By Lisa Sweetingham Court TV
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. A mixture of DNA was found on the bloodstained knife that a Harvard grad student used to stab a teenager to death last year, an expert testified Thursday. DNA analyst Kellie Bogosian said that the major profile belonged to the victim, 18-year-old Michael Colono, and the minor DNA profile belonged to Alexander Pring-Wilson, 26, who is charged with first-degree murder for stabbing Colono five times, once in the heart, during a street fight in the early-morning hours of April 12, 2003. Bogosian testified that stains on the front right shoulder area of the yellow raincoat Pring-Wilson was wearing that night also contained a mixture of DNA from both men. She stated that it was possible for the DNA to come from blood, perspiration and other biological fluids. She also found unidentifiable female DNA on the back of the raincoat, which may have seemed puzzling to jurors, until the defendant's roommate, Sarah Younkin, later testified that it was her coat and she had lent it to the defendant as he was leaving to meet with friends on that rainy April night.
According to the defense, Pring-Wilson was attacked by Colono and his cousin, Samuel Rodriguez, as he walked past their car some time after 1:45 a.m. He claims he used his Spyderco military knife in self-defense. Harjeet Singh, the manager of a take-out pizzeria near where the car was parked, told jurors Thursday that he remembered Rodriguez coming in to order a large cheese pizza, wings and breadsticks at about 1:40 a.m. Singh said he did not see or hear the fight. Rodriguez testified last week that Pring-Wilson walked up to the car after hearing them laugh at a joke Colono made about the defendant being drunk. He said that Pring-Wilson challenged Colono to a fight, physically opened the rear driver's side door where Colono was sitting, and stabbed the unarmed teen moments later on the street. However, a crime scene technician testified Thursday that she could not find any prints on the driver's-side door. State police crime scene services trooper Laurie Covino said she did find a palm impression on the lower right-hand corner of the passenger-side rear window, but it wasn't clear enough to get an accurate reading. Covino said that exposure to rain could have an effect on the ability to recover print evidence. The trooper also took the defendant's fingerprints at the police station the same morning and said that he appeared "hung over but lucid." Witnesses have testified that both Pring-Wilson and Colono were drinking that evening. Covino took photographs of the cans of Rolling Rock beer in the backseat of the Chevy, and a toxicologist testified Thursday that a "basic analysis" of Colono's blood, submitted by the Boston hospital where he died at approximately 3:15 a.m., revealed a blood-alcohol level of .082. Pring-Wilson's two roommates, Younkin and Zachary Daniels, also testified Thursday that they witnessed the defendant having a cocktail at home before he met friends sometime after 9:30 p.m. to go bar-hopping. Pring-Wilson's two female friends, who accompanied him that evening, testified last week that the defendant had several more drinks at the three bars they visited before parting ways at about 1:30 a.m. Pring-Wilson's blood-alcohol level was not taken when he was arrested the next morning at about 8:30 a.m. He faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder. Last witnesses Michael Colono's sister, Wanda Rivera, his girlfriend, Cindy Guzman, and his mother, Ada Colono, each briefly took the stand on Thursday afternoon, rounding out the state's last 30 minutes of their case before they rested at 2:35 p.m. Guzman was relaxed and soft-spoken, her long dark hair pulled back into a ponytail, as she gave short answers to questions. Guzman said the couple met when both were 10 years old and began dating at age 14. In their freshman year of high school, Guzman became pregnant with their daughter, Leah Jady, now 4. They dated on and off in the years after their daughter was born. On the night Colono was stabbed, Guzman could hear the police sirens from her apartment and thought about walking down the street to find out what was happening, but never did. She said she had broken up with Colono on Friday, April 11 and canceled their plans to see each other that evening. Guzman said she felt at the time that they needed space, but told him "that I still loved him and wanted a friendship and family with him." During cross-examination, defense attorney Ann Kaufman questioned her about a conversation she had with Samuel Rodriguez, in a move to bolster the defense claim that Pring-Wilson was attacked by both men before he pulled out his knife. "Sammy told you he was driving that night?" Kaufman asked. "Yes," Guzman said. Rodriguez and his girlfriend, Giselle Abreu, have both testified that Abreu was driving, and that Rodriguez had trouble coming to his cousin's aid because the passenger door handle was broken. Abreu said she had to turn the car on and lower Rodriguez's power window so he could open his door from the outside handle. If Rodriguez had been in the driver's seat when Pring-Wilson approached, as the defense claims, it would have been easier for him to get out of the car. Ada Colono, the 41st and final witness in the state's case, spoke through a Spanish interpreter, who stood by her side at the stand. Colono, the mother of five children, said she drove her youngest son to his job as a cook at Charles on the Tavern restaurant on Friday, where he worked the 5 to 11 p.m. shift, before coming home and eventually being picked up by his friends to go for a pizza. Motion to dismiss At the end of the day Thursday, the defense filed a motion to find the defendant not guilty of the charge of first-degree murder, arguing that the state did not provide sufficient evidence to support that Pring-Wilson had acted with "deliberately premeditated malice, aforethought, or with extreme atrocity or cruelty" per Massachusetts law. Lynch argued that there was no evidence to support that Pring-Wilson acted in self-defense, noting his "lack of visible injury" as testified to by physicians and law enforcement witnesses. Lynch stated that the defendant walked back to the car because "he knew he could basically sucker Michael Colono into a fight and he had a weapon available to him that he could use." The nature of weapon and the location of Colono's wounds, Lynch said, "demonstrated a conscious and fixed purpose to kill." Associate Justice of the Superior Court Regina Quinlan will render her decision Friday morning. If she rules in favor of the state, the defense will likely present their case well into next week. Alexander Pring-Wilson faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted. Court TV is broadcasting the trial live. |