Suspect in Manville killing is indicted
LINCOLN — The Providence County Grand Jury on Friday afternoon reported out an indictment charging a 34-year-old resident of the Manville section of town with murder in the May 3 beating death of his friend outside of his Summer Street apartment.
Brian Fraga, 34, of 66 Summer St., Apt. J10 in Manville, is next scheduled to be arraigned on the single count of murder in Providence County Superior Court on Monday, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Fraga could also be sentenced as a violator because he was on bail for felony domestic assault at the time he allegedly murdered 43-year-old Luis “Lou Lou” Perez. It was the first homicide in Lincoln in 11 years.
Investigators have said that Perez died of blunt force trauma to the
head, which left him with a fractured skull. Police found him bleeding from the head in the parking lot behind Fraga’s Summer Street apartment building. He was transported to Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket, where he was later pronounced dead.
While Fraga was initially charged with manslaughter, state prosecutors upped the charges to murder less than a week after he was arrested. Lincoln Police Chief Brian Sullivan at the time said detectives asked state prosecutors to upgrade the charges after obtaining video evidence that indicated Fraga’s behavior may have been more aggressively violent than police initially believed.
Fraga, in the security video, is seen throwing Perez down a staircase. Sullivan in May said that police believed Perez may have been trying to avoid a physical confrontation with Fraga after an argument erupted inside the apartment.
Police have said that Fraga and Perez were often in each other’s company and were generally friendly, although they’d occasionally engage in arguments. Perez left behind a wife and three children.