulled Carpio over for making an illegal left turn. According to the police report, the officer asked Carpio for his registration and license.

Carpio was driving a green Chevrolet sport-utility vehicle with a temporary Rhode Island license plate. Carpio rolled down the window and told the officer, according to the police report, "all my stuff is straight."

The officer, according to the report, noticed a "strong odor of freshly burnt marijuana" inside the car.

"While talking to Carpio," the officer said, "I noticed his lips were moving from side to side, and he was unable to stop grinding his teeth."

The police allowed Carpio to make a phone call. Carpio used the opportunity to call his mother.

Carpio was charged with possession of marijuana and the drug Ecstasy. The marijuana charge is still open. The court charged Carpio a $35 fine for the driving infraction.

The Ecstasy charge, according to court papers, was dismissed at the request of prosectuors.

With reports from Staff Writer Liz Anderson.

Michael Corkery can be reached at (401) 277-7133 or at mcorkery [at] projo.com

Digital Extra: Look back at Detective Sgt. James L. Allen's funeral, in stories, photos, sound and video, read an online sympathy book, and follow coverage of the shooting, at:

http://projo.com/extra/2005/detectiveallen/