Rhode Island man rapes girlfriend for smoking last cigarette; convicted

Providence: A Rhode Island man has been convicted of repeatedly raping his then-girlfriend after he became angry that she smoked their last cigarette.

The Providence Journal reported the attorney general’s office as saying a Superior Court jury convicted 36-year-old Leopoldo Belen of Woonsocket of four counts of first-degree sexual assault for the April 2014 attack.

Prosecutors said Belen violently assaulted the then-21-year-old woman, who fled the Woonsocket apartment wearing only a bed sheet. A neighbour called 911.

Belen is accused in a separate case of beating 78-year-old Delor Cabral to death during a home invasion in 2013. Authorities have said that Cabral, a landlord, was trying to defend one of his tenants from being robbed.

Belen has pleaded not guilty to 13 charges. His lawyer didn’t immediately comment.