A second murder trial brings guilty verdict

Five months after his first murder trial ended in a mistrial, 26-year-old Kevin Sanders was convicted yesterday of fatally pumping three bullets into a man in Lower Roxbury before the victim's horrified girlfriend.

On its fourth day of deliberations, a Suffolk County jury found Sanders guilty of second-degree murder in the September 2002 slaying of Alexander Smith, 26, who was shot at close range at the Madison Park Village housing development after the men had argued. His first trial, in July, ended with a hung jury.

However, Sanders's lawyer, Michael C. Bourbeau, promptly said Superior Court Judge Stephen E. Neel should have granted his repeated motions for a mistrial on the grounds that the jury stopped deliberating for a week because of the Christmas holiday. Even the prosecutor on this case and others interviewed could not recall such a long interruption in deliberations.

Neel had ordered the jury to avoid news reports during the break and not discuss the case with anyone. But Bourbeau said jurors could not help but be exposed to a flood of news stories about this year's surge in murders in Boston, including an attack Wednesday night on Lenox Street that left one man dead and three wounded.

''To take people away from deliberations and put them back into the community during the holiday season when there's a great deal of violence going on . . . causes the jury to be influenced by outside factors," said Bourbeau.

The judge could have avoided that, he said, by appointing an alternate juror to fill a vacancy created by a deliberating juror's holiday travels. The jury could have then resumed deliberations Tuesday instead of yesterday. The interruption will undoubtedly be cited when the verdict is appealed, as murder convictions automatically are, Bourbeau said.

However, David Procopio, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, called Bourbeau's criticism ridiculous. He said Neel was meticulous about questioning jurors at the start of each day to make sure nothing tainted deliberations.

If deliberations had resumed Tuesday with an alternate, Procopio added, the jury would have been required to start all over, which might have prolonged the trial. ''We think this jury weighed the evidence very carefully and that the judge ensured that no external influences -- either other crimes or media coverage -- played a factor in anybody's thinking," he said.

After the jury foreman announced the verdict, Sanders, who had faced a possible conviction for first-degree murder, smiled at several grim-faced family members seated in the front row, as well as at his two lawyers flanking him.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday. The conviction carries a mandatory term of life in prison. Unlike a conviction for first-degree murder, however, he will be eligible for parole in 15 years, Bourbeau said.

A man who identified himself only as Sanders's brother said he was pleased that Kevin Sanders had not been convicted of first-degree murder but that family members had hoped for acquittal.

''It's kind of a sad day for us," he said, declining to comment further.

Sanders's mother, Nadine Sanders, also faces charges stemming from the case. A Suffolk grand jury indicted her three years ago on charges of perjury, suborning perjury, and witness intimidation for allegedly lying to the jury investigating the shooting, and for trying to prevent other witnesses from testifying. No trial date has been set.

Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Edmond J. Zabin, who prosecuted Kevin Sanders, contended at both trials that Sanders shot and killed Smith after an argument outside Smith's girlfriend's home. The cause of the argument was unclear, but the girlfriend said she witnessed it.

At Sanders's arraignment three years ago, Zabin said Smith suffered wounds to the head, leg, and chest after he was struck by three of seven rounds fired from a semiautomatic handgun. Smith was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.

Several witnesses who said they knew Sanders and the victim told police that they saw the men in a heated argument before the shooting, which occurred around the corner from Sanders's mother's home on Shawmut Avenue.

Sanders left the scene of the argument in a car, then returned a few minutes later, Zabin said, began arguing again with Smith and opened fire, even shooting after Smith was on the ground.

But Bourbeau, who defended Sanders at both trials, said his client testified at the first trial that he got into an argument with Smith at the scene but left and never returned.

Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com