Two victims?

While acknowledging that Colono's life was tragically cut short, Pring-Wilson's family claims that their son is also a victim in this disturbing case.

"I know my son really well, and he's not an aggressive person," Pring-Wilson's mother, Cynthia Pring, told reporters at her son's April 14, 2003, arraignment. "I feel like my son was the victim in this case, but to the young man who died and his family, my heart goes out to them."

Pring-Wilson's original defense team (his current attorney, E. Peter Parker, did not return calls for comment) claimed that the honors student never opened the car door, but instead was attacked and had no other choice but to use deadly force to protect himself.

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"Alexander defended himself. He did not instigate this, he did not pursue it, but in fact he was the victim in this case," defense attorney Jeffrey Denner said at Pring-Wilson's arraignment. "This is a 25-year-old Harvard student who has accomplished a lot."

Pring-Wilson, now 26, was just shy of earning a master's degree in Russian and Slavic studies from Harvard. At a bond hearing, Denner presented the judge with acceptance letters from nine law schools, and a stack of recommendation letters. His mother is a former prosecutor in Colorado and his father is a criminal defense attorney.

Colono's family members, who filled the courtroom 20-deep during pretrial hearings, resent the implication that Pring-Wilson's socioeconomic background indicates innocence.

Colono's brother, Marcos, told reporters that the honor student who stabbed his baby brother was "nothing but a Harvard thug."

"Everyone's talking about Harvard and all of his accomplishments," the victim's brother, Marcos Colono, told reporters after the arraignment. "It's irrelevant because human nature will tell you smart people still do stupid things. He was walking around drunk, carrying a knife. He should have used better judgment. He didn't. He committed murder and he needs to pay for what he's done."

Colono, the father of a 3-year-old daughter and a cook at Cambridge restaurant Tavern on the Charles, was a high-school dropout who earned his GED and was trying to get his life on track after a conviction in 2001 for selling crack cocaine, say family members interviewed by the Boston Herald.

The youngest of five children in a Puerto Rican family, Colono still lived with his mother, but was reportedly hoping to build a future with his long-time girlfriend and mother of his child.

'Had a swell time tonight'

Pring-Wilson's self-defense theory rests on the assumption that it would have been impossible for him to retreat and that he was in imminent fear for his life.

Prosecutors will likely introduce several taped phone calls the defendant made in the hours after the fatal tussle, which may counter his self-defense assertion.

At exactly 1:52 a.m., seven minutes after the initial confrontation, Pring-Wilson called 911 to report a stabbing incident.

"I just saw it happen," the defendant told the dispatcher, according to court documents. "Some guy came out of a car in a f---ing black jacket, stabbed this other guy, so the guy just screamed, 'I've been stabbed,' and that was that."

Police arrived on the scene to find the defendant visibly drunk, but suffering from only a single welt on his forehead the "size of a quarter."

He reportedly gave police two different directions that he thought the victim may have left on foot and claimed he was an innocent bystander who tried to break up the altercation.

At 2:41 a.m., less than an hour after he stabbed Colono, the defendant left a voicemail message for Jennifer Hansen, one of the two women he went out with that evening.

"Hey, Jen. How's it going? I just, um, I got attacked. I just got attacked by a group. I fended them off." Pring-Wilson said on the recorded message. "I stabbed him a couple times and, don't repeat this to police, um, but yeah, I've got a f---ing killer headache. I just walked a couple of miles home. I think I've got a concussion. Anyway, I had a swell time tonight. I hope you guys made it home. Okay, bye-bye."

The next morning, Pring-Wilson was questioned by detectives. He initially told them he was trying to be "a big guy" and help out when he witnessed a scuffle between two other men.

He claimed he "got popped" in the head and that one of his attackers pulled out a knife so he walked away.

Prosecutors say Pring-Wilson opened the door of the Chevy and challenged the victim to a fight. The defendant says he was attacked by the men in the car.

But police found a blood-stained knife in the defendant's apartment, and the two women with Pring-Wilson at the bar claimed they saw him take the same knife out of his pocket that evening.

Earlier this year, Denner filed unsuccessful motions to suppress Pring-Wilson's initial false statements, claiming they were a result of the mental and physical trauma his client suffered. Denner withdrew from the case in June, citing irreconcilable differences and a "breakdown in communication" with the defendant.

Pring-Wilson was released in May 2003 on $400,000 bail. He has been under house arrest since then — his movements monitored by an electronic bracelet — and is allowed to travel only to court, to his attorney's office and to receive medical care.

He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of the first-degree murder of Michael Colono.