Wingman420
Commercial Cultivator
There is another RI Patient and Caregiver who also faces charges this isthe story as reported in the projo.com
Licensed pot grower faces drug charges after fatal shooting
09:15 AM EDT on Friday, April 23, 2010
By Gregory Smith
Journal Staff Writer
Matthew A. Salvato, with lawyer J. Patrick O'Neill, appears in District Court Thursday.
The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A man who is licensed by the state to grow and smoke marijuana for his hypertension shot and killed a masked thief in his apartment last week.
He was in District Court on Thursday – but not because of the fatal shooting.
The attorney general's office is prosecuting the man, Matthew A. Salvato, 22, of 902 Chalkstone Ave., over the scale and legality of his marijuana growing, not because of the shooting. The police are calling the shooting an apparent case of self-defense and justifiable homicide. A spokesman for the attorney general's office, Michael J. Healey, said all aspects of the incident remain under investigation.
Salvato killed Alex Delasnueces, 26, also of Providence, in his apartment when Salvato interrupted a break-in by the victim, according to the police. Officers found marijuana plants in the house, as well as Delasnueces, who had been shot through the heart.
The police apparently seized all the marijuana, and they charged Salvato with the manufacture of marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and two counts of having a firearm in the furtherance of drug offenses. At his arraignment April 16, he was ordered held without bail.
J. Patrick O'Neill, Salvato's lawyer, asked Judge Elaine Bucci at a bail hearing Thursday to release his client on bail with a restriction such as home confinement. But Assistant Attorney General Pamela E. Chin objected – Healey said Salvato is a danger to the community – and Bucci ordered that Salvato continue to be held for now.
Both Salvato and his unnamed downstairs neighbor hold licenses under Rhode Island's new medical-marijuana law and were cultivating crops, according to O'Neill. Their crops were consolidated illegally, the police allege, and the issue is how many plants and seedlings Salvato had. The neighbor has not been charged.
"When you're talking about the medical-marijuana law, math is very important," Healey said.
The neighbor is a state-licensed caregiver, according to O'Neill, which allows him to grow marijuana and possess plants, seedlings and loose marijuana for licensed patients. And one of his patients is Salvato, the lawyer acknowledged.
Salvato himself is both a licensed caregiver and a licensed patient, O'Neill said, apparently allowing him to have even more plants, seedlings and loose marijuana than the neighbor. Annemarie Beardsworth, a spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Department of Health, which oversees the medical-marijuana program, said the law allows the double licensing.
Neither the police, nor the attorney general's office will say how many plants, seedlings and loose marijuana were seized and for what amounts Salvato is being held responsible. Healey said those aspects remain under investigation.
O'Neill, however, said outside court that Salvato legally had 48 mature and immature plants plus a number of seedlings and denied that his client was either illegally possesseing and distributing marijuana.
Bucci scheduled a follow-up hearing for Thursday to thrash out the complexities of the medical-marijuana law and to reconsider bail.
As explained by Beardsworth, the law allows a caregiver to have an unlimited number of patients, but to grow a maximum of 24 plants, to grow "a reasonable amount of unusable marijuana, up to 12 seedlings," and to keep a maximum of 5 ounces of usable loose marijuana.
A patient may have a maximum of 12 plants, a maximum 12 seedlings and a maximum 2.5 ounces of usable loose marijuana.
The incident occurred, according to the police, on the morning of April 15, when Salvato, who lived alone in an apartment that took in the second and third floors of the house, arrived home with his girlfriend. They noticed that some items had been gathered together on the floor, as if they were to be stolen by a thief, and Salvato got his semiautomatic handgun.
He went to the third floor, called out that he had a gun and, as he related to the police, encountered Delasnueces, who wore a bandanna across his face and also carried a handgun. Salvato fired once and Delasnueces tumbled down the stairs and came to rest with his gun beneath him, according to Detective Capt. James Desmarais.
Investigators said they recovered three handguns; it is unclear who owns the third gun.
Healey said it is too early in the investigation to say whether Salvato may face a more serious charge regarding the shooting. But he said the vast majority of suspicious deaths are presented to a grand jury for consideration of an indictment.
To the police, the incident is further evidence of a flawed medical-marijuana law, which they say makes caregivers and patients targets of crime and is overly secretive.
O'Neill said his client had a gun because he lives in a bad neighborhood and because the neighbor had been the victim of a recent break-in.
"He wasn't protecting his, quote, unquote stash," O'Neill said.
gsmith@projo.com
Licensed pot grower faces drug charges after fatal shooting
09:15 AM EDT on Friday, April 23, 2010
By Gregory Smith
Journal Staff Writer
Matthew A. Salvato, with lawyer J. Patrick O'Neill, appears in District Court Thursday.
The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A man who is licensed by the state to grow and smoke marijuana for his hypertension shot and killed a masked thief in his apartment last week.
He was in District Court on Thursday – but not because of the fatal shooting.
The attorney general's office is prosecuting the man, Matthew A. Salvato, 22, of 902 Chalkstone Ave., over the scale and legality of his marijuana growing, not because of the shooting. The police are calling the shooting an apparent case of self-defense and justifiable homicide. A spokesman for the attorney general's office, Michael J. Healey, said all aspects of the incident remain under investigation.
Salvato killed Alex Delasnueces, 26, also of Providence, in his apartment when Salvato interrupted a break-in by the victim, according to the police. Officers found marijuana plants in the house, as well as Delasnueces, who had been shot through the heart.
The police apparently seized all the marijuana, and they charged Salvato with the manufacture of marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and two counts of having a firearm in the furtherance of drug offenses. At his arraignment April 16, he was ordered held without bail.
J. Patrick O'Neill, Salvato's lawyer, asked Judge Elaine Bucci at a bail hearing Thursday to release his client on bail with a restriction such as home confinement. But Assistant Attorney General Pamela E. Chin objected – Healey said Salvato is a danger to the community – and Bucci ordered that Salvato continue to be held for now.
Both Salvato and his unnamed downstairs neighbor hold licenses under Rhode Island's new medical-marijuana law and were cultivating crops, according to O'Neill. Their crops were consolidated illegally, the police allege, and the issue is how many plants and seedlings Salvato had. The neighbor has not been charged.
"When you're talking about the medical-marijuana law, math is very important," Healey said.
The neighbor is a state-licensed caregiver, according to O'Neill, which allows him to grow marijuana and possess plants, seedlings and loose marijuana for licensed patients. And one of his patients is Salvato, the lawyer acknowledged.
Salvato himself is both a licensed caregiver and a licensed patient, O'Neill said, apparently allowing him to have even more plants, seedlings and loose marijuana than the neighbor. Annemarie Beardsworth, a spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Department of Health, which oversees the medical-marijuana program, said the law allows the double licensing.
Neither the police, nor the attorney general's office will say how many plants, seedlings and loose marijuana were seized and for what amounts Salvato is being held responsible. Healey said those aspects remain under investigation.
O'Neill, however, said outside court that Salvato legally had 48 mature and immature plants plus a number of seedlings and denied that his client was either illegally possesseing and distributing marijuana.
Bucci scheduled a follow-up hearing for Thursday to thrash out the complexities of the medical-marijuana law and to reconsider bail.
As explained by Beardsworth, the law allows a caregiver to have an unlimited number of patients, but to grow a maximum of 24 plants, to grow "a reasonable amount of unusable marijuana, up to 12 seedlings," and to keep a maximum of 5 ounces of usable loose marijuana.
A patient may have a maximum of 12 plants, a maximum 12 seedlings and a maximum 2.5 ounces of usable loose marijuana.
The incident occurred, according to the police, on the morning of April 15, when Salvato, who lived alone in an apartment that took in the second and third floors of the house, arrived home with his girlfriend. They noticed that some items had been gathered together on the floor, as if they were to be stolen by a thief, and Salvato got his semiautomatic handgun.
He went to the third floor, called out that he had a gun and, as he related to the police, encountered Delasnueces, who wore a bandanna across his face and also carried a handgun. Salvato fired once and Delasnueces tumbled down the stairs and came to rest with his gun beneath him, according to Detective Capt. James Desmarais.
Investigators said they recovered three handguns; it is unclear who owns the third gun.
Healey said it is too early in the investigation to say whether Salvato may face a more serious charge regarding the shooting. But he said the vast majority of suspicious deaths are presented to a grand jury for consideration of an indictment.
To the police, the incident is further evidence of a flawed medical-marijuana law, which they say makes caregivers and patients targets of crime and is overly secretive.
O'Neill said his client had a gun because he lives in a bad neighborhood and because the neighbor had been the victim of a recent break-in.
"He wasn't protecting his, quote, unquote stash," O'Neill said.
gsmith@projo.com
again a step forward but we need to repeal the Prohibition on Cannabis in RI. Thank you for the kind words about my fellow RI MMJ Patient and Caregiver who was allegedly over the limits of 12 plants. The Law in RI must be respected and Mr Salvato will have his day in court. Unfortunately in RI there is a culture that is ignorant of Medical Marijuana's clinical benefits and prejudiced against marijuana period. The culture of Law enforcement has been eradication and arrest for decades so when faced with Legal Medical Marijuana and not being legal scholars nor educated about the new Hawkins Slater Law anyone who has more than "12 rooted plants" is subject to arrest and prosecution. So please when you hear of someone who is charged "over the limits" in an MMJ case do not rush to judgement based on LEO statements or police narratives. Wait until the case goes to trial and let the evidence prove this out and remember we are all innocent until proven guilty by a jury of our peers. 
