Bristol man sentenced for smothering grandmother, pawning valuables for heroin money

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A man who was convicted last week of killing his grandmother to rob her for money to buy heroin was sentenced on Tuesday.

Raymond Paiva, 30, was sentenced to at least 60 years in prison in Providence Superior Court.

“To take the life of probably one of the last people that was in his corner, that’s a special kind of evil, your honor, which is fully deserving of this sentence,” said a prosecutor.

Family members and loved ones of Eudora Gustafson shed tears in court, as they still tried to process their loss.

Raymond Paiva is sentenced to prison for the murder of his grandmother in Providence Superior Court, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. (WLNE)

The Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office said Paiva pleaded guilty to murder and other charges in the killing of Gustafson.

Paiva and his then-girlfriend, co-defendant Selena Martinez, were living with his grandparents at their home on Sowams Drive at the time of Gustafson’s death on Feb. 10, 2017.

Prosecutors said Paiva waited until his grandfather went to work to attack Gustafson by smothering her with a pillow.

Paiva then covered her head with a trash bag before stealing her car keys, jewelry, more jewelry from a bedroom safe, half-dollar coins, and her checkbook.

Raymond Paiva is sentenced to prison for the murder of his grandmother in Providence Superior Court, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. (WLNE)

Prosecutors said Paiva then rushed from the house in her car to pawn the valuables at a shop in North Providence and buy heroin in Providence. He also unsuccessfully tried to use her checkbook at a nearby bank.

Paiva was later arrested in Providence.

Prosecutors said the DNA evidence at the murder scene matched Paiva’s.

Paiva’s grandfather found Gustafson, and at first thought she was sleeping with a pillow over her head.

Her official cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation.