Puopolo Jurors Acquit Two; Easterling's Charge Reduced

The jury in the Puopolo murder retrial last Wednesday acquitted two of the three defendants and convicted the third of manslaughter. The three were charged with first-degree murder for the fatal stabbing of Andrew P. Puopolo '77 in Boston's Combat Zone three years ago.

Leon J. Easterling, who testified that he stabbed Puopolo during a brawl between Harvard football players and the three defendants, was convicted of manslaughter; but the jury found him not guilty of assault and battery with a deadly weapon in the stabbing of Thomas J. Lincoln '77, another football player.

Judge James P. McGuire will sentence Easterling on December 5. The maximum penalty for manslaughter is 20 years.

Easterling and his two co-defendants, Richard S. Allen and Edward J. Soares, were found guilty of murdering Puopolo in March 1977, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court granted them a retrial earlier this year. The court found that the prosecution in the first trial had systematically eliminated blacks from the jury. Easterling, Soares and Allen are black.

Norman S. Zalkind, Easterling's lawyer, said yesterday, "I consider this a victory, not a complete victory, but a victory nonetheless," adding "of course, he [Easterling] was seeking an acquittal."

The attorney said he will appeal Easterling's conviction on the basis of "legal problems with [McGuire's] instructions to the jury."

Throughout the trial, Thomas J. Mundy Jr., Suffolk County assistant district attorney, argued that the three defendants attacked the Harvard students on November 16, 1976, as part of a plan to help prostitutes rob pedestrians.

In the Zone

The football players were in the Zone for a traditional end-of-season celebration. Several of them testified that two prostitutes attempted to pick their pockets.

After the team members discovered the theft of Charles Kaye '78's wallet, several players chased the prostitutes and fought with Easterling, Allen and Soares in separate scuffles.

The fighting ended when Easterling stabbed Puopolo in an alley off Boylston Street. Puopolo died a month later in Tufts-New England Medical Center.

Defense attorneys repeatedly said their clients acted independently and without premeditation in defending each other and the women.