PROVIDENCE — The Judicial Nominating Commission last night picked five finalists for the state District Court vacancy created by the death of Judge Richard A. Gonnella.

Governor Carcieri will be able to choose from among: Anthony Capraro Jr., chief of the trial division for the public defender’s office; James M. Donelan, a Warwick lawyer and former Democratic state senator; Christine S. Jabour, a District Court magistrate and sister of state Sen. Paul V. Jabour; Margaret M. Lynch-Gadaleta, the Pawtucket city solicitor and sister of Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch; and Henry S. Monti, litigation chief at Gemma Law Associates.

The two candidates who did not make the cut were Dawn L. Huntley, a special assistant attorney general, and Richard K. Corley, a criminal defense lawyer and legislative counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The nine-member commission picked the finalists in three rounds of voting, which ended with a runoff between Donelan and Huntley for the fifth and final spot on the list. The voting followed a public hearing in which supporters touted the qualifications of the candidates.

The state’s chief public defender, John J. Hardiman, told the commission that Capraro is “one of the premier trial attorneys in state.” Capraro, 46, of Providence, has handled about 80 felony trials that have reached a verdict, and supervises 30 lawyers in the trial division.

Hardiman said that after 4 in the afternoon, public defenders stream into Capraro’s office to ask him questions about the law and trial tactics. “Anthony is a legal scholar,” he said. “He is a person of integrity and honor.”

Lawyer Julie Lynch talked to the commission about how much she learned while working as a paralegal for Donelan, and she said she also worked on his Senate campaign.

Donelan, 55, of Warwick, runs a law firm in Warwick, and Lynch said people from the neighborhood walk in for legal matters ranging from car crashes to wills. “He is extremely fair. He can see both sides of a situation,” she said. “He’s a good person beyond being a great lawyer.”

District Court Judge Elaine T. Bucci spoke of Jabour’s experience as a District Court magistrate and as former chief of the attorney general’s consumer protection unit, saying Jabour is “uniquely qualified” for the judgeship.

Jabour, 54, of Barrington — who is married to former Judicial Nominating Commission Chairman Girard R. Visconti — is assigned to the collections calendar but also has handled criminal trials and small claims cases, and she has “pitched in” at the state Traffic Tribunal, Bucci said. “I think it’s significant that she can handle the volume” of cases, she said. “There will be no on-the-job training.”

Lawyer Marc DeSisto told the commission that in addition to having a range of legal experience, Lynch-Gadaleta has an “aura of competence and reasonableness.”

Lynch-Gadaleta, 44, of North Providence, is patient, decisive and a hard worker, DeSisto said, explaining that he has worked with her on cases involving the City of Pawtucket. “Public confidence in the judiciary is by far the greatest factor in having a successful judiciary,” he said. “And I think the public will have great confidence in her.”

Lawyer Mark Mandell, a former president of the state bar association, said Monti has worked in the public defender’s office and the attorney general’s office in addition to spending 20 years in “a very busy private practice.”

Monti, 50, East Greenwich, would be able to make the split-second decisions that judges need to make about evidence and other matters, Mandell said. “Can you learn that? Yes, you can,” he said. “But Henry has that now.”

The commission has already conducted interviews for another District Court vacancy, which was created by the retirement of District Court Judge Patricia D. Moore. And at 5:15 p.m. on Nov. 13, the commission will hold a public hearing on the seven candidates vying for that position: Alan R. Goulart, Robert H. Humphrey, Stephen M. Isherwood, John E. Martinelli, Laura A. Pisaturo, Pamela Woodcock Pfeiffer and Paul D. Ragosta.

That hearing will be held in Conference Room A at the Department of Administration building at One Capitol Hill. And after the hearing, the commission will choose three to five finalists and send another list to Carcieri, whose nominees will face Senate confirmation.

Under a new law, the governor also may select from lists up to five years old that were generated for previous District Court openings. When Rafael A. Ovalles was appointed to the District Court in 2004, the other finalists were Debra E. DiSegna, Joseph P. Ippolito, Mary E. McCaffrey and Kristin E. Rodgers. When William C. Clifton was appointed to the District Court in 2003, the other finalists included Rodgers, Ippolito and J. Patrick Youngs III.

The Judicial Nominating Commission had been scheduled to meet Thursday to decide who to interview for the Workers’ Compensation Court vacancy created by the retirement of Judge John Rotondi Jr. But last night, the commission decided to interview all five candidates: Thomas M. Bruzzese, Michael J. Feeney, Robert M. Ferrieri, Hagop S. Jawharjian and Tedford B. Radway. The interviews will take place in December.

efitzpat@projo.com