State v. Oliveira

OPINION

Justice SUTTELL, for the Court.

The dispositive issue in this appeal is whether a jailhouse interview by a child protective investigator concerning an allegation of child molestation implicates the right to counsel of a defendant already charged with committing the same act of molestation. In the context of this case, we conclude that it does, and thus we hold that the trial justice improperly admitted at the defendant’s trial the statement that the defendant made during the interview.

The defendant, James Oliveira, was convicted by a jury of first-degree child molestation. He appeals…