Closing Arguments in Pring-Wilson Murder Trial To Begin

Jurors in the trial of former Harvard graduate student Alexander Pring-Wilson may get the chance to consider manslaughter charges in addition to more severe charges of first or second-degree murder.

Closing arguments are slated to begin at 9 a.m. today in the trial of Pring-Wilson, who has admitted to stabbing local teen Michael D. Colono in a fight outside a Western Avenue pizzeria last year. Pring-Wilson’s lawyers say their client acted in self-defense.

Both sides are still in negotiations to determine what instructions Judge Regina Quinlan will give to jurors later today, said Emily J. LaGrassa, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex district attorney.

Jurors will at a minimum have the option to convict Pring-Wilson of first-degree murder—which would put the him behind bars for life—as well as second-degree murder, under which the defendant would face a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 15 years.

But criminal defense attorney Yale Galanter, who has been tracking the Pring-Wilson trial for CourtTV, said Quinlan would likely give jurors the option of convicting Pring-Wilson on the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter—which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.

“Jurors will love to have the manslaughter option,” Galenter said. “These types of cases are gut-wrenching for jurors, because you have two young people who are going to lose their lives: one is breathing but is going to be in a cage for a substantial period of time, and the other is dead,” Galenter said.

In the last high-profile murder trial in Cambridge, lawyers for au pair Louise Woodward asked the judge to exclude manslaughter from the jurors’ menu of options. The move backfired when the jury convicted Woodward of second-degree murder. The judge later reduced the conviction to manslaughter.