On Saturday, December 14, 1991, 15-year-old Erickson Diaz and two friends, Rufino Ramos and Luis Nunez, went to the Conquistador Bar on Broad Street in Providence, Rhode Island. They left the bar when it closed in the early morning hours of December 15, and drove to the home of 35-year-old Michael Mendoza on America Street in Providence where Mendoza operated an after-hours drinking club known as a “sip joint.”
While Nunez parked the car, Ramos and Diaz entered the house. At the same time, Alexis Abreu, who had just been involved in a fight in the bathroom, walked out the front door, visibly angry and with a red swollen eye. Ramos, who was an acquaintance of Abreu, followed Abreu. Diaz also left out the front door onto the porch of the building when Abreu turned and fired at least four gunshots into the house.
A man quickly appeared at the club’s entrance holding a gun. Apparently sensing imminent gunfire, Abreu, Ramos, and Diaz began to run away. The man on the porch fired two shots in Abreu’s direction. One bullet struck Diaz in the chest, killing him. The other lodged in a building across the street.
The police recovered the bullet in the building across the street. It was identified as a .357 caliber slug. A .357 caliber bullet was recovered from Diaz’s body and a police firearms analyst later said both had been fired from the same weapon. Two .32 caliber spent bullets were found in the living room of Mendoza’s home. In a drawer in the home, police also found eight live rounds of .357 caliber bullets. All of the .357 caliber ammunition came from the same manufacturer.
Ramos identified Abreu as the person who shot into the building. Ramos was unable to say who fired the shot that killed Diaz.
Later that day, Mendoza went to the police station to inquire about his wife’s car, which had been towed during the night from America Street. He was arrested on an unrelated warrant.
Not long after, Nunez arrived at the police station with Diaz’s family. He identified himself as Juan Rodriguez and gave a false date of birth. He knew Mendoza was at the station. He told police that he saw Abreu shooting at the windows of the house. Then, as Nunez was standing near the porch, a “Cuban guy” came out and started shooting back. He said he dove down to the street and hid. After the shooting he got up and ran home. He described the “Cuban guy” as 5’6 or 5’7, with dark skin “like a black guy.” He said he did not see this person with a gun; he only heard a loud noise and saw a bright flash. But he said he knew this person to be the owner of the club, and had seen him two or three times on the street. Although Mendoza was taller and had lighter skin, Nunez identified him as the gunman.
Mendoza was charged with murder and presented as a probation violator for a prior drug possession conviction. Abreu also was charged with murder.
On December 23, 1991, a probation violation hearing was held for Mendoza in Providence County Superior Court. Nunez, testifying as Juan Rodriguez, falsely testified that he had no criminal record. In fact, he had been convicted of drug offenses in New York and had a pending drug case in Providence for heroin. During the hearing, Nunez gave a different account of the shooting.
He now claimed that he made it to the steps of the porch as he headed into the house and passed Abreu on the steps. He testified that when Abreu got to the street, he fired shots. Nunez said he continued to go up the stairs, toward where Abreu was shooting.
When the other shooter came out and started shooting, Nunez said, he threw himself to the ground. He said he either crawled through the shooter’s legs or crawled along the floor of the porch until he was able to get into the club. He said he left through the back door and went home.
He said he saw the shooter’s face while he was crawling between his legs, and he looked at him for five to ten seconds. He identified Mendoza as the gunman, although he also said that at the lineup, police told him to pick the person he knew.
Mendoza was found to have violated his probation and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
On June 29, 1992, Nunez was charged by Providence police with first-degree child molestation. He identified himself as Franklin Nunez with a birthdate in 1967. He was held without bail after his bail on the pending drug charge was revoked. A month later, Nunez, a native of the Dominican Republic, pled no contest to possession of heroin and was sentenced to two years of probation. He was released on bail in the child molestation case, although he was illegally in the U.S. and there was an immigration hold on file.
On December 17, 1992, Mendoza and Abreu were indicted by a grand jury on charges of first-degree murder.
In September 1993, the prosecution revealed that Nunez (who the state still identified as Juan Rodriguez) was in the Dominican Republic and would testify at Mendoza’s trial. In January 1994, the prosecution said it had recently learned that Rodriguez was a false name used by Nunez and that he had been using different names. The prosecution revealed that Nunez had a criminal record in Rhode Island and New York, and had a pending charge of child molestation.
Mendoza went to trial on January 25, 1994. Nunez had been brought back from the Dominican Republic. Abreu’s case was severed. At a hearing on a motion to suppress the lineup identification, Nunez now claimed that he was on the bottom step, not the porch, when the gunman emerged. He said he dropped to his knees, went up the steps and crawled through the gunman’s legs. He said he had only two or three seconds to view the gunman, who he again identified as Mendoza.
During his testimony at the trial, Nunez presented new information. He claimed that Mendoza’s gun was louder than Abreu’s gun. Nunez asserted that only two or three seconds elapsed from when Abreu began shooting and Mendoza emerged and fired back. Nunez could not remember making his statement to police, and when shown a photograph of Mendoza’s house, he could not say that was where the shooting occurred.
He also denied that the state planned to write a letter to immigration authorities, then claimed he could not remember, and then acknowledged he did talk to the state about immigration when agreeing to come to testify. He admitted he had lied about his identity and criminal record at the probation violation hearing.
Crystal Lovegrove testified that she was in the pantry of the house getting a drink from Mendoza when the shots were fired. She said he remained there during the shooting. Marion Marrow testified that she saw Mendoza in the pantry when the shots were fired. She said he never left the pantry.
On January 31, 1994, the jury convicted Mendoza of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison. Abreu subsequently pled guilty to a reduced charge of felony assault and was sentenced to 21 months in prison.
In 1998, the Rhode Island Supreme Court upheld Mendoza’s conviction and sentence. Two of the five justices dissented finding the trial justice erred in denying Mendoza’s motion for a new trial because the state had not proven his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Mendoza later filed a motion to reduce his sentence. The motion was denied and in 2008, the Rhode Island Supreme Court upheld the denial.
Meanwhile, in December 1999, Mendoza, acting without a lawyer, filed an application for post-conviction relief.
Attorney Thomas Sparks was appointed to handle the case, but 18 months later he moved to withdraw because he had removed his name from the list of attorneys willing to take court appointments. Attorney James Ruggerio was appointed to take on the case, but did nothing. He filed no pleadings or documents and did not request a hearing. On April 30, 2013, the application was denied.
Mendoza appealed and then Camille McKenna of the Rhode Island Public Defender office was assigned to the case.
With McKenna's assistance, Mendoza was released on parole on December 2, 2015.
In September 2016, McKenna moved to remand the case to the trial court to vacate the judgment denying Mendoza’s application for post-conviction relief. The prosecution did not object, the case was remanded, and the earlier judgment was vacated.
In December 2016, McKenna filed an amended application for post-conviction relief. The application’s claims included allegations that Mendoza's trial defense attorney had provided an inadequate legal defense by failing to investigate the location of the shooting and had failed to cross-examine Nunez about his other crimes.
The application said that Mendoza’s trial defense attorney had information about a possible alternative suspect who had been at the club and asked for a gun right before the shooting. The prosecution had turned over the information after Nunez testified in the trial saying it had forgotten to disclose the information. “This individual was very likely the man Alexis Abreu was fighting with in the bathroom,” the application said.
The application said the defense attorney failed to present evidence that Ramos had told police that Mendoza was “in the back” of the house when the shooting occurred.
On July 25, 2024, a hearing was held during which McKenna and co-counsel Kelsey McDonald presented evidence that Gilbert Walker, Mendoza’s trial defense attorney who by then was deceased, had failed to cross-examine Nunez about his use of four different dates of birth, five different aliases, and his pending charge of child molestation. That charge had been dismissed after Mendoza’s trial when Nunez was sent back to the Dominican Republic.
Following the hearing, Judge Krause vacated Mendoza’s conviction and granted him a new trial.
“This was a case that was crucial, imperatively based on the credibility of the witnesses. Indeed, I won't even say plural. One witness,” Judge Krause declared. “And Walker had a quiver full of arrows, and sharp ones to boot, and never, ever took advantage and didn't string his bow with any of them…I have no question in my mind that Mr. Walker's performance as trial counsel…was incredibly deficient.”
On March 24, 2025, the prosecution dismissed the case.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 05-15-2025
Last Update Date: 05-15-2025
