Jennifer Rivera was fatally shot the night before she was to testify against Charles Pona in a murder trial. She was 15. / AP photo

PROVIDENCE

The state Supreme Court yesterday overturned the conviction of Charles E. “Manny” Pona on charges that he conspired with others to have 15-year-old Jennifer Rivera killed in 2000 just before she was to testify that she saw Pona running from the scene of another murder.

“The murder of Jennifer Rivera was especially repugnant. It was a profound affront to the basic norms of civilized society,” Justice Francis X. Flaherty wrote. “Nonetheless, even those accused of despicable acts are entitled to a fair trial. In this instance, we have concluded that the defendant did not receive a fair trial, and we are convinced that it is our responsibility to that same civilized society to reverse for a new trial.”

Pona, 27, of Providence, will remain in prison for killing 17-year-old Hector Feliciano. The Supreme Court affirmed Pona’s conviction in that murder last year, and he is serving a life sentence, plus eight years.

In yesterday’s ruling, the Supreme Court said Superior Court Judge William A. Dimitri Jr. should not have admitted certain evidence related to Pona’s conviction for Feliciano’s murder, such as evidence that Pona’s pager was found at the scene of Feliciano’s murder and that Pona’s fingerprints were found in the getaway car.

The court also ruled that Dimitri, who has since died, should not have admitted the entire audiotape of testimony that Rivera gave at Pona’s bail hearing. The recording allowed the jury to hear Rivera’s “forever-stilled teenage voice” for hours on end, the court said.

“The impact of this evidence was to highlight the propensity of Pona as a person who had murdered before and who would not hesitate to murder again,” Flaherty wrote. “By allowing this highly prejudicial evidence to come before the jury, the trial court placed the facts of another crime, the Feliciano murder, onto center stage, tempting the jury to hold defendant accountable on the facts of a case for which he was not on trial.”

While ruling on those grounds, the Supreme Court also said Dimitri should have declared a mistrial when a witness blurted out that Pona had purchased crack cocaine from him.

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said, “Jennifer’s brutal murder will always stand as a direct assault on our justice system, and any news concerning this senseless murder will always give rise to a strong and visceral reaction. Although disappointing, today’s decision fills us with the resolve to retry the case in Superior Court and ensure that Pona is once and for all held accountable for his vicious, vengeful and cowardly actions.”

The story begins on Aug. 28, 1999. Rivera was cooking in her kitchen in Providence’s Elmwood neighborhood when she heard a series of gunshots. She looked out the window and saw a young man jump a fence, hop into a gray Jeep and drive away. Rivera found Feliciano mortally wounded in a parking lot across the street, and she later picked Pona out of a lineup of six photos the police showed her.

Pona was charged with Feliciano’s murder, and Rivera identified him at a bail hearing. “She was the only witness who was able and willing to identify his face,” Flaherty wrote. “The very night before Pona’s trial for the Feliciano murder was to begin, his half brother, [Dennard] Walker fired three shots at Jennifer’s head at point-blank range.”

Rivera was killed on May 21, 2000. At the time, she was “an eighth-grade student at Roger Williams Middle School who stood 5 feet 1 inch tall and weighed all of 72 pounds,” Flaherty noted.

Miguel Perez testified that he, Walker and Pona saw Rivera playing outside her house, circled the block and parked nearby. He said Pona told Walker, “Make sure you do it right” and Walker replied, “Don’t worry. [You] can’t do life.” Perez said he heard three gunshots and saw Walker running back to the car. He said Walker got in, saying, “I got her. I got her. Jet. Jet. Jet.” And he said Pona replied, “I love you. I love you.”

Pona was charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder and other charges. In November 2003, a jury found him guilty on all counts. He was given a life sentence, plus 20 years.

On appeal, Pona’s lawyer claimed a variety of errors were made during the trial. For example, he claimed that Pona, who is black, lost his constitutional right to a jury of his peers because he was convicted by an all-white jury, and he claimed the sentence was excessively harsh.

The Supreme Court did not base its decision on those arguments. Rather, it focused on a rule that says: “Evidence of other crimes, wrongs or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show that the person acted in conformity therewith.”

At a pretrial hearing, Pona’s lawyer argued that any reference to his conviction for killing Feliciano would prejudice him in the eyes of the jury. And Dimitri granted a motion to “exclude and preclude the state from mentioning that the defendant has been convicted of murder.”

But prosecutors persuaded Dimitri to admit evidence related to the Feliciano murder, including the photo array from which Rivera identified Pona and the entire recording of her bail hearing testimony. Prosecutors argued that those events were “inextricably intertwined” with Rivera’s murder, and they cited an exception to the rule that allows evidence to be admitted to show motive.

Flaherty said there’s a fine line between what evidence is and isn’t allowed in such cases. But the Supreme Court disagreed with the argument that evidence about Pona’s pager and fingerprints were relevant enough to show his motive to kill Rivera.

“[Pona] had a motive to kill Jennifer because she had testified against him at his bail hearing, and he knew she was scheduled to testify against him at a trial,” Flaherty wrote. “The specific facts of the murder of Hector Feliciano have little, if any, probative value with respect to any conspiracy surrounding Jennifer’s murder, except perhaps to demonstrate that defendant was prone to kill.”

The defense also argued it was unnecessary and overly prejudicial to allow jurors to hear Rivera’s bail-hearing testimony, especially when the defense offered to stipulate that Rivera was a prime witness in an upcoming trial. But Dimitri ended up admitting the entire recording and transcript, saying it went directly to Pona’s motive to kill Rivera.

“The devil is in the details, and here, reference to the murder of Feliciano should have been kept to a minimum,” Flaherty wrote. “This type of evidence must be received ‘with great caution,’ and a careful review of her testimony reveals that there are particular statements that should have been excluded.”The slaying of Jennifer Rivera

Aug. 28, 1999: Jennifer Rivera, 15, is cooking in her kitchen in Providence when she hears gunshots and sees a young man jump a fence adjacent to a vacant lot and run to a vehicle. Minutes later, Hector Feliciano, 17, is found shot to death in the vacant lot. Rivera signs a sworn police statement describing what she saw.

Aug. 31, 1999: At the request of Feliciano’s family, Rivera returns to the Providence police station, looks at photographs and identifies Charles E. “Manny” Pona as the man she saw running from the vacant lot.

Oct. 28, 1999: Pona is arrested and charged with murdering Feliciano. He begins serving a six-month prison sentence on an unrelated charge.

Nov. 15, 1999: Rivera testifies before a grand jury investigating Feliciano’s murder and at Pona’s bail hearing.

April 22, 2000: After completing a six-month sentence, Pona is released on $100,000 bail, pending his murder trial.

May 15, 2000: Prosecutors issue a subpoena for Rivera to testify as a witness in Pona’s murder trial, which is set to begin on May 22.

May 21, 2000: At about 8:25 p.m., Rivera is standing in front of her home when a young man in a hooded sweatshirt shoots her three times in the head and neck.

May 22, 2000: Rivera is taken off life support and dies.

Sept. 14, 2000: Pona is sentenced to life plus eight years for killing Feliciano.

March 13, 2002: Pona’s half brother, Dennard Walker, admits he shot Rivera to silence her testimony. He is sentenced to a life term.

Nov. 12, 2003: A Superior Court jury finds Pona guilty of conspiracy to murder Rivera, murder, carrying a firearm without a license, committing a crime of violence with a firearm and obstructing justice.

Dec. 17, 2003: Pona is sentenced to life plus 20 years for Rivera’s murder and the other charges. Superior Court Judge William A. Dimitri Jr. calls Pona and his accomplices nothing more than “penny ante terrorists” and calls Rivera’s murder an “intolerable insult to our criminal justice system.”

June 12, 2008: Pona’s conviction in Rivera’s murder vacated.

efitzpat@projo.com