Greenberg gets max in boating death

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Ryan Greenberg, the Barrington teenager who pleaded no contest in a deadly boating accident on the Barrington River, was sentenced Wednesday afternoon to a 10-year sentence.

The judge ordered Greenberg to serve five of those years, half at the Adult Correctional Institutions and the other half on home confinement. He will get credit for the time he served on a bail violation. Greenberg, who is currently on home confinement, is scheduled to report to the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston Monday.

Greenberg, who pleaded no contest in May to charges of reckless boating, resulting in the death of Patrick Murphy, apologized in court Wednesday. The teens were boating on the Barrington River in July 2007 when Greenberg drove his speedboat into Murphy, who was in the water kneeboarding. Murphy was killed.

One of the first people to testify Wednesday morning during the sentencing hearing was the victim's father, John Murphy. He said while Greenberg faces a five year sentence at most, his son received a death sentence at the hands of Ryan Greenberg.

"If the world's worst serial killer was sentenced to die by the propeller of a boat, well-meaning people everywhere would weep and protest in indignation at this cruel and inhumane punishment," Murphy said. "Yet, this is the death Patrick endured at the hands of this defendant."

Defense lawyers want the judge to sentence Greenberg to home confinement, saying their client merely lost sight of Murphy after pushing the boat's throttle down.

However, prosecutors, who have said Murphy's death was no accident, want the maximum sentence of five years in prison. During the hearing they questioned why, if Murphy and Greenberg were as good friends as Greenberg has claimed, why didn't he tell authorities about the deadly crash until long after it happened.

“Today is about Patrick Murphy, his family’s chance to convey to the court how much his needless death torments them and a defendant finally being held accountable for having demonstrated a total disregard for the consequences of his actions, which led to Patrick’s death two years ago," said Attorney General Patrick Lynch in a statement released Wednesday afternoon.