< Back to front page Text size – +

Guilty plea entered in 2001 Weymouth stabbing

E-mail|Link|Comments () November 10, 2009 07:51 PM

By Globe Staff

A 28-year-old man pleaded guilty to manslaughter today in the death of a man he stabbed in the neck on July 3, 2001 in Weymouth, prosecutors said.

Nicholas Cirignano was already serving a prison sentence for assault with intent to kill and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after the stabbing left Matthew Nagle, 22, a quadriplegic, unable to breathe without medical assistance, the Norfolk district attorney's office said.

Then, after Nagle died on July 23, 2007, a grand jury indicted Cirignano for second-degree murder in June 2008. Judge Kenneth Fishman later reduced that charge to manslaughter.

Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said Cirignano is still serving a 9-to-10-year sentence imposed on him in 2005. Under his guilty plea today, 10 years of probation will be added to his sentence, including drug and alcohol evaluation and treatment and a ban on ownership of weapons. If he violates his probation, he will face another 20 years in prison.

Keating said it wasn't common to bring a homicide charge when the victim lived for several years after the attack, but it was also not unprecedented.

"Our thoughts are with the Nagle family, and we are pleased that the long court process has ended in a homicide conviction of the man who stabbed their son," Keating said in a statement. "It was important that this attack be called what it was: A homicide."

Police found Nagle stabbed in the neck at about 10:30 p.m. that night after responding to a large disturbance on Caldwell Street in North Weymouth.