GREENBERG

MURPHY

PROVIDENCE — “Ryan no! No Ryan!” prosecutors say Patrick Murphy yelled as a motorboat driven by Ryan A. Greenberg sped toward him while he floated in the Barrington River in July 2007.

Soon after, a teen on board the 20-foot Sailfish saw Murphy’s body behind the boat. “You killed him,” Brendan Loflin testified he said to Greenberg. Greenberg responded: “Don’t tell me this is happening … .”

What transpired next, according to state prosecutors, was a concerted effort by Greenberg to cover up his part in the death of Murphy, 17, his friend and classmate at Barrington High School. Prosecutors detailed what they say were the hours before and after Murphy’s death, in a sentencing memorandum filed in Superior Court Friday that asks the court to sentence Greenberg to five years in prison, the maximum allowed under a plea deal reached in May.

But defense lawyers describe Murphy’s death as a tragic accident that left Greenberg with profound remorse. In a competing memorandum, they rebutted the state’s assertions that Greenberg gunned the boat toward his friend, but instead say he was talking by cell phone to his girlfriend at the time and panicked in the aftermath. They ask that Greenberg be sentenced to home confinement so he can continue his schooling and work.

Greenberg, 19, now of Providence, in May pleaded no contest to reckless boating, death resulting. In exchange, he faces 2½ to 5 years in prison at his sentencing before Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini on July 22. A second-degree murder charge was dismissed under the deal.

The dueling memoranda present vastly differing portraits of the teens at the heart of the case: Murphy and Greenberg. While the state emphasizes what prosecutors portray as Greenberg’s efforts to hide his involvement, the defense plays on testimony about Murphy’s trips to buy beer and the boys’ apparently close relationship.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers detailed the hours before and after Murphy’s death based on grand jury testimony, police interviews and a state Department of Environmental Management accident reconstruction report. The defense account also relies on the boat’s GPS records, phone records and Greenberg’s first statements about the incident, according to his lawyers.

According to both, the Murphy family returned from a trip to England on July 16, 2007. Murphy called Greenberg at 6:52 a.m. the next day and the two exchanged at least five more calls in the next two hours, according to the defense.

Around 11:30 a.m., Murphy drove two other teens, Nick Panagos and Sam Chrupcala, to a Providence liquor store, where Chrupcala bought a 12-pack of Bud Light and a six-pack of Miller Lite, according to the defense. Chrupcala and Murphy drank beer and swam along Nayatt Beach before being joined by Loflin and Greenberg, the defense said.

The group threw the beer in the bushes when a police officer arrived. Murphy, Chrupcala and Loflin returned to the package store after stopping at a Burger King. Murphy bought the beer this time, the defense said.

Greenberg, meanwhile, made rum-and-fruit juice drinks for friends at his home in Barrington, drinking two himself, the defense said.

Turner Davis, another friend, agreed to take the boys out on his family’s Sailfish. The group stopped to pick up beer stashed in the woods; Greenberg carried rum.

Chrupcala, Loflin and Murphy drank beer and horsed around on the beach until Davis picked them up at about 4:30 p.m. They swam out to the boat carrying beer and their cell phones in their shoes above their head.

Murphy gave Chrupcala a ride home after his mother called telling him to come home for dinner. Davis picked Murphy up at a dock on Adams Point Road.

GPS records show that the boat, after about an hour of ski runs, headed toward the White Church Bridge. Murphy kneeboarded most of the time, but fell off frequently due to inexperience, the defense said.

At 7:12 p.m., with Greenberg at the wheel, the boat dropped a teen off at the marina and returned upriver, where Murphy and Davis were floating. Davis boarded another boat.

Murphy continued kneeboarding with Greenberg piloting and Loflin on board. Each time Murphy fell off, Greenberg circled back so Murphy could grab the 70-foot tow line.

At 7:29 p.m., Greenberg and Murphy engaged in “irreverent banter” after Murphy once again fell off the board, the defense said. Murphy was about 20 feet in front of the boat as Greenberg approached while simultaneously placing a call to his girlfriend, Catherine C. Morris. The vessel rose up as Greenberg hit the throttle. Greenberg and Loflin lost sight of Murphy. Greenberg turned the boat to starboard; the back end went over Murphy, the defense said.

Morris testified that Greenberg became “scared, worried, frantic, panicked” during the call, the defense said. He abruptly hung up and jumped into the water to find Murphy.

“In summary, the accident which led to the death of Patrick Murphy occurred in less than three seconds time,” lawyers William P. Devereaux, Gary G. Pelletier and Matthew C. Reeber wrote. “Patrick Murphy was not 60 feet away, but was approximately 20 feet from the bow of the Sailfish.”

In asking for home confinement, the defense stressed Greenberg’s age at the time, 17. The lawyers noted that Judge Procaccini earlier this month sentenced Lincoln teen Andrew Bessette to one year in prison followed by 15 months of home confinement for driving recklessly in a car crash that killed his cousin.

But prosecutors describe the boys as engaging in a curse-laden war of words over Murphy’s kneeboarding ability that sounded to witnesses as if they were about to fight.

“The true motivation for the defendant’s actions in accelerating the boat towards Patrick Murphy will probably never be known. The extent to which his final exchange with Patrick Murphy sparked anger or otherwise caused his actions are known only to him, Deputy and Assistant Attorneys General Gerald J. Coyne and Christian Capizzo wrote. “If his reckless action was intended as the equivalent of a game of ‘chicken’ ... he could not have been more wrong.”

Murphy died of catastrophic wounds to the head, as well as other parts of the body, the state said, adding that the medical examiner would have been expected to testify at trial that he had died within seconds of being hit and had no water in his lungs.

Greenberg, the state said, then began a calculated effort to cover up the crime, threatening others not to “narc” him out and persuading another to say he was at the wheel of the boat. He did not immediately call 911 and told a woman watching from shore not do so as well, though she did anyway. Those delays and untruths, the state said, misled authorities searching for Greenberg and subjected Murphy’s family to false hope. Greenberg’s actions, the state said, cannot be dismissed as panic in the immediate aftermath of the incident because the deception continued for weeks afterward.

The state questioned Greenberg’s potential for rehabilitation given that he was arrested for possessing alcohol as a minor and sentenced to 60 days in jail after being charged in Murphy’s death and pleaded no contest in August 2007 to violating a protective order by contacting an ex-girlfriend, Morris.

“His record of offenses has troubling threads — anger, an unwillingness to adhere to rules, and alcohol,” prosecutors wrote.

Now under home confinement pending sentencing, Greenberg is “a mediocre” student at the Community College of Rhode Island who works at an automobile shop, the state said.

“Recognizing the limited duration of his imprisonment, the defendant will have the opportunity to resume his educational pursuits within five years, regardless of the sentence imposed upon him,” the state wrote. “Though it is stating the obvious, Patrick Murphy’s hopes and dreams died with him July 17, 2007, due to the defendant’s actions.”

The state argues that it is not appropriate for Greenberg to serve his term on work release or community confinement.

kmulvane@projo.com