Accused of shooting to death Providence Detective Sgt. James L. Allen last year, Esteban Carpio has told the court that he may use a defense of insanity or diminished mental capacity.

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, June 5, 2006

BY GREGORY SMITH
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- An event that severely shook the Police Department will be relived beginning tomorrow as Esteban Carpio goes on trial, charged with murder in the slaying of Detective Sgt. James L. Allen last year.

Allen's shooting death left many of his fellow officers grief-stricken and angry -- and embarrassed, as he was killed with his own gun in the detective bureau at police headquarters.

If it is proved that Carpio snatched Allen's gun away from him and shot the detective twice, as the state alleges, a question that the trial jury almost certainly will be asked to answer is whether Carpio was legally responsible.

He has told the court that he might rely on a defense that he is innocent of four charges against him because he was insane or suffering from diminished mental capacity at the time of Allen's slaying.

Relatives and friends of Carpio, 27, a onetime barber from Massachusetts who has a criminal record, contend that he has been treated for mental illness, sometimes mutters to himself, hears disembodied voices and has acted paranoid.

Snippets of Carpio's version of events have emerged in court proceedings. In an interview with the police, Carpio said he was trying to protect himself when he wrestled with Allen and then managed to fall or jump out of a window at police headquarters and briefly escape.

While a prisoner at the Adult Correctional Institutions, where he continues to be held without bail, Carpio engaged in self-injurious behavior such as banging his head on the walls of his cell. He virtually stopped eating for days. He was hospitalized at least three times.

Some correctional officers suggested that his actions were calculated.

Carpio was ruled competent to stand trial. And he failed in an attempt to have statements that he made to the police kept out of the trial. He unsuccessfully argued, in part, that he was not mentally or physically capable of waiving his right to remain silent rather than speak to the police.

The attorney general's office recently won court permission to have its own psychiatrist examine Carpio at the ACI.

The psychiatrist, Dr. Martin J. Kelly, was to do a forensic examination of his mental status, according to court papers.

Michael J. Healey, spokesman for Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, refused to say Friday why Lynch wanted a fresh evaluation of Carpio's mental condition. He said he is not sure if the examination was done.

"The defendant has provided notice to the court that he might rely on an insanity defense, but that doesn't mean that he will," Healey said. "Because we are literally on the eve of trial and the jury is being selected, it would be imprudent for me to comment on it any further than that."

Robert L. Sheketoff, Carpio's lawyer, did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

Carpio faces two primary charges: One count each of murder and discharging a firearm while committing a crime of violence, death resulting.

But he also will stand trial on two counts in the case of Madeline Gatta, then 83, who was stabbed between the shoulder blades outside her house in the North End of Providence on April 16, 2005, only hours before Allen's slaying: assault with a dangerous weapon, with serious bodily injury resulting, and assault on a person over the age of 60.

The assault on Gatta -- she recovered after being hospitalized for two days -- was the crime that brought Carpio into police custody as a suspect on April 16. While he was being questioned in a conference room in the detective bureau, the police say, he got hold of Allen's gun and killed him.

After shooting out a window in an adjacent office, climbing through it and falling three stories, Carpio got away and tried to get a taxi to take him out of town, according to the police. He was spotted downtown and, after what was described as a furious struggle with police officers and an FBI agent, was subdued and captured.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin tomorrow, and the trial is expected to take three to four weeks, according to court spokesman Craig Berke.

Sheketoff is expected to be joined at the defense table by an associate in his Boston law firm, Kirsten M. Wenge. Because out-of-state lawyers can practice in Rhode Island only with court permission and only in collaboration with a Rhode Island lawyer, Wenge became a member of the Rhode Island bar after Carpio's family hired Sheketoff.

Assistant Attorney General Paul F. Daly Jr. will prosecute. The state is asking that Carpio be imprisoned for life without parole, the harshest punishment possible.

Charges that Carpio assaulted three correctional officers at the ACI also are pending against him, but they will be adjudicated separately.

gsmith@projo.com / (401) 277-7334