State v. Jefferson

At 7:46 p.m. on December 7, 1973, a unit of the Providence Fire Department’s Rescue Squad responded to a call for assistance originating from an apartment house located at 24 Arch Street. When the squad members entered the premises, they found a bloody and unconscious elderly man lying in the hallway at the foot of a flight of stairs leading to the second floor. They transported him to St. Joseph’s Hospital where he died. The deceased, Virginio DeFusco, owned the apartment house.

Subsequently, defendant, one of DeFusco’s tenants, was arrested, indicted and tried before a Superior Court jury…