Jurors Hear Opening Arguments in Pring-Wilson Trial

Jurors boarded a bus yesterday to trace the paths of 18-year-old Cantabrigian Michael D. Colono and former Harvard graduate student Alexander Pring-Wilson the day their lives intersected four years ago. Their encounter left Colono dead, and Pring-Wilson is now on trial again for his slaying.

The retrial’s arguments began after the court-supervised tour, called a “view opening.” It was meant to show the 15-member jury sites relevant to the retrial, which could put Pring-Wilson back in prison or clear his name.

Before they embarked on Western Avenue, Pring-Wilson’s lawyer asked the jury to remember the conditions on the early morning of April 12, 2003.

“We are going on a crisp, fall, sunny day, but the events at the heart of this case happened close to two in the morning on a dark and rainy night,” said E. Peter Parker, Pring-Wilson’s lawyer. “It is going to be hard for us to imagine what that was like.”

While on the bus, jurors were not allowed to discuss the case as locations—including the sidewalk outside Pizza Ring, where Pring-Wilson stabbed Colono five times in 70 seconds—were pointed out to them by the day’s tour guides, the lawyers for the two sides.

The case resumed after the hour-long tour with the attorneys’ opening statements, getting the highly Assistant District Attorney Adrienne C. Lynch focused on the night of the homicide, retelling the narratives of both Colono and Pring-Wilson.

She said that the altercation was a result of Pring-Wilson overreacting to taunts Colono yelled from the backseat of a Chevrolet Celebrity being driven by his cousin’s girlfriend, Giselle Abreu.

“Colono had a laugh at the expense of the defendant Alexander Pring-Wilson and it cost him his life,” she told the jury.

Parker argued in his opening statement that Colono was the aggressor and that Pring-Wilson acted in self-defense, telling a different narrative in which Colono and his cousin, Samuel Rodriguez, teamed up against Pring-Wilson.

Parker also mentioned Colono’s violent record—which includes alledgedly assaulting two people on a subway and then spitting on the police officers who arrested him. This evidence had been excluded from the first trial.

A ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts allowed the prosecution to use Colono’s criminal record, even though Colono and Pring-Wilson did not know each other before their encounter.

Throughout her statement, Lynch, made various references to the number of drinks Pring-Wilson consumed that night, including purchasing and drinking the majority of a one-pint bottle of whiskey.

But she also mentioned that Colono, who at the time was on probation, also had something to drink that night. Lynch emphatically referred to Colono as an “18-year-old unarmed teenager” several times.

Parker refused requests for comment.

Around 50 people were present for the trial yesterday, according to Corey Welford, a spokesman for the Middlesex District Attorney’s office.

—Staff writer Jamison A. Hill can be reached at jahill@fas.harvard.edu.

FOR MORE INFO:

Jury Selection for Pring-Wilson Trial Begins (Sept. 13, 2004): Jury selection begins in the trial of a Harvard graduate student charged with murdering a Cambridge teen, after more than a year of legal wrangling and setbacks for the defense.

Pring-Wilson Trial Begins (Sept. 21, 2004): Attorneys deliver opening statements in the murder trial of former Harvard graduate student Alexander Pring-Wilson.

Pring-Wilson Jury Hears 911 Tape (Sept. 23, 2004): The prosecution in the first-degree murder trial of former Harvard graduate student Alexander Pring-Wilson offers crucial evidence—a tape of the 911 telephone call placed by the defendant on the night of the alleged murder.

Pring-Wilson Takes the Stand (Oct. 06, 2004): An emotional Alexander Pring-Wilson breaks into sobs and gasps for air for nearly a full minute as he testified during his own murder trial, claiming he acted in self-defense the night he admittedly stabbed Michael D. Colono.

Pring-Wilson Found Guilty (Oct.