House Arrest Penalty Eased for Pring-Wilson

Former Harvard graduate student Alexander Pring-Wilson will soon be allowed to leave the confines of his home between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. as he awaits a new trial on manslaughter charges, Middlesex Superior Court Judge Regina L. Quinlan said yesterday.

Pring-Wilson fatally stabbed Cambridge teen Michael D. Colono following a fight outside a pizza parlor in April 2003. A jury convicted Pring-Wilson of voluntary manslaughter last October, and Quinlan sentenced him up to eight years in prison.

At the initial trial, Quinlan barred defense lawyers from introducing evidence suggesting that Colono had a history of violence.

But Massachusetts’ highest court ruled this past March that judges can allow juries to consider evidence of a homicide or assault victim’s violent past—even if the defendant in the case wasn’t aware of the victim’s history at the time of the crime.

That ruling prompted Quinlan to order a retrial in the Pring-Wilson case this past June.

Since then, Pring-Wilson has been confined to the interior of his Massachusetts home.

His attorney, E. Peter Parker, asked the judge yesterday to allow Pring-Wilson to leave his home to shop for groceries and look for employment.

The judge said at the end of the hearing that she would issue an order today modifying the conditions of Pring-Wilson’s confinement so that the defendant can look for work outside his home.

But Pring-Wilson would need to inform his probation officer of his whereabouts, the judge said.

Pring-Wilson lives with his longtime girlfriend Janice Olmstead, who recently moved from Colorado to Massachusetts and now teaches in a public school here, according to Parker. As a result, Pring-Wilson now has “some ties to Massachusetts”—reducing the risk that he will attempt to flee the state, Parker said.

Parker also argued that a backlog in the compilation of court transcripts will hinder the progress of the Pring-Wilson retrial.

As Parker presented his argument, Quinlan halted the proceedings, noting that there was no stenographer in the courtroom. As a result, she ordered Parker to start his speech all over again after a stenographer arrived.

Parker said that the $400,000 cash bail that Pring-Wilson’s family posted in July should be sufficient to keep his client from fleeing the state.

“Contrary to popular belief, his family is not made of money,” Parker said.

But the Middlesex County assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, Adrienne C. Lynch, urged the judge to maintain Pring-Wilson’s current conditions of confinement.

“Mr. Pring-Wilson, having had a taste of what state prison is all about, has as much incentive if not more now to flee,” Lynch said.

Pring-Wilson has complied with all the conditions of his house arrest, probation officer William F. Gosmon told the judge yesterday. But Gosmon added that Pring-Wilson’s current home is just 200 yards away from an airport.

After the judge asked whether Pring-Wilson could be fitted with a global positioning device, Gosmon told the judge that the state only uses those devices to track convicted sex offenders, and that individuals facing other criminal charges usually receive electronic ankle bracelets.

The judge said she would investigate whether a global positioning device could be provided for Pring-Wilson.

A spokeswoman for the Middlesex Country district attorney’s office, Melissa Sherman, said that “it’s not appropriate for us to comment at this point,” noting that the judge has not yet issued an official ruling on Pring-Wilson’s confinement.

As Pring-Wilson left the courtroom, he stuffed a paperback book by detective novelist Rex Stout into his the pocket of his green suit, and he wore a smile on his face.

“We’re thrilled,” his lawyer said after the hearing.

—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.