Ex-student's conviction in killing is thrown out

A state judge yesterday threw out the manslaughter conviction of former Harvard graduate student Alexander Pring-Wilson, ruling that he should have been allowed to present evidence that the man he fatally stabbed in a Cambridge street fight had a history of violence.

Middlesex Superior Court Judge Regina L. Quinlan, who presided at the high-profile trial last fall, said Pring-Wilson should get a new trial because the jury ''did not have the benefit of relevant evidence critical to the issue" of whether he was the aggressor or acted in self-defense when he killed teenage cook Michael Colono.

At the time Pring-Wilson was convicted, Massachusetts was one of only a few states that allowed defendants to present evidence of a victim's violent past -- to shed light on who probably started a fight -- only if they knew of that history before the confrontation. Pring-Wilson and Colono did not know each other before they met near a parked car outside a pizza parlor on April 12, 2003.

But in March, five months after Pring-Wilson's conviction, the Supreme Judicial Court did away with the restriction. That prompted Quinlan to revisit her decision during the trial to prevent the jury from hearing evidence that both Colono and his cousin -- Samuel E. Rodriguez, who was involved in the fight -- had histories of violence. Yesterday, she said that evidence should have been allowed.

Pring-Wilson -- who marked his 27th birthday in state prison, where he is serving a six- to eight-year sentence -- is scheduled to appear in court Monday afternoon, when his lawyer, Charles W. Rankin, plans to ask Quinlan that Pring-Wilson be freed on bail.

If there is a retrial, Pring-Wilson can only be tried on voluntary manslaughter or lesser charges because the first jury cleared him of first- and second-degree murder, Rankin and a spokesman for the district attorney said.

''We're thrilled," said Pring-Wilson's mother, Cynthia Pring, a former Colorado Springs prosecutor, who told her son about Quinlan's ruling yesterday afternoon when he happened to call her in Colorado from Bay State Correctional Center in Norfolk.

Rankin praised Quinlan's decision as ''an important step toward rectifying the grave injustice that occurred in this case." When he spoke to Pring-Wilson on the phone, Rankin said, his client said, ''Thank goodness."

Michael Colono's sister, Wanda Yvette Rivera, decried the decision. ''All I can tell you is that it's a cruel injustice," she said in a brief interview.

A spokeswoman for Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said prosecutors disagree with the decision to order a new trial and plan to fight it, either by appealing to a three-member panel of the state Court of Appeals or by asking Quinlan to reconsider her order.

''We are disappointed," said Coakley's spokeswoman, Emily J. LaGrassa. ''We know that these things can happen, and we're prepared to handle it."

She said prosecutors have made no decision on whether to oppose bail for Pring-Wilson, who was free at the time of his trial. The case inflamed tensions between the Harvard community and the working-class neighborhoods in Cambridge.

Pring-Wilson, the son of two affluent Colorado lawyers, was pursuing a master's degree in Russian and Eurasian studies. Prosecution witnesses testified that Colono, a high school dropout whose father is a factory worker and whose mother is a homemaker, had insulted him in a chance encounter on a street.

Assistant District Attorney Adrienne C. Lynch told jurors that Colono had ridiculed Pring-Wilson, who, after spending the night bar-hopping, walked by a parked car where Colono, Rodriguez, and Rodriquez's girlfriend sat waiting for a pizza order.

Fuming at the insult, Pring-Wilson opened the car door, Lynch said, and Colono came out swinging. But Pring-Wilson shoved him against a brick wall and repeatedly stabbed him, once in the heart, Lynch said.

Testifying in his own defense, Pring-Wilson said he curled up as Colono and Rodriguez, who were both unarmed, barreled out of the car, knocked him to the ground, and pummeled him. He said he only pulled out the knife because he feared being beaten to death.

In his memorandum seeking a new trial after the SJC ruling, Rankin said that about 40 witnesses were prepared to testify about the violent pasts of both Colono and Rodriguez. Because the evidence was barred, he said, the jury received an ''incomplete, misleading picture."

Jurors were not told that Colono was on probation at the time he was killed after being convicted of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine and malicious destruction of property.

Rodriguez, meanwhile, had several convictions for assault and battery and was charged with unlawfully carrying a firearm in 2001 when, according to a police report, he pulled a loaded .45-caliber gun while being chased by a police officer, according to Rankin's motion for a new trial.

The jury's forewoman said yesterday that the verdict probably would not have been different if the jury had known that history. Carol Neville said that jurors, who exchanged e-mail addresses after the verdict, took an informal poll when they heard that Quinlan was reexamining the case. Of the eight or nine who responded, all said they would have still convicted Pring-Wilson, she said.

''We based our decision on that night and on that 70-second dispute," said Neville, 45, of Boxborough, who said she believes another jury would convict Pring-Wilson. ''I hope that the legal system is working correctly, and I have faith in the legal system. We'll see what happens in the next trail. I'll be watching every moment."

At a hearing earlier this month, Lynch argued that the SJC specified that its ruling applied only to cases that had not yet gone to trial.

But Quinlan said that the question of whether the SJC ruling applied only to cases going forward was less critical than whether the ''integrity of [the] verdict is suspect" because the jury did not hear evidence that went to the heart of the case.

If prosecutors fight the order for a new trial, they will lose, predicted Andrew Good, president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Quinlan set aside Pring-Wilson's conviction under a rule of criminal procedure that gives her broad authority to ensure that justice is done, making a reversal on appeal highly unlikely, he said.

Globe correspondent Adam Jadhav contributed to this report.