PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The nephew of a man killed earlier this month on Federal Hill says he’s sleeping a little easier now that the suspect is in police custody.
Joel Francisco was captured at a motel in Texas more than two weeks after the murder of 46-year-old Troy Pine outside the Nara Hookah Lounge on Atwells Avenue.
“Relieved, but only for certain reasons,” Pine’s nephew Jay Chattelle said Sunday night. “I can sleep better knowing he won’t run into any of my family members on the street because, you know, Rhode Island is a small state.”
Chattelle called his uncle one of the closest people in his life.
“He was my brother, my uncle, my dad and my best friend,” Chattelle said.
Chattelle said he spoke to police down in Texas over the phone and thanked them for their work in capturing Francisco.
The Providence Police Department is now working with the US Marshals Service to extradite him back to Rhode Island to face the murder charge.
Nara reopened one week after the murder but will serve a three-week license suspension imposed by the Providence Board of Licenses.
