16-04-2025
Man who received chance for parole in 2009, in child homicide case, is rearrested in RI
A 40-year-old man who settled in Rhode Island, after spending more than two decades in jail and prison for the murder of a 10-year-old girl in Massachusetts, has returned to a cellblock.
On Monday, Pawtucket police detectives arrested Joseph Cousin after a raid led to the seizure of two handguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition as well as fentanyl and cocaine, according to Pawtucket police Detective Sgt. Dave Medeiros.
Then, on Tuesday morning, in District Court, Providence, Judge Debra Saunders ordered Cousin held without bail.
Cousin was an 18-year-old gang member in September 2002 when he was charged in the homicide of 10-year-old Trina Persad in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood.
Persad had been fatally shot in a park named after Jermaine Goffigan ‒ a 9-year-old boy who was fatally shot in the same park in 1994.
Trina was hit with the blast of a sawed-off shotgun as she left the park with her aunt and two siblings at about 7:45 p.m. on June 29, 2002.
Prosecutors would describe the shooting as part of feud between a gang known as M.I.C. and its rival Big Head Boyz, according to a Boston Globe report.
Cousin was accused of pointing a sawed-off shotgun from the back seat of a gray Honda Civic but missing the rival Big Head Boyz members he was aiming for and hitting Trina.
The jury at Cousin's first trial in 2004 acquitted the person accused of driving the getaway car, according to media reports.
That was Marquis Nelson who was involved in another homicide in North Carolina in 2007.
After Marquis' acquittal, the first case against Cousin led to a mistrial after it became clear that five jurors had lied about their criminal history.
Cousin was convicted of second-degree murder and two other related charges at his second trial in 2009. He was sentenced to life but with potential for parole and with credit for previous time served. Various Boston media outlets reported that he would not be eligible for parole for 19 years, which meant not until 2028.
Pawtucket police say Cousin left prison about two years ago after serving a term of about 21 years.
That span of time would seem to account for his time in jail prior to his 2009 sentencing and after that until about two years ago.
Cousin's arrest stemmed from an investigation into the distribution of cocaine and fentanyl in Pawtucket as well as neighboring communities, police said.
The work led to the raid of a home on North Bend Street on Monday and Cousin's arrest.
Cousin now faces charges of manufacturing, delivery and possession of fentanyl and manufacturing, delivery and possession of cocaine.
He is also charged with a slate of weapons charges including:
∎ Two counts of possession of a firearm while in possession of a controlled substance
∎ Possessing a firearm as a felon
∎ Maintaining a common nuisance
∎ Possession of a high capacity magazine
∎ Modification of a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon
∎ Alteration of firearm identification marks; and,
∎ Two counts of carrying a pistol without a permit.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Massachusetts child's killer, former inmate arrested in Pawtucket
