Death Party Crime Spree - North Smithfield, Rhode Island

Summary

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Small Town Murder: "Death Party Crime Spree – North Smithfield, Rhode Island"

Podcast: Small Town Murder
Hosts: James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman
Episode: Released February 14, 2026

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Overview

In this episode, James and Jimmie travel to North Smithfield, Rhode Island, for the podcast’s classic blend of small town portraiture and true crime. The focus is a 1992 murder that began with what hosts dub a “five-day teenage rager,” spiraling into a brutal killing, robbery, and a cross-state crime spree. With characteristic irreverence, they dissect the details, backgrounds, and fallout—both legal and human—while peppering the story with dark humor and sharp social commentary.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. North Smithfield: Small Town Vibes

• Location & Demographics:
  • North Smithfield is described as a quintessential small Rhode Island town—“a Boston suburb” (04:22)—with a population of ~12,500 and median home prices over $430,000.
• Community Culture:
  • James and Jimmie joke about the "everyone knows everyone" cliché;
    • James: “Why do they want to go everywhere and have to see somebody? … Don’t you ever want to just put a hat on in your warmups and go get … an orange juice?” (07:26)
  • Noted local events like the “Great Pumpkin Festival” and the whimsically described “Rootstock”—a combination of agriculture, music, and “backyard archaeology” (11:01-12:45).
• Work & Commute:
  • Residents lament lack of local jobs and potholes.
    • Jimmie: “Do you know anyone in Phoenix that works less than 20 minutes away from their job?” (09:18)

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2. The Setup: Thanksgiving 1992

• The Ramela Family:
  • Local chiropractor Francis Ramela takes the family (except 20-year-old son Trevor) to the Cayman Islands for Thanksgiving, leaving Trevor with the house for the week.
• The Party:
  • Trevor hosts a five-day party for local teens—beer flows, and notably, Trevor is “carrying a .22 revolver for the entire week” (19:44).
    • Jimmie: “That’s Trev, man, it’s just a party pistol.” (20:10)
• Key Figures Introduced:
  • Steven Parkhurst, 17, troubled background, recently out of group homes.
  • Ryan Wright, 16, school friend.
  • Numerous local kids with rough upbringings or tenuous ties to Trevor.

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3. Escalation: Grudges, Guns, and Teen Drama

• Steven’s Troubled Past:
  • Physical abuse, drug exposure, foster systems, group homes—setting up the theme of “broken kids in a broken system.”
    • James: “He’s not really afraid of much at this point.” (31:07)
• Party Conflict:
  • Steven is accused of taking advantage of a drunk 16-year-old, is kicked out at gunpoint by Trevor (35:24).
  • The next day, Steven vows revenge after hearing Trevor allegedly pressured a girl for sexual favors:
    • James (as Steven): "Don’t worry, I’m going to kill him. On the last night of this party.” (40:05)

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4. Murder Night: Revenge and Brutality

• The Night of November 27, 1992:
  • Final party—Trevor, after earlier conflicts, relents and lets Steven and Ryan sleep over.
  • The murder: Steven and Ryan steal Trevor’s guns, ambush him as he rushes outside:
    • Trevor is beaten with a black powder rifle until it shatters and is shot behind the ear execution-style.
      • James: “They beat his face into a bowl of what and shot him. This is crazy…” (51:53)
  • Trevor is also robbed, and his car (a Toyota Celica) is stolen.

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5. The Crime Spree: Trail of Violence

• Aftermath:
  • Steven & Ryan flee in the Celica, start a crime spree.
  • In Mystic, CT, they shoot a man (who survives), then rob hotel clerks in Connecticut and Ohio.
    • James: “So that’s why a chiropractor caused this whole thing, unfortunately.” (54:21)
  • Eventually arrested in Indiana with the murder weapon and cash from robberies.

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6. Investigation and Prosecution

• Evidence & Witnesses:
  • Multiple partygoers identify Steven.
  • Steven and Ryan openly brag about the murder in juvie to other detainees (57:49).
• Steven’s Defense:
  • Claims he was too drunk, didn’t mean to kill anyone—contradicted by evidence and subsequent crimes.
    • James: “He said it just went off and Trevor fell. He said, I never looked at the body and never saw any blood. That’s his story now.” (62:02)
• Verdict & Sentencing:
  • Steven: Guilty on all counts; sentenced to life plus 45 years (all consecutive). (64:21)
  • Ryan: Pleads guilty, receives 60 years plus 7 more in Connecticut.

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7. Juvenile Justice, Reform, and Parole

• Legal Developments:
  • Discussion of evolving Supreme Court rulings on juvenile sentencing (Roper v. Simmons, Miller v. Alabama, Graham v. Florida).
  • Steven’s sentences gradually get reduced to life with parole as legal landscapes shift.
• Rehabilitation and Release:
  • In prison, Steven obtains degrees, trains service dogs, becomes an advocate for juvenile justice.
    • James: “He’s a Buddhist now. … Nurture a person and give them a plan, they can. Can follow it?" (74:14)
  • Paroled after 30 years, now working for criminal justice reform groups (75:35).
• The Debate:
  • Hosts note furious online debates between those advocating mercy for juvenile offenders and those who see only the brutality of the crime.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Small Town Life:
  • James (on five-star town reviews): “Why does everyone always say that in every five star review? ... Don't you ever want to just put a hat on in your warmups and go get... an orange juice?” (07:26)
• Brutality of the Attack:
  • James: “They beat his face into a bowl of what and shot him. This is crazy.” (51:53)
• On Youth & Sentencing:
  • James: “When you’re 16 and someone says 50 years, you go, I’ll be dead by then. That doesn’t even exist.” (69:44)
• Rehabilitation:
  • James: “He goes around and speaks to high schools about crime prevention. He’s a Buddhist now. … Trained 14 service dogs, including one for a Boston Marathon bombing survivor.” (74:01)
• Mercy vs. Retribution:
  • James: “That asshole deserves it, but I’m a different guy... I deserved every bit of that life plus 45 when I was 17. But what about the 30 year old or 40 year old that I’ve become?” (76:00)

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Major Timestamps

• 00:00–04:01: Host banter, town intro, demographics
• 13:46–19:44: The beginning of the party, introduction of the .22 revolver
• 21:42–32:38: Steven’s background (family abuse, foster care, delinquency)
• 35:24: Assault accusation; Steven kicked out at gunpoint
• 40:05: Steven’s boasts about plans to kill Trevor
• 42:30–52:46: The night of the murder—details of the assault, killing, and aftermath
• 54:00–57:47: Multi-state crime spree, arrests
• 64:21: Sentencing verdicts
• 67:09–74:31: Appeals, legal reform, parole and post-prison advocacy
• 76:00: Final thoughts, debate on redemption versus punishment

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Tone & Style

Classic Small Town Murder: irreverent, unflinching, and darkly funny, the hosts weave social commentary through their retelling—often using gallows humor to highlight the absurdity and tragedy of the events in equal measure.

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In Summary:
This episode covers not just the facts of a vicious murder tied to a weeklong party, but the broader story of failed families, changing philosophies on youth offending, and the possibility of redemption. The hosts’ banter belies a surprisingly nuanced look at crime, consequence, and what small town America reveals about both.

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Transcript

[James Petregallo]

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[James Petregallo]

Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yay and choo choo.

[James Petregallo]

Oh yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petregallo. I'm here with my co host.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm Jimmy Whisman.

[James Petregallo]

Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another Absolutely crazy 10 pounds of murder in a 2 pound bag edition of Small Town Murder Express. We are very excited to get to this wild story. Before we do though, definitely head over to shut upandgivememurder.com what's there, you may ask? Tickets, tickets, tickets and more tickets. Tickets to live shows everybody. Starting out with February 21st in Nashville. Still some tickets left for that. Get in there and get them now. Now, March 6th in Durham, N.C. march 6th or March 7th in Atlanta. And then of course the March 21st you stupid opinions live show in Phoenix. The March 20th Phoenix live show is sold out. Shutupandgivemerder.com is where you get all of that and more. Get all your merchandise and everything like that. Then you should get yourself Patreon.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Please do.

[James Petregallo]

Do yourself a favor. Patreon.com CrimeInSports Just like the name of our other show that you should definitely check out. Also your stupid opinions. Sure, definitely. Get yourself patreon. Anybody? $5 a month or above. You get everything we put out. You get a huge back catalog of bonus episodes you've never heard before. Immediately upon subscription, you get new ones every other week. One crime and sports. One Small town murder and you get it all. Including this week with no different for crime and sports. This week we're going to talk about William Tank Black, who was a college football coach turned agent. Master P is involved in that somehow and then he turned criminal after that. So it's a mess. He did a reverse Master P. Why.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Did Master P do that all the time.

[James Petregallo]

He probably made a bunch of money. Yeah. And then that's a big thing. It happens a lot.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why does anybody do anything?

[James Petregallo]

What are we doing here? Well, we'd be here anyway. And then for Small Town Murder, we're gonna talk about that perfect neighbor documentary, the one on Netflix. And we've been asked a million times to do this for Patreon, so we're gonna do it. A lot of also supplemental stuff on YouTube. You can find all the body and all that kind of thing. Very, very interesting. Patreon.com CrimeInSports and in addition to that, you get a shout out at the end of the regular show and you get everything. We put out all of our shows all ad free as well.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's all for you.

[James Petregallo]

Can't beat Patreon, guys. That's it. So do that. Get yourself Patreon. I think it's time here, everybody. All right. I think it's time to sit back. What do you say? Let's all clear the lungs. What do you say? Arms to the sky and let's all shout. Shut up. Give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. All right. Let's go on a trip, shall we?

[Jimmy Whisman]

We've gotta.

[James Petregallo]

We've gotta. Let's go to Rhode Island.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Fine.

[James Petregallo]

It's been a long time since we've been in Rhode Island. It's such a small state. Yeah. That it's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's a small town in itself.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. It's hard to find murders there that aren't Providence based. Cause that's pretty much. That's the main city.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There's only two cities right between Providence and that other one.

[James Petregallo]

That one. This is North Smithfield, Rhode Island. We're going to. It's in north central Rhode island, which really is about half a mile away from southeastern Rhode Island. It doesn't really matter. It's about an hour to Boston. So it's commutable. People don't realize that Rhode island is a Boston suburb.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, it's right there.

[James Petregallo]

It's there. And it's all of like the tv. It's all local Boston stations. And you know you're gonna to hear that accent when they're on the news. You bet everything like that. 25 minutes to East Providence, Rhode Island. Our last Rhode island episode. Episode 508. That's how long. This is 674. That's how long ago it was. July of 2024 was the last time we. Wow. That's a year and a half. That was stopping a serial Killer was the name of that. I'd love to tell you more about it, but it was a year and a half ago and I don't remember.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So it's been a minute.

[James Petregallo]

I bet it was a good one though. I know that. Positive. This is in Providence county, area code 4,01. Population here, 12,537.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, that's a good sized town for Rhode Island.

[James Petregallo]

Decent, but still a small town.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Small town.

[James Petregallo]

I mean you're very close to other places though. You're only 25 minutes from Providence. So the median household income here above the national average, it's $87,121. And you're going to need that because the median home cost, also above the national average, 430.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Rhode Island.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, $430,000 is the median home cost. It's a little pricey. They're not spectacular large homes or anything like that. A little bit of history of this town we'll get through in the 17th century. So the 1600s here, British colonists settled North Smithfield. They developed it into a farming community and named it after Smithfield, London, England. Oh yeah, gotta do that. And then I'm sure there's towns like in Nebraska named Smithfield that are named after somebody who was from Rhode Island. Who.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'll bet that pork plant is named after England too.

[James Petregallo]

That's possible. Yep. It was incorporated as north Smithfield in 1871. In the early 1700s, a Quaker colony developed in North Smithfield here. And today they used to have a bunch of industry, but today really the industry that I found was Barricko Yarns. They make yarn? Yeah. This is a continuation of the original family owned woolen company established in 1809.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is Barrican, is that the brand or is that a Terraco yarn?

[James Petregallo]

I think it's the. I think it's the brand. B E R R O C O. I think it's Barrico Yarns.

[Jimmy Whisman]

When there's a CO on the end.

[James Petregallo]

Generally, yeah, that's usually a company. We've never been to North Smithfield. We don't know anything about it. Let's find out what other people think about it with some reviews. What do you say? Here, here's five stars. Okay. I love how everyone knows everyone. Why does everyone always say that in every five star review?

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's a big deal to people to be recognized. I guess so people want that.

[James Petregallo]

Why do they want to go everywhere and have to see somebody? Don't you ever want to just put a hat on in your warmups and go get, you know, go get a pack of cigarettes or whatever you're getting an orange juice. You don't have to wait to see.

[Jimmy Whisman]

People stopped everywhere you go and asked about the kids. Fuck the kids.

[James Petregallo]

Asked about the kids? Yeah. Jesus. To see everyone you went to high school with. Every goddamn time you leave the house. I don't want to.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Do you know everything about me? They're alive. It's fine.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, they're there. Look, I saw them. That's good enough. Everyone knows everyone. And people are always willing to help out if someone is in need. Neighbors pull together to help each other and the whole town looks out for one another.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I guess that's the benefit. James, when you know everything about everybody. You know when somebody's struggling and you don't just make fun of them.

[James Petregallo]

They don't help each other.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Give them a hand.

[James Petregallo]

No, they don't. Normally they just go. I hear Bob and Susan are losing their house. And then they go on continuing with what they're doing. No one helps out.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They say they're helping.

[James Petregallo]

What are we? I don't think I would want anything to change. I love to close knit. I think the is what they're going for. I love the close knit environment North Smithfield provides. All right, here's three stars. The only concern I have is the potholes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's the only one.

[James Petregallo]

That's it. There are so many potholes that it feels as though my car could fall into one. Which would be a very large pothole. Only in Michigan, Only Michigan is that possible.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I've seen it.

[James Petregallo]

I've seen a car just disappear completely wild. We were like, wow. Someone notify the family. I don't know what to say. They're gone. Center of the earth must be.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But you know, for the. For the taxes that New England pays, there should be zero potholes.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, probably. I don't know what they are in Rhode island, but I assume.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. I don't know if it's higher or lower than that. Might be the allure of not living in Massachusetts.

[James Petregallo]

Maybe. I don't know. Here's two stars. I don't think there are many places in my town where people can get jobs. A lot of people who have jobs have to travel 20 minutes or so to the bigger city. 20 minutes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Holy shit.

[James Petregallo]

Do you know anyone in Phoenix that works less than 20 minutes away from their job?

[Jimmy Whisman]

No.

[James Petregallo]

And never.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Phoenix is becoming further and further away from Phoenix.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It is forever.

[James Petregallo]

Jimmy lives like an hour and a half from Phoenix. It's like it's so far it's crazy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

To get into town.

[James Petregallo]

It's wild.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Like if you want to. If you have to drive into downtown or anywhere near where there's like commerce, it's.

[James Petregallo]

It's hours, it's frustrating, the traffic.

[Jimmy Whisman]

People talk about New York and LA and Chicago. Phoenix is just as bad.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, it's not. If you go to LA, it's pretty fun. You never sit LA is the 40 minutes or anything. Like Atlanta too is a horror show.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I've never been able to see my destination and then it still take an hour and 20 to get there. Yeah, I've never seen that before. That's crazy.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, I've done that in New York. Going to like a Yankee game. You go. It's stadiums right there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I could see that.

[James Petregallo]

Here's two stars. I don't think there are many places. Oh, that's the get jobs. Okay. However, new stores are being built so that means there will be some more opportunities available. Oh, good for them.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh yeah, Retail jobs. Love those.

[James Petregallo]

Terrific. Those are the best things to do here. The North Smithfield Great Pumpkin Festival.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

There we go.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Boy, do they love fall.

[James Petregallo]

It's a one day event at the North Smithfield High School. One day. One day featuring kids games and competitions, art and other demonstrations, great food and lots of pumpkins.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh boy, are you even in New England if it's only one fucking day.

[James Petregallo]

One day.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's fall, for Christ's sake.

[James Petregallo]

Admission is $2 at the door.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, it's nothing much.

[James Petregallo]

And then there's rootstock.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What? What's that?

[James Petregallo]

That is a agricultural thing with music. So it's roots. Like Woodstock, but with roots.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What about the.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, says we couldn't be more excited to welcome you to this annual celebration of music, nature, art and community. So there's a bunch of like plants. Literally. You can be like, can I get a clipping off your fig tree? And like that's part of it. And then there's all these plants, these bands. Here we go. Experience. Not spelled even close to experience. It just says just the letter. Xpince E X P E I N C E. Xpince. Up and local. Coming up and coming local bands. Expence them.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, that's not the name of a band.

[James Petregallo]

No, no.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's just them telling you how to do it.

[James Petregallo]

How to do it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Expence it.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Coventry based quartet Sesh brings a jam inspired mix of genres and improvisation.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, it's a jam sesh.

[James Petregallo]

Jam sesh. No thanks. Fish, you can. No, thank you. Courtney and Brad.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ah, nice Just the first name.

[James Petregallo]

Now, what does that sound like to you? Courtney and Brad?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Country as fuck, right?

[James Petregallo]

They add their signature blend of Japanese language songs, playful banter and expert musicians. Did you think that's what's gonna be.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Courtney and Brad do that?

[James Petregallo]

Courtney's gonna bust some Japanese out, no problem. Courtney's got this covered. You don't understand. You're underestimating Courtney. Rocks. Roms R O M X N Romson I don't know. Deliver sounds designed to make audiences move and feel. Is that music or just sounds?

[Jimmy Whisman]

No, Rammstein.

[James Petregallo]

I don't know. Don't know. Hopper offers a whimsical yet thoughtful blend of influences ranging from pop rock to backyard archaeology. None of this music makes sense to me. I can't figure this out.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That is my new genre of music. I'm telling people.

[James Petregallo]

Backyard archaeology? Yeah. I'm super into backyard archaeology. What's that?

[Jimmy Whisman]

If you don't know, it's gonna be hard to talk to you about.

[James Petregallo]

How am I supposed to explain this to someone who's just not cool? You're not hip if you don't. That's the problem.

[Jimmy Whisman]

If you don't know. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

I can't be the one to tell you. Poppy in the beat patch. Ah, yeah. Set full of music, memories and laughter. Space cowboy Newt N E W T merges classical harp with dreamy psychedelic pop. What? And then of the sun, whose ritual inspired soundscapes create an immersive and otherworldly listening experience. This is the weirdest lineup we've ever seen. And then, of course, Ludacris. No, I'm just kidding. He's not here, actually.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is this supposed to be inspired by psychedelics and shit?

[James Petregallo]

That's what it sounds like, yeah. Maybe it's. Everybody's supposed to. Maybe the root part is just all mushrooms, and that's what people are doing.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's subtly telling you, make sure you bring your mushies, because we're gonna have a great day.

[James Petregallo]

Well, let's have a great day, me and you here, and let's talk about some murder. What do you say? All right, let's do it. Let's start out. I don't know why lately 1992 keeps coming up, but we keep ending up in 1992 lately.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't know why the universe wants us to keep talking about boys.

[James Petregallo]

I was just gonna say, Jimmy. Number one song in 1992. Who is it? It's just the next words out of my mouth, so you can.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's the end of the road, man. I'LL never forget.

[James Petregallo]

So here we go. Let's talk about a murder. November 28, 1992. This is a couple days after Thanksgiving. It's 3:00am and we are in Mystic, Connecticut.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Matchbox 24.

[James Petregallo]

Let's do it. Mystic, Connecticut, if you don't know, is a tourist town where you go and they have like water shit. And people go there to eat pizza because they made a movie 40 years ago about a pizza place that had Mystic Pizza. I wasn't saying mystic had great pizza. They just. It's crazy anyway. Just based around people who worked at a pizza place. Anyway, Michael Holmes is 35 years old, okay. He's sleeping in his car in the parking area off the I95, northbound at 3am in Mystic, Connecticut. So he was making his way up the seaboard and couldn't take it anymore.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Had to pull off a little too much pizza. Gotta. Yeah, little.

[James Petregallo]

Which is what rest areas are for.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Okay. Now he's. I wouldn't do that. But some people.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No, no, no, no, no.

[James Petregallo]

This is why I wouldn't do it. He's awakened by two men. Oh. Now, after a brief conversation, one of the men just opens fire on this guy. On Michael Holmes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, Jesus.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, absolutely. Shoots him four times. Nothing is taken. They just shoot him four times and flee.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So the point was the murder.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, no robbery. So this Michael Holmes, shot four times, starts the car and drives himself to exit 90 and used a phone there because this is 92. He has no cell phone. Found a payphone and called 911. Wow. So the police respond to the scene, and he's admitted to the intensive care unit at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital after undergoing surgery for small caliber handgun wounds. Basically a.22. He's been peppered with a.22, essentially four of them. To find those in his body after, where they go is a mess.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Well, the hole itself is small. You know what I mean? They miss that sometimes when people shot with him.

[James Petregallo]

So this, he ends up surviving. Michael Holmes, he does not die. They pull all the bullets out of him and he's fine. He's in the hospital for like a week. And then they discharge him. So he's discharged from the hospital by December 2nd.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's a strong man, Michael Holmes.

[James Petregallo]

Don't take any shit. Yeah. Don't mess with Michael Holmes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's off to you, sir.

[James Petregallo]

Now, how did this all start?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, what the fuck?

[James Petregallo]

This all started because a chiropractor wanted to spend Thanksgiving weekend in a warm place. That's how this started. Okay.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And is Michael Holmes the chiropractor?

[James Petregallo]

Not at all. Michael Holmes has nothing to do with it. All right, God damn it. To find out how this happened, we gotta go back in time about a week from then, not even. And go to Monday, November 23rd, 1992, which is. We started out on the 28th. We're at the 23rd, Thanksgiving week 92. Francis Romela. R A M E L L A. He's the chiropractor who wanted to go to the Cayman Islands for Thanksgiving. Oh, causing this. Well, not his fault, obviously, but him, his wife and his daughters, younger daughters, are all spending the week in the Grand Caymans on vacation. Not a bad life. Jesus. Chiropractic is going well for him, huh?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Evidently.

[James Petregallo]

But the whole family isn't going, just them. There is one family member they've left behind and that's a 20 year old son. Because you're 20, I'm not paying for you to go to the Caymans. Fuck off. Yeah, yeah. Do you get a job? Get a job and come. What are you taking a vacation from Fuck off? No. So they're not taking him along. This is 20 year old Trevor Ramala. Romela. I'm sorry. So Trevor. Everybody describes Trevor as like a happy, go lucky kind of cat, which his behavior over the next few days denotes happy go luckiness and a little bit of kind of screwball. Not screwball. Dangerous recklessness, things like that. And also a little drop of just a. We'll talk about it before. I don't want to describe it too much. So a kid, they live in a nice house. So he's got the house to himself on Jefferson Road for a whole week. His family's gone, so he decides to spend literally this entire week throwing a party. He's gonna have a five day rager at his house.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Bender. Everybody's coming over, everyone's coming over. Nobody has to leave.

[James Petregallo]

Well, no, you can leave at the end of the night, but there'll be a party again the next day. So it's one of those.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I mean, I gotta straighten up.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah, I guess so. I gotta fix the house up. Otherwise it'll be.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm have to glue some shit back together. I gotta get you guys out of.

[James Petregallo]

Here for a little bit. It'll be a pile of splinters by the time my parents get back. Otherwise. Yeah. So Monday night, November 23, 1992 is the first party and it's the smallest of the group. I don't know if it's because of Monday. It's Monday. Plus word has to Spread that there's a five day party going on. So teenagers and a lot of kids from high school are there. This kid's 20, but he's got a lot of high school kids showing up there. It's a lot of kind of that age group. So a lot of people show up, there's beer going, everybody's drinking. Trevor is socializing. He's the, you know, he's the master of the bar. He's the bar, he's the host. He's got to go around. What he does though is he keeps a 22 revolver on him the whole time. He socializes which is an odd way of socializing with a man who's a.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Party to keep people in line in your folks house.

[James Petregallo]

That could be. And that's what I'm saying, he might have done this before and realizes that he needs some force behind him to be able to get people to do what he wants. So he's just carrying it around, just around the party. So multiple people say they saw Trevor carrying the gun at multiple gatherings throughout the week and, and nobody really thought much of it. It's just what he did. He carried a gun around.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's Treb man, he's just got. Yeah, he's a party pistol.

[James Petregallo]

He's like an old film director with a bullhorn. They're like, he doesn't need it, we're six feet away. But it makes him feel comfortable, you know what I'm saying?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Like Windy City heat. When Bobcat Gulfway goes, I have to use it in here or else I'll forget to use it on the set.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You mean the president of Hollywood?

[James Petregallo]

The president? No, no, he was the director. I love that the president of Hollywood is the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Who was the president of Hollywood?

[James Petregallo]

I don't even remember who it was.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I swore it was Bobcat.

[James Petregallo]

No, no, Bobcat was the director of the movie the whole time. He was, yeah, he was the one, the director. So nobody was really concerned. It's like, oh, Trevor's got a gun. And you know, if you go through a whole night and he hasn't shot anybody, you figure, all right, he's just carrying it around.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Golden.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, you're fine. So here are some guests that are at the party. Two of the guests anyway are 16 year old Ryan Wright.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sure.

[James Petregallo]

And 17 year old Stephen Parkhurst Park Hearst. So okay, now Trevor is. Steven Parkhurst knows Trevor. That's how this happened. He's three years younger than him but he's got older siblings named Jason and Jen. And Jen was in one of Trevor's classes. So they know each other and they've all lived in the local area for a long time. Steven has gone. He's gone out and came back. But he's known Trevor since he was 6, essentially. And everybody knows his dad. He's the chiropractor in town. It's 12,000 people, so it's not a. And even that it was smaller back then. So he heard Trevor was having a party at his house and Steven didn't know if he was gonna go because he hadn't seen Trevor in a long time.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

I was like, I don't know if I can just show up at this dude's house. I haven't talked to him really.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But like Stiffler going, what the fuck are you doing here? And slamming doors in people's faces.

[James Petregallo]

Exactly. But he knew a ton of people that were going. He knew everybody that was going. It was like all of his friends. So he's like, well, I bet if all my friends are going, why can't I go? So he decides to do that. Now a little bit about Steven here is going to help. His parents divorced when he was young because his dad was pretty abusive. Apparently so. Apparently. Allegedly his dad beat his mother with a sandal one time really bad. Which is a crazy way to beat somebody. That sounds like my grandmother attacking me for imitating her when I was a kid. She did that many a time.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's usually an adult figure throwing the shoe at them or maybe a couple of whacks. But you don't just beat your wife with that.

[James Petregallo]

That's crazy. No. Or the 12 year old Thai girl who said her mom beats her with a sandal if she doesn't do well in school. I was like, oh boy. At the restaurant. Anyway, one night also he held a knife to her throat. Oh, that was it after that. Once you hold a knife to someone's throat, if they have any semblance, they're gonna get out of there. So this is when Steven was about 5. So his mother, they get a divorce and then his mother marries a retired marine.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All right.

[James Petregallo]

So basically he just. The kids were like his workforce. This marine slaves. Well, he had a snack bar and restaurant that he owned and he just made the kids all work there when they were eight, nine. For long days. Too long long days, Free labor.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And he was also apparently super flirtatious with all the women customers. And Steven's mother didn't like that. They fought about it and guess what? More divorce. Sure. That happens. Now when Stephen was about 12. He went to California with his dad. His dad was out in California. His, you know, sandal beating, knife, holding.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Some abuse in the house. Dad got wind of it. Bring him out in California. Bring him out some time to bring him out. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

His dad's a house painter in Stockton, which sounds miserable. One and two right there. Now, young Stephen also hung out with his father's brother Rick. And basically Uncle Rick here, he called where they lived, east side Okieville, which means it's white trash is what he's trying to say.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Inland California hillbillies. It's not good.

[James Petregallo]

No. And these are all the exo we talked about in another episode, the Ex Okies. This is where they came to because this is where the defense jobs were after the depression and all that kind of shit. So these are basically. There's a lot of meth in the neighborhood. It's that kind of place here. Uncle Rick here, which is interesting. Uncle Rick had a theory for young Steven. He's 12, he needs to learn things. And Uncle Rick's gonna teach him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

See, Uncle Rick's never gonna learn from.

[James Petregallo]

Never learn from Uncle Rick here. Nope. Now, Uncle Rick says, you gotta know how to take an ass whooping if you ever wanna give one. Which, yeah, I mean, that's decent advice. But then you don't say, I'm gonna beat you up to teach you, which.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is.

[James Petregallo]

I need you to learn how.

[Jimmy Whisman]

To eat a punch.

[James Petregallo]

Now, A is fine. B is 10 miles down the road. You just fucking. Yeah. How do you feel about that, Steven sounds logical. Pow. Punches him right in the face.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Stick your chin out.

[James Petregallo]

So then according to Steven, Uncle Rick and his friends too, is would all beat the living shit out of Steven. And Steven didn't know if like, are they kidding with me? Is this like a hazing ritual? What's the story here? Because you're 12, you have no idea what the hell's going on.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And the sandal was softer.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. When adults that are supposed to be protecting you or beating you, it's crazy. So at about 14 here, Steven gets into Uncle Rick's speed, by the way. All right. They start doing that together and Steven ends up returning to Rhode island and he's arrested twice as a 14, 15 year old.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Because he's got a healthy meth habit out there.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah. For breaking into cars and stealing radios. This is back when that was still worth something. His stepfather was mad at him, so he drove him to the airport, put his credit card down on the counter and just said, ticket to California. Him. That way that way, don't care. He said, there you go. And he said, fuck off and left.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sent him back.

[James Petregallo]

Sent him back. So Stephen moves in with. Not his dad, with Uncle Rick. Yeah, yeah, That's a good influence here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Uncle Rick, he knows what's up.

[James Petregallo]

That's right. He went to high school. About a year later, his father sick of him out there again. This kid keeps getting. Nobody wants him. Basically shipping him back and forth cross country. His dad is a house painter, so a little less lofty here. He just buys him a Greyhound ticket back. The next thing he's just gonna say, we hold your thumb like this, see? And you stand on the side of the road, and that's how you get rides.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's what they're gonna tell Grec. And his friends are gonna help you get more sympathy. Stick your chin out.

[James Petregallo]

So Stephen arrived in Providence with $20 in his pocket. And he stayed with friends. Cause his parents didn't want him there. Remember? His stepfather sent him away. So he at one point broke into his mother's house. This is what he would do. He knew how to break into the house. So he'd break into the house to take a shower and to get some. Steal money from her purse, which I don't know what you expect a kid who's 14, 15 to do. It's not like you can go get a job and can't get a job. Get your own apartment when you're 15. So, hey, everybody, just gonna tell you about the safest sponsor that we have to offer here. SimpliSafe.

[Jimmy Whisman]

SimpliSafe.com S I M, P L I Safe dot com.

[James Petregallo]

Absolutely. We all want peace of mind, don't we? Yeah, we all need that. And for everybody, this should be how you get peace of mind, knowing that your home and your loved ones are safe. And that is the peace of mind that we get when we use Simplisafe, which is always. Simplisafe is tremendous. We use it in all of our homes, studios, you name it. They've been a sponsor of ours for a long time, and they're great and their product is amazing. You'll love it. We trust Simplisafe, the security system millions of Americans rely on to protect what matters most. And this month, we are excited to tell you about an exclusive offer that we can share with you. 50% off a new Simplisafe system when you order one today. This is the time, everybody. Don't wait anymore. Do this. Traditional security systems, they take action after someone's already broken in. You've heard the show. That is way too late. They're in the house, you're in trouble. So that's not good. Simplisafe's Active Guard Outdoor protection can help prevent break ins before they happen. They have these cool AI powered cameras backed by live professional monitoring agents. They can monitor. They detect suspicious activity. Let's say someone's creeping and lurking, acting all weird. The agents can talk to them and say get out of here. I'm calling the cops. Turn on a spotlight, put on a siren. You can do all that stuff and even contact the police before these people even have a chance to get in your home. Simplisafe is the way to go. No long term contracts or cancellation fees. Monitoring plans start affordably at around a dollar a day. 60 day satisfaction guarantee or your money back. Named best home security systems by U.S. news World Reports. Five years in a row ranked number one in customer service among home security providers by both Newsweek and USA Today. So why wait? Protect your home today and enjoy 50% off a new SimpliSafe system with professional monitoring at SimpliSafe.com smaller that's SimpliSafe.com small S I-M P L I safe.com small there's no safe like SimpliSafe.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petregallo]

Small Town Murder is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. But potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. 1991 he ends up in ocean tides which sounds lovely. That sounds like a resort.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Doesn't sound bad at all.

[James Petregallo]

Sounds like I'd like to stay there next time we're in a. You know, like a San Diego or something.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, I'm sure it's. Sure there's no ocean nor tides.

[James Petregallo]

It's near the ocean. It's in Rhode Island. But it is a residential home for delinquent youth is what it is. It's a group of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, that sounds bad.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, they said. According to a monthly review by the Department of Children, Youth and Families Juvenile Corrections Division they called it after a long history of school, home and community behavioral problems. Stephen was put in there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh boy.

[James Petregallo]

Now a report cited that detentions at two different boys homes which he left without authorization, of course and then was arrested on May 7, 1991 for car theft and then again two weeks later for another car theft. Steven's a Mess. He ran away from another youth facility, then was picked up by police again.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So he's a menace and he doesn't learn his lesson.

[James Petregallo]

He doesn't learn his lesson? No, clearly not. And what's he afraid of? He's used to getting the shit beaten out of him by adults. He's not really afraid of much at this point.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You're not gonna punch me nor hit me with a shoe. You're gonna put me in another room with free food and shit.

[James Petregallo]

That's fine. So he, at Ocean Tides attributed his problems to his troubled relationship with his mother and stepfather. The staff described him as mildly anxious but honest about describing his community difficulty. So he was honest about his crimes. The report said the primary focus would appear to be an examination of inter familial relationships. So they think his main problem is he's got shitty.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No nurturing.

[James Petregallo]

Nobody cares about him. Basically, he feels like. So August 1991, he gets out of Ocean Tides and returns home to live with his mother, probably because the state mandated it. State probably said, you have to take him in. You're his mother. You can't just. He's not a.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You know, he's a kid.

[James Petregallo]

He's a kid. So by the end of October, his mother was tired of his bullshit and persuaded the state to place him in another group home in Providence.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

His mother said, please take my son away from me. He was allowed to keep attending North Smithfield High school. They said though he kept disappearing from the group home, he kept taking off. And on November 13, 1992, this is just now, he left the group home for good, took off and went and stayed at his sister Jen's apartment, took.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All his shit and moved out to his sister's house.

[James Petregallo]

That's it. His duffel bag. And he left. Now Steven begins drinking all day, every day. That's all he's doing, whether he's hanging out with people or not. If he's alone, he's just. How old is he? 17?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. He's just drinking all day, huh? So Jen threw him out of her apartment because she caught him having sex in there with somebody. She came home and her drunken little brother is porking a 10th grader on her loveseat. And she's like, that's it. Enough. The fuck out of my house. I will not.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Drunken kid brother is banging in her home.

[James Petregallo]

Not having my kid brother's jizz stains on my fucking cushions. It isn't happening.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Get out.

[James Petregallo]

She said, you're making my life hard. You can't keep Doing this. Two days later she let him back in. He had nowhere to go. So she feels bad. There's a thing with older. We were just talking about this last night. Sarah and I were talking about this. Something about older sisters and younger brothers. They take care of younger brothers. Younger brother could be the biggest fuck up in the world. Their older sister will absolutely stick up for them no matter what. It's weird. In a mother.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Healthy environment. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

In any environment, honestly. Because these two, they didn't grow up. They didn't grow up in a healthy environment, you know. Well, yeah, it may be different for you, but among the most part it's kind of like the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That would have been great.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Yeah. But you also. There was other issues there too, I think.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh yeah, great point.

[James Petregallo]

So this here, he's known as like kind of. The kids are kind of like, ooh, he's a badass. Like that's his rep. He's been to jail, you know, he was in group home. He was in California, like getting in trouble like so in a small town, like that's. Oh, you're the big badass. Just cause you've lived outside that small town. They're like, what has he seen? He's been other places. Do tell.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, he went to California and instead of having a great time, he went to jail.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So like he must be a badass. He's cool. So anyway, this is how he ends up at the party from all this. Because he knew Jen now. Tuesday, Wednesday, October, November 24, 25th, 1992. More parties. Tuesday night, more people show up than Wednesday, than Monday. So that's how you know your party's good. More people came the next day, they drink.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Trevor's just letting all these bad people in his house.

[James Petregallo]

This is the place to be. Like this is the party spot. And apparently Trevor got mad at Steven for quote unquote taking unfair advantage of an inebriated 16 year old girl. Apparently Steven was, you know, fingering a sword, taking some liberties and they didn't like that. And this Trevor guy didn't like that. So that's a nice thing. Trevor's sticking up for some girl who's too drunk to defend herself. Great.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Or to approve or disapprove.

[James Petregallo]

That's what I mean. So yeah, that's not cool. So Trev. And this is 92. This is in the days when it was like, is she drunk enough to try to fuck her yet? Like that's how it was back then.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, Brass monkey was on the radio.

[James Petregallo]

That's what I mean. Yes, exactly. And people were. Yeah, fucking into it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Getting jiggy with it.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So anyway, that's what goes on. Trevor is angry, he's pissed. And he decides to kick Steven out from the party. But he does it at gunpoint, which probably wasn't necessary. Probably could have just asked him to leave first, but he came pretty fucking cool. He came gun drawn. Not cool at all.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No, but I mean, as a teenager, like.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah. Bravado. And this is all very teenage bravado. Yeah. As an adult, you're like, put guns. Don't point guns at people. Don't do that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Speak the living shit out of him. I don't know.

[James Petregallo]

Everyone at the party saw it. Several people at the party tried to kind of calm everything down, telling Trevor, put the gun down, it's all good. Don't fucking point your gun in people's faces. That freaks people out. The chicks, dude. The chicks are freaking out, man. You can't do that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, nobody's getting laid now.

[James Petregallo]

You've ruined the whole party at that point. Yeah, not cool.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That sucks.

[James Petregallo]

So. And they're telling Steven it's not a big deal. Just let it blow. Tell them, both sides. Let it blow over. It's fine. Just, you know, everybody's had a bunch of drinks and every. Tensions are high, essentially. So that's what goes on. So Steven leaves. He leaves with Ryan Wright, Rebecca Moran, Wendy Bouvier, Marge Patty and Selma's sister. Apparently they all get into Rebecca's car with Steven driving for some reason, I'm not sure. So they drop Wendy off first here, old Bouvier, and then he parks near in a lot to let Rebecca sober up before she goes home. Remember that as a teenager. I am way too fucked up to walk into my house right now. We gotta sit here for a minute. Hold on.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So I'm gonna get sober and I'm gonna walk in. She's still gonna smell it. There's no fucking way with it.

[James Petregallo]

At least if I' falling into the refrigerator, they might keep their distance from me or something.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I might be able to get past her before she smells it and take a shower and brush my teeth and get in bed.

[James Petregallo]

Totally. So now Rebecca's in the backseat of her own car, by the way, which is always strange to me. And the two boys are up front and she hears Steven and Wright there, Ryan Wright, talking in the front seat. She heard Steven say that he was pissed off at Trevor for pointing a gun at him, which, as you would be understandable here. And he said that he wants to get him back. I'm gonna get him back for doing that. So according to Rebecca, they're just getting increasingly agitated. They talk about, let's go, let's go, yeah, let's go back and kick his fucking ass. And they're like, yeah, we should kick his ass. And they're talking about, we'll kick his ass and then we'll just run. We'll get out of Rhode Island. We'll just take off.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

That's what they're saying now. By the end of this conversation, Ryan Wright is like, yeah, dude, you should totally do. You should kick his ass and you should get the fuck out of you. He's totally encouraging home.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And you go ahead.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, you do that. No, he said, I'll go with you, but. Oh, okay.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But he's going along.

[James Petregallo]

So that's what's going on. This girl in the back seats, I'm sure hurting from her eyes rolling so hard of Jesus, shut up. Let me sober up. So Thursday, November 26, 1992, is Thanksgiving night. So everyone comes full of turkey and full bellies and big parties. Now, Rebecca Moran, the one who was in the car in the backseat, and Sarah Dexter, another young lady, meet Stephen Parkhurst at the house. Rebecca says, are you serious about leaving Rhode Island? And Steven was like, ah, I was just drunk. I was just talking shit. You know I was drunk right of my mouth. The other night.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He said, basically, I was drunk talking, driving your car.

[James Petregallo]

That's how it works. You know how it goes. Thanks for letting me drive your car, shit face, by the way. So later that evening, they all leave Trevor's and they all go to Sarah's house. That's when Sara Dexter tells Steven Parkhurst something that pisses him off big time. Okay? She said, earlier that evening, Trevor demanded that I give him a blowjob. And we don't know what happened, if she did it or not, but we know that Trevor demanded a blowjob. He's 20, demanding a blowjob from a 16 year old, which is a criminal act at that point for sure. I mean, we don't know if he knows how old she is or whatever. But it doesn't matter if a cop showed up while you're getting a blowjob from a 16 year old, you're going in handcuffs. That's all I'm saying. So. Hey, guys, how you doing? You're like, huh, you're in trouble at that point. So I was just helping her with her homework, her biology homework.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She won't stop sucking my dick.

[James Petregallo]

It's crazy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm trying to get work done.

[James Petregallo]

No good. Both morally and legally. Not okay. Not small town murder. Approved behavior. We'll say that. So now Steven's response is, quote, don't worry, I'm going to kill him. On the last night of this party. Oh, that's what he tells to Sarah Dexter, like I got your back. I'm gonna kill him tomorrow night, so don't sweat it, right? So Sarah figured he was just talking shit like, I mean, you have no idea the crazy shit teenage boys say. We say insane shit when we're teenagers.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And in our head when we say I'm gonna kill that guy, it means punch him. He's gonna live.

[James Petregallo]

Yes. Actually gonna murder him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's probably gonna be fine. He might be sore for a little while. I might be sore for a while. I'm not even sure yet. But I'm gonna start it. That's what I do now.

[James Petregallo]

And for the most part, yeah, it would be, it would get broken up at a party. No one would. It wouldn't matter anyway. So we don't know. But in Stephen's mind now, he's pissed off. He's like this guy pulls a gun on my face, kicks me out pressuring fucking 16 year old girls. He's a bad guy. He's thinking, this Trevor, now that's in Steven's mind. Friday, November 27, 1992. Final night of the party. Okay, closing it up. Steven arrives back at Trevor's house with several other people. Trevor invites Steven on in, even though he knows he ejected him at gunpoint two nights earlier, still lets him in for the second night in a row. Now by 9:30pm there's about 40 people at this party, which is a big party for a house party. And it's all indoors. This is, it's cold out. So it's an indoor party. Yeah, so it's a big deal. Everyone's drinking, it's all the kids. Trevor thinks that things are kind of getting out of hand. There's more people here than there should be. So he decides to pull out his gun and start ordering people to leave. You gotta go, you gotta go. He's pointing his gun. And this includes Steven and Ryan. You guys gotta get the fuck out. So probably everybody but his inner circle kind of a deal. His friend Trevor's friend Heath tells him, please, dude, put the gun away, man. What the fuck are you doing? You can't be aiming. You need this especially you've been drinking all night like you're gonna shoot somebody. Trevor opens the cylinder and shows him it's loaded, but the next chamber's empty. Said, so if I squeeze one by accident, I'm not gonna shoot anybody. That's his. So what? That's his. Like, it's fine. Okay.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's your safety.

[James Petregallo]

That's it. So he said that. Now there's another guy named Charles Meyer there. He says that four chambers were empty, not just one. And he says that Trevor said that was for safety reasons. So this Meyer guy, at his request, Trevor finally puts the gun away. And not in his waistband. He says, dude, just get it out of here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

In a different room.

[James Petregallo]

He goes upstairs in his bedroom and puts it in his bedroom bureau, Leaves it there. Okay. Okay. Now Steven and Ryan Wright leave. They get a ride from Jay o' Hara and Char Chavan to an Almack's parking lot. I guess it's a gas station. I'm not sure. Whatever. Some kind of store where they meet up with a bunch of other friends and they talk about going to a different party in Burlville. Like, let's go to that other party. During the ride, Char Chauvin overhears Steven and Ryan talking about how much they hate Trevor. That fucking Trevor. That son of a bitch. Steven says that Trevor humiliated him in front of his friends. Fucking embarrassed me, and he said I should have fucking done something. I don't know what you're gonna do when a guy's got a gun in your face. There's really. Your options are pretty limited at that point. So Jay o', Hara, the driver, says he doesn't remember Parkhurst saying something like that, by the way. So some people say they heard it, that Char Chalvin said he heard it. J. O. Harris says he doesn't remember Stephen saying exactly that. These are two people in an enclosed car, and they can't agree on what one guy said. What just happened? This is why witnesses suck, basically.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This just happened. We were on our way from the event. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So they go to the Burlville party and they stay for about 20 minutes. Then Steven says, we should go back to Trevor's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This place is dead.

[James Petregallo]

Place is dead. So they go back to Jefferson Road. Now these other two should. He's talking about I hate this guy and all that. Come up with an alternate plan. But. But whatever. So as they approach the address here, they see two police cruisers parked out front. Because it's a teenage party. Yeah. Someone called the cops and there was just gun playing. Yeah. Yeah. So they. Instead of just driving off. And the reasons for this are Nebulous at this point, we don't know why, but instead of driving off, they pull into the next door neighbor's driveway. Steven and Ryan jump out of the car and run into the woods, which is the domain of the teenager that's an east coast teenager. The woods are mine. No one could catch me here. It's fucking crazy. It's like being on home base if you're in the woods. Now, they're drunk and they have alcohol on them. So we don't know if they're doing that to get away from the cops or why they're doing that. But it might become a little clearer later here. So everyone's drunk. The police eventually leave. When they see the police leave, they emerge from the woods and they go up to the door. Trevor says, come on in. Which I think party's over at this point, right? Cops just left people out, including you. They kicked you out at gunpoint two hours ago.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The cops have just been here and then you came back. So, yeah, no, party's over. Shut the porch light off. Good night.

[James Petregallo]

So Brian herou. A guy at the party said that Trevor asked him, asked Brian to give Steven and Ryan Wright a ride home to Woonsocket. So they said, Trevor asked his friend, will you take these two fucking home, please? They don't have a ride. They said, nah, I don't feel like taking them home. That's what Brian said.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Thank you, Brian.

[James Petregallo]

So then another guy at the party said that Trevor was like, you're not staying here. You can't stay here. You gotta go home eventually, because no one will drive them home, and they live too far to walk. Trevor says, all right, fine, fucking, you can stay over. I guess you can just stay here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is there car across the street?

[James Petregallo]

What are they? No, they got dropped off by that J guy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Got him.

[James Petregallo]

So they say, okay, fine. And Steven kind of manipulates him a little bit. He said, well, I would be able to drive except I wrecked my car earlier in the week after leaving your party that you kicked me out of. Remember that? I was drunk and I shouldn't have been driving, but you made me leave. So I went out and wrecked my car. So now what am I supposed to do? And that's your fault, and that's your fault, which I like so much. I mean, did pull a gun on him and force him to leave. So if that was true, which it wasn't, Trevor would have felt bad. So Trevor was like, ah, shit, all right, fine, you can stay the night. And he said, I'll drive you home in the morning. All right, so the Brian guy leaves, and there's six people at the house at this point. It's Trevor, Charles Meyer, William Bergeron, Allie Gerard, who is Trevor's girlfriend. And then Stephen and Ryan. Steven and Ryan go upstairs like they're gonna go to sleep in a room. And Trevor, Charles, William, and Allie go to the basement to play pool. The chiropractor's doing great. Finished basements, cool tables. Grand Cayman, Thanksgiving vacation.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Finished basement of a party room. This is awesome.

[James Petregallo]

So they're upstairs, Steven and Ryan, watching tv. Midnight comes around. Charles Meyer's in the basement with Trevor, and they hear noises upstairs. It sounds like running around, like if you're in an apartment and someone's above you doing shit. So they go upstairs to see what the hell's going on. The TV is off, and Steven and Ryan aren't there anymore. Okay, so Trevor races to his bedroom. Once he gets in his bedroom, he shouts out, they got my guns. They got plural guns. Yeah, they got my guns. So Meyer, he runs into the bedroom and finds out From Trevor that the.22 caliber revolver that he's been wielding all week is gone from the bureau. And also a black powder hunting rifle. So like an old school Civil War rifle? Basically. Black powder? Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Jesus Christ.

[James Petregallo]

There's also the contents of an ammunition bag scattered all over the floor. So someone's taken ammo too.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So you gotta have the powder on the muzzleloader.

[James Petregallo]

You gotta have that. Do you have the big. Get the plunger.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Do you have the powder horn that goes around my neck?

[James Petregallo]

Get that. You gotta rip it and do it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Put the ball in, rip it and dip it and pound it and shoot it.

[James Petregallo]

So Trevor runs from the room toward the front door with Meyer chasing after him. Now Meyer. They get to the front door and Meyer looks out the window when they get to the front door and he sees Trevor is already lying face down in a pool of blood on the front walkway.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, shit.

[James Petregallo]

Meyer followed him and he was two seconds ahead of him. And this is what happened, apparently.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Holy.

[James Petregallo]

So to Trevor's right, right side is Ryan Wright, okay? On the right side of Trevor, who's holding the black powder rifle by the barrel. He's got it, you know, like a club basically. Right? So Meyer ducks behind the front door and locks it because he's like, oh, shit, there's some shit going on out there. He tells Bergeron and Ali Gerard that Trevor is down out there, which is a weird way to put it. He sprints.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's already a police Officer in the middle.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, he's down. He sprints to Trevor's bedroom, grabs a shotgun from under the bed and loads it up in case people are coming back. As the three of the people left in the house decide what to do next, they hear the sound of glass breaking. They're like, oh, fuck.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, they're coming in.

[James Petregallo]

Someone's breaking in through the front door window.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, shit. So they hear voices from the basement. At that point, somebody came in and went looking for him in the basement. So they go, oh, fuck. So they think that the invaders are in the basement, so they run out the back door. The three upstairs. Okay, smart move. Now, minutes later, they're outside hiding. Bergeron and Gerard hear a car peeling out from the driveway. Whose car is that? These two idiots don't have a car. So Meyer runs to the neighbor's house and begs them to call 911. When he comes back, he sees that the family Toyota Celica is gone.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nice car. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So there's the Romella family Toyota Celica has been taken.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sports car. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Police arrive and EMTs arrive and the house is well lit by floodlights and all that. Trevor's face down in a pool of blood. They find a small bullet hole in the back of Trevor's head behind the left ear. Like a mob.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, God.

[James Petregallo]

When they turn the body over, it gets worse than that. Trevor had, according to the medical examiner, quote, abrasions over his left eye and forehead. Deep lacerations under his right eye caused by blunt trauma. Both lips were split through the middle and macerated.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Teeth came through.

[James Petregallo]

Yes. Four more lacerations below the bottom lip. His teeth were completely smashed and, quote, floating free in his mouth. Wow. And the medical examiner described his lower jaw as pulverized.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's not one smack, right? That's a lot.

[James Petregallo]

It gets worse. Cheekbones that covered his sinuses were also described as pulverized. And internal hemorrhaging on the right side of his neck had taken place. And there was bruising in his chest, too. Two of his teeth and a piece of facial skin were found on the sidewalk. Third tooth was found under his left arm. They beat his face.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They beat the living hell out of.

[James Petregallo]

Him into a bowl of what and shot him. This is crazy. So they said that these injuries could not have been caused by a fall to the ground unless it was out of a fucking jet lane helicopter. Yeah, unless it was 35,000ft. They said that Trevor received at least four and possibly six blows to the head with a blunt instrument consistent with the butt of a Rifle. A black powder rifle, as a matter of fact. The cause of death, though, was the bullet wound. Shot from a distance of two or more feet. So pretty goddamn close. Trevor's wallet was laying on the lawn seven feet from his body with blood all over it and emptied of all money.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So he's been robbed too.

[James Petregallo]

He's been robbed. Pieces of the rifle's stock were found near the body as well. Beat him. A black brother. This is a rifle that's 150 years old. And they beat it. They beat him till it exploded.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This was a rifle built by a man with a fire.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, this thing might have lasted through Fredericksburg and Shiloh, but not the fucking party on Jefferson Road couldn't make it through that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Unbelievable.

[James Petregallo]

So, yeah, it had been broken apart by the force of the blows. So when questioned, Charles Meyer remembers Steven's first name and the name Tara Langtot, who's a friend of Steven's who was at the party, but he doesn't know Steven's last name. Within hours, though, they get Tara Langtot at the police station identifying Parkhurst from photo lineups. So they have him shortly after Meyer, Gerard and Bergeron all positively identified Steven from a photo array. And Meyer specifically identifies him as the man standing over Trevor's body holding the revolver. Which is pretty damning evidence there. Yeah. So what does Stephen and Ryan do? Everyone knows they did it in front of everybody. They went back in to clean up the mess, but they didn't get kill the rest of the crew. So who's there? They took off. They flee in the Celica. Flee in the 1986 Toyota Celica.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, it's an 86. That's not much.

[James Petregallo]

Not a great one. Now those are the smaller kind of hatchbacks.

[Jimmy Whisman]

A little later it was.

[James Petregallo]

They were fine. Yeah, the 90s ones. My mom had one of those. It was okay. So their plan was to get to California in a store from Rhode Island. Couldn't be any farther away.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I mean, it's only one tank of gas in that thing.

[James Petregallo]

And they have. The only money they have is what they took from Trevor's wallet.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You're not getting there, man.

[James Petregallo]

No. So two hours later, they're in Mystic, Connecticut, firing a bunch of shots at poor Michael Holmes in his car. See, that's why a chiropractor caused this whole thing, unfortunately. So that's while that happened. So they leave Michael bleeding to death as he drives off to get an ambulance. Survives. A little while after that, they rob a hotel clerk in Branford, Connecticut.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, Cause they didn't even rob the guy at the rest area.

[James Petregallo]

No, no. I guess with the shots, they probably were like, oh, that's too loud. People are coming. And they probably woke people up. So they rob a hotel clerk in Branford, Connecticut. But later on, too, the victim of the robbery can't positively identify who did it. They were too scared. Here about 5am they're in Darien, Connecticut. They walk into a Howard Johnson hotel.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Lots of money on hand, though clearly.

[James Petregallo]

Cash bursting from the seams.

[Jimmy Whisman]

At 5am night plays.

[James Petregallo]

And at 5am too, they haven't even had a chance to build cash up from the day yet. It's a bad time to rob. So Stephen puts the.22 caliber, still has the murder weapon on him. He puts it to the head of a desk clerk and demands all the money.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, Jesus.

[James Petregallo]

The guy gives him the money. Later on, he'll positively identify Parkhurst and Wright.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Well done.

[James Petregallo]

Then they go to Ohio. So they're cruising through. They get through Pennsylvania.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's so far.

[James Petregallo]

All the way to Ohio. Yes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's like 13 hours.

[James Petregallo]

It's a long way. And they try to rob a motel in Ohio as well. The witnesses described two young white males driving a gray foreign car with New York license plates, L6H281. Those are not the original license plates they had in Rhode Island. They switched the plates. So they have a stolen car with stolen plates. Yep. Okay, perfect. Going great so far. And anytime a cop runs the plates, they're gonna see they don't belong to that car. So even if they aren't reported stolen yet, doesn't matter. You're still getting pulled over. You're better off hoping that the car doesn't get reported stolen for a minute. I think at that point. Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. As long as everything matches. If it's not reported stolen.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Any story will do. I'm borrowing it from a friend, whatever back home. Whatever.

[James Petregallo]

November 30th, 1992.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Police stop. This is in Indiana now. Okay. They have moved through Indiana, through Ohio, into Indiana. Police stop a gray foreign car, a Celica with New York license plates L6H281. Here are Stephen and Ryan in the car. So they had stopped to ask for directions, by the way, which is hilarious. They stopped ask.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They asked a cop.

[James Petregallo]

No, they asked someone else, got for directions, and the cop happened to pull up while they were doing that and ran the plates and saw what was going on here. So they look under the seat and they find a.22 caliber revolver. Still has it. They still have it. So they took him to a juvenile detention center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Now, an employee at the detention center, Gary Grant, not the ex NBA player, said later that he overheard both Steven and Ryan bragging to everybody else in the recreation room about what they'd done. Which I assume you do to try not to get beat up in there. You don't know anybody. You're new, right?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Don't fuck with me. We murder people.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. According to Grant, Ryan Wright told the other kids that Steven had killed a boy in Rhode island and that they were just on their way to California. They said the reason they got caught was because Steven stopped and asked for directions. Now we're all fucked.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The interstate system is so easy to navigate. You are nowhere near California that way. Just keep going.

[James Petregallo]

See the way the sun isn't rising? Go that way toward that direction.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Just chase that sunset, man.

[James Petregallo]

Eventually you can figure out north and south and whatever, but west is what you're looking for. So they go to trial here. Well, Steven goes to trial. Ryan's trial is gonna be held for a minute here. The prosecution says they have the Connecticut robbery. Evidence is basically the defense is that Stephen was too drunk to have done any of this.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

He was too drunk to kill him and then have the. And then get in a car and drive all the way here and drive all the way. Just too shit faced. No one's ever gotten anywhere drunk driving, Jimmy. You know what I mean? Never. Never happened in the history of this country. So the Connecticut robbery evidence is admitted to rebut the defense's claim that he was too drunk to form intent. Because they were like, he had plenty of intent when he was shooting someone in mystic and then trying to rob a guy at a motel. The prosecution says if he was too drunk to know what he was doing at midnight when he killed Trevor, how was he sober enough to rob a Howard Johnson at gunpoint 40 hours later? How was he sober enough to drive from Rhode island to Indiana if he's sober enough to kill, he's sober enough to drive. He's fine.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Also, he's sober enough to recognize. We're on E. Motherfucker. We gotta get out of here. We need money.

[James Petregallo]

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[James Petregallo]

So Stephen has to take the stand. He has no choice here. He has to explain this. He said he had consumed about 12 beers on that evening of the shooting. Wow, 12 packs quite a bit for a 17 year old. Even an ex crank addict. Whatever. 17 year old, still tough.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Even a seasoned primed one. That's a lot of beer.

[James Petregallo]

So he and Ryan Wright were watching television. Wright went to the bathroom, he said, and came back with the revolver. That's his story. I was just watching tv. Ryan got up at the party, came back with a gun. Steven says he took the gun from Ryan. Ryan left again and then returned with a rifle. Okay, so Steven said he was feeling a little bit nauseous and you know, like you've had 12 beers, right? He said he went outside for some fresh air. That's all. Just to get that fresh air. He said he started playing with the revolver, which is a good move when you're so drunk that you need fresh air so you don't throw up. He said he was spinning it and shit. That's what he was doing. He was pulling the hammer back, spinning the cylinder. He fired two shots in the air, he said, in the middle of the night, what are you doing?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh my God.

[James Petregallo]

When Trevor came running out of the house, he said the gun went off. He said it just went off and Trevor fell. He said, I never looked at the body and never saw any blood. That's his story now.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So I shot him once. He fell and his thud must have just exploded his face well, that's Ryan.

[James Petregallo]

Was that doing that stuff that he said? But that's the thing too. How did he get shot in the back of the head? If he came out and he came out, ran past them and the gun went off, I don't understand how that would work. So if Trevor fell toward Parkhurst as he claims, why was the body found in a position suggesting it fell toward the house? And if he never went through Trevor's pockets, how'd his wallet get out? How did he get robbed? How'd he get the Celica keys, any of that stuff? So he admitted that when he went back in the house after Ryan Wright broke the front window with the rifle, he did not call for help. He admits that. He said he didn't dial 911. He said he kept his gun in his hand as he searched the house. He denied seeing Ryan Wright beat Trevor with the rifle, despite the fact the witness saw him literally standing over Trevor after he had clearly been beaten for the last 30 seconds. So that's ridiculous. Then he said that he, quote, didn't know anything about guns, didn't know how to open one, and, quote, did not associate with that. Yeah, so, you know, I might have shot him by accident. He said that for all he knew, the murder weapon could have been a BB gun or a pellet gun. He said, I didn't even know what it was. Meanwhile, it's a revolver. You can see fucking bullets in the cylinder.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Boy, do pellet guns and.22 sound different when they fire?

[James Petregallo]

A little bit different. Feel different too.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, it's a slightly higher pitched noise.

[James Petregallo]

It's something. Yeah. So about four hours later, he used that bullet, the same weapon, to rob the hotel clerk. He seemed to know a lot about guns at that point. So the verdict comes in here. The counts are he's going to be found guilty. Obviously there's tons of witnesses here. First degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, breaking and entering, larceny of a firearm, carrying a stolen firearm while committing a crime of violence. Terrible. Yeah, not shit. You want to be found guilty of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The larceny of the firearm while using it in. The crime is so bad.

[James Petregallo]

It's so bad and it stacks things. So the judge sentences him to, you young man may fuck off. Life in prison for the murder, plus 10 years each for conspiracy to murder, breaking and entering, theft of a motor vehicle, possession of a stolen firearm, all to be served consecutively, plus 50, another consecutive five year sentence for theft of the firearm. So life plus 45 years. Consecutive.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's not 55 that's 45.

[James Petregallo]

45. Four tens and a five.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay. And a five. Got it.

[James Petregallo]

Plus life. All consecutive.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There's no way to outlive that.

[James Petregallo]

17. You're gonna die in prison. Period. So Ryan Wright sees this and just pleads guilty.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, good move, Ryan.

[James Petregallo]

Fuck that. He admits to hitting Trevor with the rifle and everything, too. He admits to all that. So they say, you sophomore child may fuck off. Also, 60 years in Rhode island, and then he gets another seven in Connecticut for the. And that's the other thing, too. Stephen also has a Connecticut sentence tacked onto that, which, I mean, when we pull out his corpse, we can bring it to Connecticut and stick that in a room for a while.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Holy shit.

[James Petregallo]

So 1998, Stephen appeals on multiple issues. All right? First is the accident instruction. His defense says that the shooting was an accident. And he argues that the trial judge should have specifically told the jury that the state had to disprove accident beyond a reasonable doubt, rather than leaving the jury with the impression that he had to prove the shooting was an accident. So apparently there's a Rhode island case called State vs Baker from 1980, where the Supreme Court threw out a conviction because the jury instructions shifted the burden of proof on self defense to the defendant rather than the prosecution. Okay, so Stephen's saying it's the same thing. The second one is the murder instructions. Trial judge told the jury that premeditation and deliberation are not elements of murder in the second degree, but then said the distinction between first and second degree murder is the length of time of premeditation. So they said that's a confusing instruction, which it is. The Supreme Court would later call the language unfortunate. Also too, the court notes that the jury asked twice during deliberations for the instructions to be re explained to them. They didn't get it either, which makes sense. Third one, they said that Parkhurst argues that the jury should have been given the option of involuntary manslaughter, an unintentional killing without malice.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

And they said, no, involuntary manslaughter is when you kill someone while committing an awful act, not accounting to a felony while being criminally negligent. So, you know, dumb shit, basically, if you were doing something stupid that wasn't like a felonious act. No, that would be a felonious act, I think. Is it shit like that? Cause you have a gun, you're in possession of a stolen firearm at that point. Oh, right, right.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Because it's not yours. But if you're just spinning a gun and it goes off, that's that would be.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, no, that would probably be considered some sort of manslaughter. Accidental shit. Which would be involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide, or whatever. It depends on the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You're still getting sued.

[James Petregallo]

You're getting sued. Fourth, the Connecticut robbery evidence. The prosecution brought in the evidence of the Howard Johnson robbery in Darien, committed four hours after the murder to rebut the intoxication argument. The defense says, you can't bring in evidence of other crimes just to show the defendant's a bad person. Court said it wasn't about that. It was about backing up. It was about disproving your statement, essentially. So. Fifth was the flight instructions. The jury was told they could consider Parkhurst's flight from the scene as evidence of consciousness of guilt. Parkhurst argues that this went too far. Okay. And finally, the wallet and the cash. The police testified that when Parkhurst was arrested in Indiana, he had $347 in cash in a wallet on him. So they did pretty well in these robberies. The defense argued that this implied he robbed Trevor. And they don't know if anything was taken from the wallet. That's not a fact. Essentially, we didn't know how much money he had. The trial judge noted the amount wasn't excessive for someone traveling out of state. And given the jury had already heard about teeth found on the sidewalk and a bullet hole behind the ear, the wallet testimony wasn't likely to inflame anyone even more. The beating to death, the beating in the face and the shooting probably would do more. That's pretty bad. Convictions affirmed, everything's rejected. He goes to prison. Shit changes. 2005, the US Supreme Court, in a case called Roper vs Simmons, bans the death penalty for juveniles, ruling that children are different and for purposes of criminal punishment, their immaturity diminishes culpability. They are more vulnerable to outside pressures. The capacity for change is greater. Yes. You could be a 16 year old, fuck up and turn out to be the pope or whatever. It doesn't matter. You know what I mean? 16. I know people that were nightmares when they were 16. Now they're married with three kids. They go to work every day. They're completely fine. Everything's fine.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm much better than I was when I was 16.

[James Petregallo]

Me too. I was a fucking nightmare.

[Jimmy Whisman]

A long shot.

[James Petregallo]

Absolutely. And yeah, and Also when you're 16 and someone says 50 years, you go, I'll be dead by then. That's crazy. That doesn't even exist. 50 years. So 2008 Stephen appeals again. Parkhurst himself, he acknowledges in his later testimony he said, I was sentenced under the teenage super predator beliefs of the early 1990s to all maximums and all consecutive. When he is sentenced, you have to understand this was the time where the enemy number one in America was teenagers. That was it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

We were public fucking enemy number one when they were going every time you got hard on them.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Every talk show had one of our idols on it and they were belittling them about how they are recruiting young people and poisoning our minds.

[James Petregallo]

Boys. That's all it was. And it was like he's got a dime bag of weed, needs to go to prison. That'll teach him. Like it was. There was. They were out of their minds in.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The 90s, but they were right. Marilyn Manson was a terrible person.

[James Petregallo]

He was a terrible person, but not for what he did with the teenagers. Much other shit. So he said that the sentencing judge said he was not tasked with considering all that I would work toward while incarcerated. That's what Stephen says. He only had the senseless death of a 20 year old young man before him. So in 2008, the life sentence plus 45 years was reduced to life with the possibility of parole because he had no parole before. Plus 20 years. So. So still a long time. 2010 Graham versus Florida case. The Supreme Court bans life without parole for juvenile non homicide offenders. Yep.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Remember that kid.

[James Petregallo]

And juveniles must have a meaningful opportunity to obtain a release is also what the court says. 2012 Miller v. Alabama. The court strikes down mandatory life without parole for juvenile homicide offenders. 29 states see their sentencing statutes invalidated because of this case. Wow. The court says a sentencer must consider the hallmark features of youth immaturity, family environment, peer pressure, inability to navigate the legal system and capacity for change. You can't say a kid is a completed out of the kiln project. He's still in clay is what they're saying. Yeah. Once they're an adult, then they're out of the kiln. Whatever they do is they're responsible for when they're teenagers. There's a lot of other factors you have to consider that are making this.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Environment, lifestyle, all kinds of shit.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. December 2012, Ryan Wright is paroled.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

He's paroled and sent to a Halfway House until 2017.

[Jimmy Whisman]

A 40 year old guy.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. In that ballpark. 2014, Stephen tries to get out. He goes before the Rhode island parole board and is denied. They cite the severity of the crime, the violence and use of a weapon. They tell him he can come back in 2023. Nine years. Holy shit. Which is rough.

[Jimmy Whisman]

See you in nearly a decade.

[James Petregallo]

See you in a decade. 2016, Montgomery vs. Louisiana. Another court case, the last one, the Miller 1, from 2012 is made retroactive. Every juvenile offender serving mandatory life without parole in America now has the right to a new sentencing hearing or a meaningful opportunity for release.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And this is why there's a TV show that covers a bunch of these, because it's determined that that's unconstitutional.

[James Petregallo]

Tons of them. This happened. So. 2017, Stephen files a lawsuit arguing that the Rhode Island's parole laws violate the Supreme Court's precedence on juvenile sentencing. 2018. The Rhode Island Parole Board revises its guidelines. For the first time, the board will consider factors specific to juvenile defenders. Diminished culpability due to immaturity, rehabilitation, and personal growth in prison. 2019. Stephen goes up for parole again because the laws change. 23.

[Jimmy Whisman]

2019.

[James Petregallo]

He's had a clean disciplinary record for 26 years. Wow. He earned an associate's degree and a bachelor's degree. He's pursuing an MBA through Adams State University. He trained 14 service dogs, including one for a Boston Marathon bombing survivor.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nice.

[James Petregallo]

He goes around and speaks to high schools about crime prevention. He's a Buddhist now. And he completed programs in anger management and victims advocacy as well.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Isn't it crazy how when you nurture a person and give them a plan, they can. Can follow it?

[James Petregallo]

Well, he's been following this even before there was hope, though.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay. Yeah, he had no hope. Yeah, but I mean, that's what I mean.

[James Petregallo]

He didn't even have hope.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He just had a plan to follow and he did it.

[James Petregallo]

And this isn't even a nurturing environment. This is prison. Perhaps you have to get your ass to do this, which is so hard in that environment.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Perhaps if his parents gave a shit, maybe he would have been a better kid.

[James Petregallo]

Maybe. Maybe if Uncle Rick didn't say, here, take a punch in the nose, and then. And then cure it with some crank afterwards. Yeah, maybe that wouldn't happen.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Take a rip off this glass, dick.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So the Attorney General's office opposed his parole, saying that. Describing his crime as extraordinarily calculating, deliberate, and premeditated. It was also opposed by the Romella family as well. The parole board votes unanimously to release Stephen. Wow. But he's then transferred to Connecticut to serve an additional nine years for the armed robberies committed during the spring. So he's gonna do about four years there. So ultimately, he'll do about 30 years in prison for this 2021, Mario's Law comes in which says if there's a giant tube, you're allowed to jump at it and go all the way down and get coins, even if they're there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

As long as there's a lady to save.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, as long as you're saving a princess, it's fine. This is providing any person sentenced for an offense committed before their 22nd birthday is eligible for parole after serving 20 years. 2025, Stephen's out. He's working as program coordinator for Freedom Reads, a nonprofit based in Hampden, Connecticut. He's on the legislative policy team at Voices of the Experienced, a nonprofit in New Orleans, and has testified before the Connecticut state legislature in its support of expanded parole eligibility for young offenders. So they also he and other people who've had this happen formed the Rhode Island Freedom Collective, an advocacy group aimed at giving a v voice to those incarcerated and confronting deep rooted injustices in the criminal justice system. Stephen wrote and we'll end it here. As a rudderless and callous 17 year old, I committed the shameful and regretful crime of murder. The sentencing judge was not tasked with considering all that I would work toward while incarcerated. He only had the senseless death of a 20 year old young man before him. I was sentenced under the super predator beliefs. So that's what he says. He says sometimes we deserve what we deserve and we deserve it when we deserve it. I deserved every bit of that life plus 45 when I was 17. But what about the 30 year old or 40 year old that I've become? That asshole deserves it, but I'm a different guy. Good article by J. Malcolm Garcia, by the way. That had some details and on Facebook. The arguments about this fucking case are wild.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's gonna be forever too.

[James Petregallo]

It's insane. How dare they? He's a piece of shit. And then how back and forth of equal. So there you go. There is north Smithfield, Rhode Island. We're running late so we gotta bust through this quick. Hope you liked that. If you did, get on whatever app you're on, give us five stars. If you're watching on Netflix, definitely do whatever you like or whatever the hell it is on there that you do. Tell everyone you like it. Tell your friends. Shut upandgivemerder.com is the website get your tickets for live shows. February 21st, Nashville, we're coming to see you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nashville, Tennessee.

[James Petregallo]

Get in there. March 6th in Durham. March 7th in Atlanta. Get in there right now. And March March 21st at Standup Live in Phoenix for your stupid opinions. Shut up and givememurder.com patreon.com CrimeInSports is where you get all of the bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above, you get it all. All the shows we put out back bonus episodes. New ones every other week. Everything we put out ad free and a shout out at the end of the regular show. This week the episodes will be crime and sports. William Tank Black college coach, football coach turned agent turned criminal. Master P's involved in the story. It's wild stm. We are going to do the perfect Neighbor documentary. We'll talk about that. A lot of requests. Patreon.com crimeinsports you want to follow us on social media? Shutupandgivemerder.com is the best place to do that and find all the menus and do that and keep coming back and seeing us. And until next week everybody, it's been our pleasure. Bye. Small Town Murder is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, but potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.

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