Providence Man Gets 38 Years In Prison For Role In 2013 Murder

PROVIDENCE, RI — A second man was sentenced in the 2013 Providence murder of Delor “Dean” Cabral, the Rhode Island Attorney General announced.

Joel Valdez pled guilty in 2015 to charges of second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit robbery and multiple counts of breaking and entering, larceny and conspiracy stemming from several additional cases. He was sentenced to 28 years in state prison on Monday.

Valdez, who has been incarcerated in the state since 2013, was given a 22-year suspended sentence in addition to the 28 years, as well as 50 years of probation.

According to the Attorney General, during the early morning on Oct. 5, 2013, Valdez and Leopoldo Belen broke into the third-floor apartment of a home on Ontario Street. During the breaking and entering, both of the defendants assaulted an occupant in the apartment.

During the assault, Cabral, the owner of the apartment, rushed upstairs to investigate the disturbance. As he entered the apartment, Leopoldo Belen threw Cabral to the floor and stomped on him, the AG said. The defendants then fled from the apartment.

The assault caused significant trauma to the head and neck of Cabral, who died from those injuries on Nov. 2, 2013.

“The impact of the loss of Mr. Cabral to a senseless display of violence is as powerful today as it was in 2013,” said Attorney General Peter Neronha.

“It is my hope that the significant sentence handed down by the court, and the life sentence given to a co-defendant earlier this year, will bring some measure of closure and a belief that justice has been achieved to Mr. Cabral’s family and loved ones.

Belen was sentenced to life in prison earlier this summer.