State v. Brouillard

OPINION

FLANDERS, Justice.

This appeal from a criminal conviction challenges the voluntariness of a defendant’s courthouse confession to a series of robberies that occurred in the southeastern part of Rhode Island during 1992. It also questions the propriety of the defendant’s absence from a pretrial chambers conference during which the trial justice granted the defendant’s motion to sever his case at trial from that of a codefendant.

The defendant, Joseph Brouillard, was indicted, tried, and convicted for committing two counts of robbery in violation of G.L.1956 § 11-39-1; committing two counts…