Nicholas Gianquitti, second from left, and his lawyers, Mark Dana, left, and William Devine, look at evidence submitted by prosecutor William Ferland at a bail hearing at the Kent County Court House, in Warwick yesterday.

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The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

WARWICK –– District Court Judge Elaine Bucci denied bail yesterday for Nicholas Gianquitti, the Cranston man accused of shooting his neighbor James A. Pagano last month in a dispute that began with a child’s stray tennis ball.

The decision, which drew audible gasps of relief from the victim’s family, capped an often emotional three-day bail hearing that included testimony yesterday that Gianquitti had shot Pagano in the back.

Gianquitti, who had no visible reaction to the ruling, will remain at the Adult Correctional Institutions while the state seeks a grand jury indictment.

Bucci said she was particularly struck by a 911 tape played in court Tuesday that began with Gianquitti’s wife, Jennifer, screaming frantically and ended with Nicholas calmly making the case for why he’d shot Pagano just minutes before.

“She is frantic,” Bucci said, describing the call. “He is not. I found that to be chilling.”

But ultimately, the judge’s decision turned on a legal question: was there enough evidence to reasonably presume murder, which involves premeditation, or was it manslaughter?

If it appeared to be murder, Bucci had the discretion to hold Gianquitti. If it appeared to be manslaughter, she would be obligated to set bail.

Witnesses testified Monday that Pagano and his wife were hosting a birthday party for their son Louie, 9, on May 18, the day of the shooting.

Louie, his sister, Adriana, and three cousins were playing baseball with an aluminum bat and a tennis ball when a foul ball struck Gianquitti’s vehicle and wedged between the spoiler and trunk.

Gianquitti, who briefly served as a Providence police officer, cursed at the children, according to testimony.

When Adriana reported the incident to Pagano, 44, he marched over to Gianquitti’s house with his 72-year old father, Anthony, in tow.

Pagano, a Cranston firefighter, knocked three times before Gianquitti, 40, answered the door.

According to testimony, the pair exchanged words, and Gianquitti made an obscene gesture. Then Pagano took a swing at his neighbor.

Gianquitti stumbled down a short flight of steps just inside his house and Pagano tumbled into the foyer above him.

Gianquitti then pulled a silver semiautomatic handgun from his waist.

Anthony Pagano said he blurted out, “Jimmy, he’s got a gun” and Gianquitti fired, striking Pagano in the lower back.

Then Gianquitti pursued his fleeing neighbor outside, firing and missing, according to testimony.

As James Pagano lay dying in the driveway, according to his father, Gianquitti pointed his gun at the shooting victim and taunted him.

Anthony Pagano said he couldn’t quite make out what Gianquitti said. “I got you now, Jim,” or maybe, “You’re done, Jim.”

William Devine, a lawyer for Gianquitti, suggested Monday that his client said, “Don’t die on me, Jim.”

But yesterday, Devine focused on the confrontation at Gianquitti’s door.

Pagano, he suggested, triggered the shooting when he took a swing at Gianquitti.

“He punched Mr. Gianquitti in the right cheek,” he said. “And what happened at that point, judge, happened in seconds.”

Gianquitti, he said, fired in the heat of the moment –– without premeditation.

“I would argue, judge, that what we have here is a classic voluntary manslaughter case,” Devine said.

Gianquitti, he suggested, should be freed on bail.

But Assistant Attorney General William Ferland countered that no reasonable person in Gianquitti’s position would believe his life was in danger.

Pagano was a neighbor, he said, “not some masked burglar or armed gunman he is confronting at the doorway.”

The firefighter was unarmed, Ferland added. And his punch, however ill-advised, should not have been met with a gunshot.

“Does punching someone in the face warrant a death penalty?” he asked.

Besides, Ferland said, Pagano struck a glancing blow at best.

Dr. Alexander Chirkov, the assistant medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Pagano, testified earlier in the day that the firefighter had no abrasions on his hands consistent with significant contact.

Chirkov also testified that the bullet that killed Pagano entered the body through the lower back on his left side, tearing through the pelvic bone, aorta and pancreas before settling in the liver, beneath the firefighter’s right armpit.

He added that there was no sign of stippling, a pattern of tiny abrasions around an entrance wound that indicates a shot at close range.

Ferland, in extracting that testimony, was building an argument he would make explicit in closing: Pagano was fleeing when Gianquitti fired, he said.

The former police officer admitted as much when he said in the 911 call that he had shot his neighbor in the back, Ferland suggested.

“This is a man,” Ferland said, “who acted in cold blood and executed his neighbor.”

Bucci, after a lengthy recitation of the facts of the case, sided with the state.

Gianquitti could have retreated after the punch, she said. He could have called the police.

“He didn’t,” she said. “He decided to shoot somebody.”

During the 911 call, she added, Gianquitti did not suggest he thought Pagano had a weapon.

Instead, he spoke in mild tones of a neighbor’s attack and a justified shooting.

“The defendant’s calmness was eerie,” Bucci said.

After ruling that the state had made a prima facie case for murder, Bucci heard arguments from both sides about whether she should grant bail.

Judges rarely grant bail in alleged murder cases and this was no exception.

Gianquitti would pose a flight risk and a threat to public safety if he were released, she ruled.

“I will hold him without bail,” she said.

Pagano’s friends and family clapped. And Gianquitti’s wife, seated in the rear of the courtroom, collapsed in tears.

dscharfe@projo.com