Prosecution rests in Pring-Wilson trial

Today the prosecution finished calling witnesses against Alexander Pring-Wilson. The first witness of the day was Harjeet Singh, the manager of Pizza Ring, the restaurant near which the fatal fight between Pring-Wilson and Michael Colono occurred. Next up were Colono's mother, girlfriend, and sister, who described his background and interests. Wanda Rivera, Colono's oldest sister, said that he was interested in "getting a career and furthering his education" and was a lifelong baseball fan. Cindy Guzman, Colono's girlfriend, was the only one of these three witnesses to be cross examined. She admitted that she told Colono the day before the fight that she wanted to break up with him - which may have put him in an angry mood and made him more likely to attack Pring-Wilson - and that Samuel Rodriguez told her he was in the driver's seat of the car - the opposite of what the prosecution claims. Finally, the prosecution called James Connolly, a captain with the state police, to the stand and played clips of Pring-Wilson's testimony in the first trial.

The defense called its first witness today. Jennifer Lipman - a doctor, certified forensic pathologist, consultant, and professional expert witness - gave her opinion on Colono's wounds. She said that two of his five stab wounds were medical incisions, meaning that Pring-Wilson stabbed him only three times. The wound on Colono's wrist, she testified, was the right location, shape, size, and orientation to be made during a "cut-down" - when medical personnel make a cut in a patient's skin to find a vein. Also, the wound was too neat and clean to have been inflicted during a fight, and was located in the wrong place to be a defensive wound. One of the two wounds to Colono's lower abdomen was also made by medical personnel, said Dr. Lipman. The cut was the perfect size and location for a diagnostic peritoneal lavage - a procedure that doctors perform to tell if a patient has internal bleeding. Prosecutor Adrienne Lynch began cross examining Dr. Lipman but will finish tomorrow morning.

I also managed to catch the second half of yesterday's proceedings; sorry for not posting about it! I was there for the testimony of Dr. Faryl Sandler, the medical examiner who examined Colono's body. She described his five wounds, said that the one that punctured his heart was the cause of death, and said that the one on his wrist was consistent with being a defensive wound. I thought Peter Parker, Pring-Wilson's defense lawyer, did a good job on cross examination. He cast doubt on the claim that the wrist wound and one of the abdomen wounds were made by Pring-Wilson and made it seem like the other wounds didn't require a huge amount of force to inflict if the knife was sharp, long, and moving at a high velocity, and if the victim was moving toward the knife. He also mentioned that Dr. Sandler was not a board-certified pathologist and made a big deal of the fact that Dr. Sandler did an internal examination of Colono's head even though there were no outward signs of head injuries - hinting that people (such as Pring-Wilson) commonly have brain injuries that don't necessarily cause external symptoms.

I wasn't there for yesterday morning's events, but the Crimson reports that John Soares, a chemist, finished his testimony, and the prosecution entered Colono's bloody clothing into evidence. Check out their article for the full story.