Patino sentenced to life in prison for 2009 beating death of 6-year-old

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A Central Falls man has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted earlier this year in the October 2009 beating death of his girlfriend’s six-year-old son.

Michael Patino, 33, was found guilty of second-degree murder in Providence Superior Court in April. The jury deliberated for eight hours following an 11-day trial.

Superior Court Justice Netti C. Vogel imposed the life sentence, according to a statement from the office of Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin.

“For nearly six years, the police and prosecutors have worked tirelessly to secure justice for six-year-old Marco Nieves,” Kilmartin says in the statement. “There are few things as chilling as the death of an innocent child, except perhaps when that death is willfully caused by an adult who is entrusted with the child’s care. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with Marco’s family, and while today’s sentence will not end the pain they experience every day since his death, it is my sincerest hope they can take solace in knowing the defendant was sentenced to life in prison for taking Marco’s life.”

Marco’s mother, Trisha Oliver, and Patino found the boy unresponsive and not breathing on the morning of Oct. 4, 2009, at Oliver’s 575 Dyer Ave. apartment. Responding emergency personnel found the boy in full cardiac arrest, and he was pronounced dead 11 hours later.

At Patino’s trial, former state chief medical examiner Dr. Thomas Gilson testified that the boy died from peritonitis, or inflammation of the abdominal cavity, which resulted from blunt force trauma to the abdomen that caused a tear in his intestine. According to the testimony of Gilson and Dr. Linda Snelling, Hasbro Children’s Hospital’s chief of pediatric critical care, the boy also had other injuries.

Also during the trial, more than two-dozen text messages sent by Patino to Oliver – in which Patino admitted striking the boy – were introduced as evidence. The messages became the subject of a legal battle over the right of law enforcement to search cell phones.

Cranston Detectives John Cardone and Jean-Paul Slaughter led the investigation, while Assistant Attorney General Stephen A. Regine and Special Assistant Attorney General Peter Roklan prosecuted the case on behalf of Kilmartin’s office.

Earlier this year, Cranston Chief of Police Col. Michael J. Winquist said the April verdict had brought a degree of closure.

“Anytime you have the death of a child, it weighs heavily on the officers involved,” he said at the time. “We’re just happy that justice has been served.”

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