State v. Lydia Alicea

Syllabus

The defendant, Lydia Alicea (defendant or Alicea), pled nolo contendere to the charges brought against her by way of information pursuant to violating G.L. 1956 § 11-41-4. Upon the defendant's plea, the Superior Court imposed a two-year deferred sentence and ordered $1,800 in restitution. The defendant entered into a deferred-sentence agreement with the Office of the Attorney General, thereby agreeing to the terms of her sentence set forth by the Superior Court. The defendant failed to satisfy her restitution obligation of $1,800 by the expiration of her deferred-sentence agreement. Accordingly, a magistrate of the Superior Court declared defendant a violator of her deferred-sentence agreement, imposed a sentence of three years of probation, and ordered that defendant pay $36.15 in monthly installments toward the outstanding restitution amount. The defendant filed a timely notice of appeal of the magistrate's decision to a justice of the Superior Court. On November 18, 2022, the trial justice issued a written decision denying the appeal the stay was vacated, and restitution payments were ordered to resume on December 1, 2022. Thereafter, this timely appeal ensued. On appeal, defendant argued that the trial justice erred in affirming the magistrate's decision—declaring defendant a violator of the deferred-sentence agreement—because the Superior Court did not conduct an adequate hearing concerning whether she had the ability to pay the restitution in accordance with G.L. 1956 § 12-19-19. The defendant also argued that the trial justice improperly applied State v. Regan, 273 A.3d 116 (R.I. 2022). After examining the record and the parties' arguments, the Supreme Court concluded that defendant was not provided a full evidentiary hearing to determine her ability to pay the court-ordered restitution and vacated the judgment of the Superior Court declaring Alicea to be a violator of her deferred-sentence agreement.