Rhode Island Criminal Defense and DUI Lawyer James E. Smith posts Projo Piece about a man accused of shooting Providence cops.
By Gregory M. Smith
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Christopher Hall, who shot it out with the police in a drug raid inside his bedridden mother’s apartment, pled guilty Friday afternoon to 13 charges in the incident.
Christopher Hall at his Providence District Court arraignment in December 2009. Journal file photo
It was a change of heart for Hall, who in the morning at Superior Court had balked at a longstanding plea arrangement hammered out by his lawyer with state prosecutors. Judge Robert D. Krause gave Hall about two hours to reconsider, and Hall then was returned to Krause’s courtroom, where he went through with the plea bargain.
In what is known as a capped plea, Hall, 26, pled guilty with the understanding that he would receive a minimum prison sentence of 20 years to serve without parole to a maximum of 50 years to serve. If he had insisted on a trial and been convicted, he would have been sentenced to a minimum of 60 years to 90 years to serve on the main counts, according to his lawyer, Matthew Smith.
Krause accepted the guilty plea and tentatively scheduled sentencing for Feb. 7.
Three officers were wounded in the shootout Dec. 14, 2009 in a tenement at 12 Hollis St. in the West End, where Hall lived with his mother. Shots were exchanged when narcotics detectives, using a battering ram, crashed into the apartment after having identified themselves as the police, according to the authorities.
