By JULIE CUNNINGHAM
(Greenfield, MA) The defendant in a 27 year old murder case is trying again to appeal his conviction after lawyers from the Committee for Public Council and the Boston College Innocence Project argued in Franklin Superior Court that evidence that the defendant was out of the country when the killing occurred was not properly presented to the jury. Elvio J. Marrero was 26 at the time of the murder and claims to have been in the Dominican Republic at the time, a fact of which the District Attorney’s office admittedly had difficulties verifying. A witness from the District Attorney’s Office, Lori Levinson, testified that her paralegals worked tirelessly to verify Marrero was in the Dominican Republic by using records from American Airlines. Those Records, Levinson claimed, were difficult to obtain and impossible to interpret. Marrero was convicted in 1996 of the murder of Pernell R. Kimplin and has served 25 years of a life sentence in prison.
A previous appeal to the conviction argued the judge erred in allowing “prior bad acts” evidence of Marrero’s violence and drug dealing. The judge ruled the evidence was admissible to show motive, pattern of conduct, and intent. Marrero’s lawyers also argued in that trial the evidence presented regarding the details of what the Commonwealth presented as predatory behavior on the part of Marrero on persons in the area addicted to drugs unfairly prejudiced the jury. The appellate judge in the 1998 appeal ruled the evidence unavoidable to prove the Commonwealth’s theory of the case, which was that Marrero thought Kimplin had stolen his drugs and that was the motive for the killing. Ultimately the judge declined to order a new trial or reduce the verdict. Marrero’s new lawyers have until March 21 to present and file post-hearing memoranda in hopes of convincing the judge to allow a new trial based on the evidence that Marrero was out of the country at the time of the murder.