Suspect in slaying got plea deal

The man police believe fired the shot that killed 22-year-old Chiara Levin could have been behind bars on gun and drug charges the night of her death, but was on the streets because of a plea agreement he struck with prosecutors in 2005, court records show.

Casimiro Barros , 20, of Roxbury pleaded not guilty yesterday and was ordered held without bail on murder charges, along with 33-year-old Manuel Andrade of Dorchester.

Prosecutors said the two men tried to kill each other March 24, but instead shot Levin, a Kentucky native who was visiting from New York and was hit by an errant bullet outside a party in Dorchester.

Prosecutors said Andrade and Barros began fighting inside the house, then started shooting at each other outside, where Levin sat in Andrade's car . Police are investigating who fired the shot that hit Levin in the head, but Assistant District Attorney Edmond Zabin said yesterday it appears it was Barros.

In August 2004 , Barros was a passenger in a car pulled over by police who found two handguns and crack cocaine, according to the court records. He was charged with unlawful possession of guns and ammunition and drug charges.

Because of assault convictions as a juvenile in 2001 and 2002, prosecutors charged Barros as an armed career criminal, which can lead to longer sentences.

Had he been convicted of the gun and drug charges, he would have been sentenced to a minimum of three years.

Instead, in October 2005 prosecutors agreed to sentence Barros to one year in prison and subtract 215 days that he had spent in jail awaiting trial. In exchange, he pleaded guilty to the gun charges, court records said.

Jake Wark , spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney's office, said yesterday that prosecutors agreed to the plea bargain because they did not believe they had enough evidence for a conviction.

"As in every case, we had to weigh the seriousness of the allegations against our ability to prove them in court," he said. "In this particular instance, there were serious concerns about our ability to prove all the indicted charges and so with this defendant's admission of guilt . . . we were able to obtain committed time and a significant probationary period."

Jonathan Schwab , a cousin of Levin's who was visiting her sister and father in Kentucky yesterday, said he did not wish to dwell on the possibility that Barros may have been incarcerated the day Levin traveled to Boston.

"We have a lot of what-ifs," he said in a telephone interview. "What if someone had told her not to go to Dorchester? What if police had been watching the area closer? There are a lot of things that could have changed."

Barros also faces gun charges from an arrest in December.

Though Zabin said he would not characterize Barros or Andrade as a gang member, police intelligence reports obtained by the Globe identified Barros as a member of Woodward Avenue, a Roxbury gang.

According to the reports, he and three other Woodward associates were pulled over in a vehicle in March 2006 because their car had several bullet holes.

Police believed the car was connected to shots fired at George and Shirley streets earlier that day, the documents said.

The next day, police questioned Barros and several other men about a .40-caliber pistol found at a porch where officers saw Barros and the men.

His connection to Andrade, a parking attendant with three children, is not clear, and officials declined to be more specific about the circumstances surrounding the March 24 fight.

Zabin told a courtroom packed with spectators, who included Levin's mother, Grazia, and an aunt, that Levin met Andrade at a bar in the Theater District where she had gone with two male friends.

Andrade invited the trio to a party at a house on Geneva Avenue, where there were at least 25 people, including Barros.

Andrade and Barros, who was with several friends, began arguing. Then, the prosecutor said, Andrade pulled out a gun and shot one of Barros's friends in the torso. He aimed the gun at Barros, but did not shoot, as other partygoers fled.

Levin was inside Andrade's car with her friends and two of Andrade's friends when Andrade ran outside, followed by Barros, who began shooting at him from the front of the house, Zabin said.

Andrade, who stood by his own car , was shot in the leg, a superficial wound, Zabin said. He fled in the car , which stopped to drop Andrade and another friend off. Levin was then taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

At yesterday's arraignment, Andrade and Barros hid behind a door and court officers.

Wark said the defendants' faces were shielded so the testimony of witnesses would not be compromised.

"There is an abundance of concern in this case for the integrity of eyewitness testimony and identification," he said. "We want to make sure the witness recognizes the suspects from the event and not from the booking photos or an arraignment photo."

Barros's lawyer declined to comment, but Andrade's lawyer, Rosemary Scapicchio , expressed outrage that prosecutors did not provide her more of the information they obtained through a grand jury investigation that led to her client's arrest.

"It's unfair," she said. "It's wrong."

Grazia Levin watched stoically during the proceeding, as relatives and friends of Andrade and Barros sat behind them.

Neither she nor relatives of the defendants spoke to reporters.

Suzanne Smalley of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.