Providence man sentenced to 32 years in state prison for 2017 murder

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Attorney General Peter F. Neronha today announced that a Providence man has been sentenced in Providence County Superior Court to serve more than 32 years at the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI) after pleading to the fatal stabbing of 52-year-old William Rodriguez. Rodriguez was a neighbor to the defendant’s mother.

At a hearing on May 24, 2023, before Superior Court Justice Richard Raspallo, Richard Sostre (age 36) entered a plea of nolo contendere to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 50 years sentence, with 32-and-one-half-years to serve at the ACI, and a 17-and-one-half-year suspended sentence with 50 years of probation.

The defendant has been held at the ACI since the date of the incident.

Had the case proceeded to trial, the State was prepared to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that during the morning of November 14, 2017, the defendant stabbed and killed William Rodriguez at a multi-family home on Chalkstone Avenue in Providence.

That morning, law enforcement officials responded to a report of a victim suffering serious stab wounds. Rescue personnel transported the victim to Rhode Island Hospital where he died of his injuries.

During their investigation, Providence Police learned that Mr. Rodriguez lived in the basement of the multi-family home, directly below the defendant’s mother.

Based upon information and evidence, investigators developed a suspect, the defendant, and located him at his home on Glasgow Street a short time later. The defendant gave a statement where he admitted to stabbing the victim, discarding the knife in a trash can, and throwing his blood-stained clothes away in a trash truck. Investigators later recovered the knife the defendant used in the stabbing, but not his discarded clothes.

Detectives Casey Moffett (retired) and Michael Otrando of the Providence Police Department and Assistant Attorney General Amy Dodge of the Office of the Attorney General led the investigation and prosecution of the case.