State v. DeLomba

These four cases were consolidated for argument before this court. They raise a common issue of law concerning probation and deferred sentence violation hearings. Three of the cases came here on direct appeal from Superior Court judgments entered at the conclusion of violation hearings. The appeal in one of those cases has since been dismissed as moot. State v. Gomes, 117 R. I. 980, 370 A.2d 242 (1977). In the fourth case, Duffy v. Mullen, 117 R.I. 673, 370 A.2d 1273 (1977), we do what we did in a comparable situation in State v. Lanoue, 117 R.I. 342, 345, 366 A.2d 1158, 1160 (1976), that is,…