Suspect faces murder charge after allegedly beating, choking elderly man

By RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — A 71-year-old man beaten and choked in the course of a robbery at home Sunday has died from his injuries, and now the man accused in the crime will face a charge of murder, state prosecutors say.

Santiago Pena, 54, of Providence, will be brought into District Court Monday from the ACI, where he is currently held on a charge of robbery, said Michael Healey, spokesman for the attorney general. The charge will be upgraded to murder in court, Healey said.
Police said Ivon O. Dufresne was found dead in his first-floor apartment at 63 Rutland St. Tuesday, the day after he had been released from Landmark Medical Center.
“The medical examiner has determined the death of Mr. Dufresne to be a homicide resulting from strangulation and blunt force injury to the head and neck,” said Healey. “We will upgrade the charge to murder and we’ve asked the personnel at the ACI to bring the defendant into District Court on Monday when we expect to arraign him.”
Dufresne was bleeding profusely from a number of cuts on his head when police encountered him in his apartment after the robbery, and at one point he was photographed by police sitting up in a chair at headquarters, apparently quite alert, though in obvious pain. He was later taken to Landmark Medical Center and held as a patient until sometime on Monday, when he was discharged and went home, police say.
Dufresne told police he was attacked shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday, just after he finished receiving oral sex from a prostitute he paid from time to time to visit him at home. Dufresne said he recognized the intruder as a regular companion of the woman, but he did not know his name. He told police the man entered his home and began punching him about the head repeatedly before stealing $50 from his wallet and ripping two gold chains off his neck.
The woman and Pena — her boyfriend, police say — allegedly fled the house together. No charges were brought against the woman because she denied knowing Pena had any intention of robbing Dufresne, according to police. Healey said all of the evidence would be reexamined in light of Dufresne’s death, however.
“The case remains under investigation,” he said.
Police captured Pena at the apartment of the alleged prostitute in the Morin Heights Boulevard family housing development about three hours after the attack, according to police reports. Police discovered broken pieces of two gold chains in the apartment that matched remnants from Dufresne’s home, as well as a gray hoodie similar to what the victim said the attacker was wearing.
The woman told police Pena had used the stolen cash to buy crack cocaine, which they had just finished smoking before the police arrived.
Following his arrest, Pena was arraigned on a single count of robbery and ordered held without bail pending a review hearing in District Court on Nov. 17.
Dufresne’s slaying was the third homicide of the year in the city and the second in as many weeks. Robert Jones, 22, was shot to death in his apartment at 425 Diamond Hill Road on Oct. 26 in what police have characterized as a drug-related killing. The police have charged David A. Montero, 19, of Cottage Street, in connection with the latter slaying.
Brandon Smith, 17, was shot to death in another killing police suspect was drug-related in June. That homicide remains unsolved.