Ex-Harvard grad student gets bail conditions eased

CAMBRIDGE -- A former Harvard graduate student convicted of manslaughter will be allowed to leave his home while he awaits a new trial in the fatal stabbing of an 18-year-old Cambridge man, a Superior Court judge says.

Alexander Pring-Wilson, 27, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was convicted in October 2004 in the 2003 death of Michael Colono. He had served about eight months of a six- to eight-year sentence when Middlesex Superior Court Judge Regina Quinlan ordered a new trial.

Pring-Wilson was released on $400,000 cash bail in July and has been confined to his apartment 24 hours a day.

Yesterday, Pring-Wilson's lawyer, E. Peter Parker, asked Quinlan to relax the conditions of his bail by allowing him to leave his apartment for several hours a day, several times a week, so he can work and run errands such as grocery shopping.

Quinlan said she plans to allow Pring-Wilson to leave his apartment so that he can work, but will place him under a curfew at night, from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m.

The judge said she will investigate whether Pring-Wilson can wear a global positioning device that will track his movements at all times. If that cannot be arranged, the judge said, she plans to have him continue wearing his electronic monitoring bracelet.

Prosecutors opposed the move and said strict bail conditions were needed to ensure that Pring-Wilson appears at his trial.

''Mr. Pring-Wilson, having had a taste of what state prison is like, has as much incentive, if not more, now to flee than he did before," Assistant District Attorney Adrienne Lynch said.

Parker said Pring-Wilson's longtime girlfriend has moved to Massachusetts and is living with him, representing what he called a ''tie to Massachusetts" that should reassure the court he would not flee.

A probation officer told the judge that Pring-Wilson has complied with the bail conditions since he has been out of prison. He also said that Pring-Wilson lives about 200 yards from an airport. His lawyer would not say where he is living.

Quinlan said she was concerned that it could take up to a year for a decision from the state Appeals Court on the prosecution's appeal of her ruling granting Pring-Wilson a new trial, meaning he would remain confined to his apartment.