Rodriguez testifies against Pring-Wilson

Today at Alexander Pring-Wilson's trial, prosecution witness Samuel Rodriguez finished up his testimony, which he began Friday. Rodriguez was an eyewitness to the fight that resulted in the death of Michael Colono. He is also Colono's cousin. Rodriguez says Pring-Wilson opened the car door, challenged Colono to a fight, and stabbed him, and that he jumped in to defend his cousin. The defense contends that Rodriguez teamed up with Colono to attack Pring-Wilson and beat him to the ground.

Today's testimony began with the cross examination, as the direct had taken place on Friday. Defense attorney Peter Parker got Rodriguez to admit several inconsistencies: whether the car was on or off, whether Rodriguez was in the driver's seat (as the defense claims) or the passenger's seat (as he claims), and what exactly Colono called Pring-Wilson (initially an obscenity, but then Rodriguez changed it to "idiot"). Like Giselle Abreu, who was also in the car, Rodriguez admitted that he hadn't seen Pring-Wilson punch Colono or wield a knife until after he had been beaten to the ground. While trying to describe where he punched Pring-Wilson, Rodriguez began crying, which resulted in a 5-minute recess.

After the break, Parker brought up Rodriguez's past criminal convictions, all of which he admitted to. The list included the following:

• malicious destruction of property
• assault and battery
• possession of a firearm without a license and resisting arrest
• assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and malicious destruction of property (the prosecution got this one stricken from the record)
• assault and battery and assault with a dangerous weapon
• possession of a firearm and ammunition without a license
• carrying a concealed weapon without a license

Parker also brought up incidents when Rodriguez beat up his former girlfriend, threw bicycles at a car, threw a cup in his sister's eye,and pulled a knife out on his sister's husband. On re-direct, prosecutor Adrienne Lynch tried to get Rodriguez's violent incidents to look less bad, but in my opinion didn't do too well. Rodriguez did say that his ex-girlfriend wouldn't let him leave the house and that he apologized and called the police after he pushed her, but for the most part Lynch didn't get him to look much better.

After a brief re-cross, another witness began her testimony. Julianne Sitler described how she saw Rodriguez and Abreu parked in front of a store, yelling to passerby for directions to a hospital. She had some medical training and helped out until paramedics arrived. Her testimony helped the prosecution a little bit because it showed that Rodriguez and Abreu were trying to get help, not evade the police. However, she couldn't recall how many stab wounds Colono had, which is important in determining how viciously (or not) Pring-Wilson was stabbing him.