Contrasts Mark Fatal Stabbing Case

In a crowded courtroom here Friday, half the spectators gasped in dismay and half whooped with joy as a judge denied bail to a Harvard graduate student accused of fatally stabbing an 18-year-old cook.

Michael Colono died early last Saturday after an altercation with Alexander Pring-Wilson outside a pizza parlor. Dozens of Colono’s friends and relatives shouted, “Yesssss!” when Judge Severin Singleton issued his ruling.

Pring-Wilson, the son of prominent attorneys from Colorado, is accused of stabbing Colono, whose family is from Puerto Rico, to death in a street fight.

Pring-Wilson, 25, is charged with first-degree murder, which in Massachusetts carries an automatic life sentence upon conviction. Massachusetts does not have the death penalty.

More than 50 supporters of Pring-Wilson from Harvard and his home state appeared shocked and disappointed as the judge declared that though “he appears to be an extraordinary individual from an extraordinary background, someone with a future, or maybe with a future,” Pring-Wilson was a flight risk whose alleged crime was too serious to permit bail.

Pring-Wilson, a graduate of Colorado College in Colorado Springs, is pursuing a master’s degree in Russian studies at Harvard. His father is a defense lawyer and his mother is a former Colorado deputy district attorney. Both attended their son’s bail hearing Friday, as did Pring-Wilson’s stepfather.

Colono was the father of a 3-year-old daughter. He left high school to help support his parents -- his father was recently laid off from a factory job and his mother is a homemaker. Colono was on probation following a conviction two years ago for selling crack cocaine. He also had a record of minor juvenile infractions, such as trespassing and disorderly conduct.

According to accounts presented in court Friday, Pring-Wilson had been drinking before he set out for home about 1:45 a.m. last Saturday.

It was raining heavily and Pring-Wilson was wearing a yellow rain poncho and flip-flops. He had been socializing at a Cambridge bar with two female friends.

Colono was sitting in a car with his cousin and a female friend, waiting to pick up a pizza.

“Will you look at that guy staggering up the street?” prosecutor Adrienne Lynch said Colono commented.

Pring-Wilson, talking by cell phone with his girlfriend in Colorado as he walked, allegedly overheard the remark and approached the vehicle where Colono was sitting in the backseat.

An autopsy showed that in the ensuing fight, Colono received five stab wounds. The fatal knife thrust penetrated the right ventricle of his heart.

Colono at first did not recognize the extent of his injuries. He got back in the car, pulled up his shirt and saw blood. His cousin started driving to the hospital but became lost in the heavy downpour. The cousin flagged down a passing motorist, who called an ambulance. Colono was pronounced dead at a Boston hospital.

Prosecutors said Pring-Wilson called 911 to report witnessing a dispute in which “perhaps someone was stabbed.” Arriving home, he left a voice message for one of the women he had spent the evening with, saying he had been attacked but had “fended off” his assailants.

“Had a swell time tonight,” prosecutors said he added.

He told police yet another version of the events the following day, prosecutors charge.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Denner said Pring-Wilson was a woodworker who habitually carried a knife with him. Denner said Pring-Wilson’s two sisters carry knives as well.

“I don’t know if it’s a Colorado thing, or what,” the lawyer said.

Denner contends his client “reacted instinctively, thinking that his life was in danger.” He said Pring-Wilson received numerous blows to the head and used his knife in self-defense.

“He was not intending to stab anyone,” Denner insisted.

Handcuffed, and wearing a cream-colored linen suit, Pring-Wilson heard his lawyer recount his academic and athletic achievements. Denner noted that Pring-Wilson had no police record.

He pointed out that Harvard has made special accommodations to allow Pring-Wilson to complete his master’s thesis at home, should he be released on bail. He said Pring-Wilson has been admitted to several law schools for the fall.

Denner also made reference to a phone book-sized motion he filed Friday that included testimonials about Pring-Wilson from colleagues at Harvard and friends in Colorado.

“We are not suggesting that someone who is at Harvard or who is smart or who comes from a good family in Colorado deserves any extra treatment,” he said. “We are not suggesting smart people can’t do stupid things.”

But, Denner said, “he’s a decent, decent man. What this case is not about is class or race or anything like that. It is about decency.”

But supporters of the dead teenager were unimpressed.

“The lawyer did use the word ‘Harvard’ a lot of times,” said Carol Miranda, who grew up near Colono in the Central Square area of Cambridge.

Miranda said she was offended that in his police statement, Pring-Wilson allegedly called Colono and his cousin “the dudes,” a derogatory term with racial implications, Miranda said.

“He could have said ‘the gentlemen that he encountered,’ ” she said. “I am not calling him ‘the Harvard thug.’ He goes there, big deal.”

A Harvard spokesman said Friday that he could not recall another case of a student being charged with the murder of a local resident.

Denner will appeal the bail ruling on April 28.