Carleton Winsor returned to court 25 years after he was found guilty of conspiring to burn down an ambulance barn on Tower Hill Road July 4, 1985, reported the Providence Journal Friday, Aug. 2.
In 1988, he was sentenced to serve two years, with three years probation. Winsor appealed the conviction to the state Supreme Court, which denied the appeal in 1990. Typically, a defendant would be notified of the rejection and be called in to court for a date to start his serving his sentence, but that notice never went out, according to Craig Berke, spokesman for the courts.
Winsor, who moved to Florida, was discovered only last month, when he allegedly boasted on a return visit to Rhode Island that he'd never had to serve his sentence.
On Friday, Winsor was given 120 days to file a motion to reduce his sentence and was ordered to remain in Rhode Island. Superior Court Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg ordered him released on the same bail imposed decades ago, $25,000 surety bail with his then-wife's 31 Main St. home in North Kingstown as collateral.
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