A jury found Karel Martinez-Scarlet guilty of first-degree murder in the Pawtucket shooting death of Keshaudas Spence.

A guilty verdict is the jury's finding on the counts it decided. It is not the sentence. Attorney General Peter Neronha's office said the panel convicted Martinez-Scarlet of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, and carrying a pistol without a license. WJAR reported the same four counts. Neither account set a sentencing date.

The Rhode Island Attorney General's office announced Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, that a jury in Providence County Superior Court found Karel Martinez-Scarlet, 31, guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, discharging a firearm while committing a crime of violence, and carrying a pistol without a license. WJAR reported the same verdict and the same four counts, citing that office. The attorney general said the trial before Superior Court Justice Robert D. Krause lasted a month. A jury's guilty findings are the judgment on those counts. The office did not announce when he will be sentenced, and WJAR reported that no sentencing date was given.

The attorney general's office said the case is the June 26, 2021 shooting of Keshaudas Spence, 29, on Winthrop Avenue in Pawtucket. After a 911 call, Pawtucket police found him in the passenger seat of a black Acura with a gunshot wound to the head. He was taken to Rhode Island Hospital and pronounced dead. The office said investigators, using witness interviews and surveillance video, determined that a group of men, including Spence and Martinez-Scarlet, arrived at a nearby apartment complex at about 2 a.m. after stops in Providence. The office said video from the complex shows Martinez-Scarlet shooting toward the Acura, then getting into a different car and leaving. WJAR reported that account from the attorney general's office. That is the prosecution's description of the evidence the jury heard.

The attorney general's office said investigators identified Martinez-Scarlet from surveillance at several Providence locations and arrested him on Aug. 6, 2021. The office said that after the arrest he admitted he had fired a gun at the scene, and that cellphone records placed his phone there at the time of the shooting. An admission described by prosecutors is evidence they say they had. The verdict is what the jury did with the case. "Keshaudas's life ended far too soon, and I hope this verdict provides his family some semblance of comfort," Attorney General Peter Neronha said, as released by his office and reported by WJAR. Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said the conviction "sends a strong message that gun violence will not be tolerated," in the same release. The office said Assistant Attorney General Timothy Healy, Special Assistant Attorney General Alyse Antone Smyth, and Detective Sergeant Craig Letourneau led the prosecution and investigation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.