CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Although Harvard grad student Alexander Pring-Wilson says a vicious attack prompted him to stab a local teenager, a detective testified Thursday that he saw no visible injuries on the defendant's body, other than a welt over his left eye, the morning after.

"Were you present when he had to take his shirt off?" Assistant State Attorney Adrienne Lynch asked Cambridge detective John Fulkerson.

"Yes," he said.

"And did you see any cuts, bruises or injuries?"

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"No, none."

Prosecutors argue that Pring-Wilson stabbed 18-year-old Michael Colono five times in a drunken street brawl at about 1:45 a.m. on April 12, 2003, because the teen laughed at him.

Pring-Wilson claims he did not know he was being laughed at, but that he approached the car that Colono and his two friends were sitting in because he thought they had hailed him. He says he was brutally attacked and then stabbed the teen in self-defense.

But he initially gave police false statements about his involvement in the stabbing. After Colono and his friends drove off, Pring-Wilson called 911 and claimed he was an innocent bystander who had just witnessed a stabbing.

According to Fulkerson, when the defendant was brought to the police station the next morning and learned that Colono had died at 3:15 a.m., "he said he was sorry" and asked to make a few phone calls. 

Pring-Wilson, 26, faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.

A killer headache

Jennifer Hanson, a former girlfriend of the murder defendant, wept on the stand during cross-examination when viewing a blown-up photo of his face with a red and swollen bump over his left eye.

Hanson was one of two women with whom Pring-Wilson spent the evening dancing and bar- hopping before his confrontation with Colono.

Jurors read a transcript and listened to a brief voice mail the defendant left on Hanson's cellphone at about 2:41 a.m.

"Hey, Jen, how's it going?" the slightly bewildered voice began. "I just got attacked by a group. I fended them off. I stabbed a guy a couple of times. Don't repeat this to police. I've got a f--king killer headache."

Some jurors finished reading the transcript and gave the defendant hard stares, while other appeared to give him looks of concern.

Hanson testified that she did not recognize his voice at first when she listened to the message the next morning at about 10 a.m.  "That voice was incomprehensible at times. His cadence is different. That is not the way he talks."

The next two messages on her phone were from Cambridge police, who wanted to ask her questions, and Pring-Wilson's roommate, who wanted to know what had happened the night before.

According to Hanson, the defendant was a "toolsy-type person," who always carried a knife with him and would use it to scrape wallpaper, build bookshelves, or help people change tires.

She said that evening that Pring-Wilson consumed two whiskey and sodas at a diner. He then purchased a small flask of Jim Beam at a liquor store, which he poured into his Diet Cokes and shared with her at the next two bars they visited.

The two women left in a cab at about 1:30 a.m., and the defendant decided to walk home. Hanson said she didn't think he was drunk when they said good-bye.

Intoxication or concussion?

Jurors also heard from law enforcement officials who responded to the 911 call Pring-Wilson made at about 1:52 a.m., in which he claimed he witnessed a stabbing.

Cambridge police officers Donald Mahoney and Robert Leary were the first to respond to the scene.

Mahoney testified that when they arrived, Pring-Wilson was holding his forehead and indicating that the victim had run off in the direction of the Charles River.

Mahoney spoke to Pring-Wilson for about a minute — from 5 to 10 feet away while inside his cruiser — before the officers left to search for Colono.

"He appeared to be fine," Mahoney testified. "He did not appear to be intoxicated."

Officer Leary echoed his partner's observations.

"He appeared to be fine. I didn't think he was intoxicated, I thought he was just normal," Leary testified.

Cambridge fire captain Stephen Boyle also questioned the defendant. "It appeared to me that he at least had a couple of drinks," Boyle testified.

Boyle called the defendant's speech "garbled at times" and observed him rubbing a "quarter-size" bump on his forehead, which is consistent with testimony from Colono's cousin, Samuel Rodriguez, who said he punched Pring-Wilson to try to get him off Colono.

Boyle told jurors Pring-Wilson pointed in two directions where the victim may have run off on foot that night. He also denied needing medical treatment.

During cross-examination, however, Boyle admitted that Pring-Wilson's garbled speech, confusion and the welt on his head may have been consistent with concussion symptoms.

Boyle conceded that he did not ask the defendant if he had a headache or was nauseous, and that at times he wasn't sure Pring-Wilson understood his questions.

Alexander Pring-Wilson's first-degree murder trial, expected to last another two weeks, is being broadcast on Court TV.