Jury selection is expected to begin Tuesday in Providence in the long-delayed murder trial of an accused gang member charged with killing another man on Federal Hill back in 2019. The defendant, Joel Francisco, a former leader of the Almighty Latin Kings Nation in Rhode Island, is accused of fatally stabbing 46-year-old Troy Pine inside the Nara Hookah Lounge on Atwells Avenue on October 2, 2019.
A WPRI.com report says jury selection is expected in Providence more than seven years after the killing.
What makes the case especially fraught is the timing of Francisco's freedom at the moment of the killing. He had been released early from prison in 2019 after receiving a life sentence for a 2005 drug offense. His early release came under the bipartisan First Step Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2018, as reported by Newsweek.
A Manhunt That Ended in Texas
After the stabbing, Francisco was tracked from Rhode Island to Texas and captured at a motel in New Braunfels, where a multi-agency federal task force took him into custody, per GoLocalProv.
Newsweek reported that Francisco entered a no-contest plea in 1997 after shooting a man execution-style for disrespecting his gang affiliation.
Federal Hill's Repeated Reckoning With Nightlife Violence
The Pine killing was not an isolated moment of violence for the Atwells Avenue strip. In the aftermath, AP News reported that Nara Hookah Lounge would serve an additional suspension.
Just blocks away, another 2019 Federal Hill homicide — the fatal stabbing of Stephen Cabral in a Walgreens parking lot on Atwells Avenue — eventually led to charges against eight men, all of whom were convicted. That case culminated in May 2023 when Jaquontee Reels Felder was sentenced to 40 years, with 27 years to serve and 13 years suspended, for second-degree murder, per the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General.
Federal Hill has grappled with safety issues and nightlife-related violence, as GoLocalProv has reported.
Broader Gang Enforcement
The trial also arrives against the backdrop of ongoing federal gang enforcement in the region. In August 2026, federal prosecutors in Rhode Island announced additional charges in a gang racketeering case, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
