By Tiffany Williams –
Three men in three different cases, all facing the full weight of the justice system — a drunk driver who killed a woman, a predator who preyed on children, and a fentanyl trafficker caught moving poison through New York — were all handed down heavy prison sentences this month.
In Washington County, Rhode Island Superior Court, 60-year-old Daniel Famiglietti of Warwick learned his fate for a deadly 2024 crash that killed 53-year-old Linda Sherman in North Kingstown. Famiglietti, who admitted to driving drunk when he struck Sherman as she rode her bicycle along Boston Neck Road, will spend seven years behind bars at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI).
Judge Sarah Taft-Carter sentenced him to 15 years total, with seven years to serve, eight years suspended with probation, a $5,000 fine, mandatory alcohol counseling, and a five-year license suspension after release. Famiglietti pleaded nolo contendere to one count of driving under the influence resulting in death.
Police said Sherman was riding in the breakdown lane around 7 p.m. on June 20, 2024, when Famiglietti’s Jeep slammed into her from behind. The crash report showed Sherman was doing everything right — visible, lawful, cautious. She was rushed to the hospital but didn’t survive.
On the scene, Famiglietti reeked of alcohol, admitted to drinking “several” beverages, and failed multiple field sobriety tests. When he refused a chemical test, police got a search warrant for his blood. The Rhode Island Department of Health later found his blood alcohol concentration at 0.097%, nearly three hours after the crash — still well above the legal limit.
Prosecutors said the sentence reflects both the loss of an innocent life and the defendant’s recklessness behind the wheel. Famiglietti will begin serving his prison term immediately.
In Providence County, justice was also delivered to Edwin Martinez, a 29-year-old Pawtucket man convicted of sexually assaulting two children known to him over several years.
On September 29, 2025, Superior Court Justice Joseph A. Montalbano sentenced Martinez to 30 years, with 11 years to serve at the ACI and 30 years of probation. He must register as a sex offender, have no contact with his victims, complete sex offender counseling, and will face community supervision upon release.
A jury found Martinez guilty in June after a six-day trial that detailed a disturbing pattern of abuse between 2010 and 2012. Prosecutors proved he sexually assaulted a juvenile female victim and a juvenile male victim, both known to him, inside homes in Pawtucket.
The victims, now adults, faced Martinez in court during sentencing. Prosecutors said the case took years of investigative work, careful handling, and courage from the survivors to bring it to trial. “These victims carried trauma for more than a decade,” a state prosecutor said after sentencing. “Today’s result shows that time does not erase accountability.”
Martinez will remain under lifetime supervision following his prison term.
Meanwhile, in New York, federal agents and prosecutors cut off a major drug pipeline before it could hit city streets — and the dealer at the center of it, Dennis Carrol, won’t be seeing daylight for a long time.
Carrol, 34, of Flanders, Long Island, was sentenced on October 15 to 18 years in state prison and five years of post-release supervision after being convicted of first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and two counts of third-degree possession.
Investigators said Carrol was moving two kilograms of fentanyl, worth about $80,000, from Suffolk County to Queens when DEA agents stopped him in Hollis in November 2022. The bust was part of an ongoing probe by the District Attorney’s Major Narcotics Unit and the DEA’s New York Division targeting high-level traffickers.
Agents pulled Carrol over at Hillside Avenue and 188th Street around 3:30 p.m. and searched his car. In the trunk, they found two plastic bags stuffed with fentanyl, enough to produce potentially hundreds of thousands of deadly doses.
The case went to trial earlier this year, and on March 24, a jury found Carrol guilty after hearing evidence that he was trafficking the drugs for resale in Queens. Supreme Court Justice Leigh Cheng, who presided over the four-week trial, made it clear at sentencing that fentanyl crimes would be met with no leniency. “This was poison being moved for profit,” Cheng said from the bench. “You will pay for every ounce of it.”
Authorities said Carrol’s conviction sends a message to other would-be dealers. “Fentanyl is destroying lives from Long Island to the Bronx,” said a DEA spokesperson. “This sentence makes clear — if you traffic in it, you’re done.”
Carrol’s 18-year sentence caps a string of hard-hitting prosecutions across the region this fall — a drunk driver who killed, a predator who exploited the innocent, and a trafficker who tried to flood streets with lethal drugs. Three cases, three different crimes — and one message from the courts: accountability is coming due.