The Verdict Comes In

The trial of the three men charged with the murder of Andrew Puopolo '77 contained several surprises, including an admission from one of the defendants, Leon Easterling, that he did in fact stab the student during a Combat Zone brawl last November.

Bur perhaps the biggest surprise came last week, when the jury found all three of the defendants guilty of first-degree murder, as charged.

Most observes--and there were many on the Harvard campus, perhaps because Puopolo's death from stab wounds received a great deal of publicity--said they were not surprised by the jury's vote in the cases of two of the defendants, Easterling and Edward J. Soares, whom several witnesses had implicated in the killing.

But no one testified they had seen the third defendant, Richard S. Allen, with a knife in his hand, or tied him directly into the scuffle with Puopolo. They had seen him during the fight, but testified that he struggled only with other members of the football team.

The fight occurred during the team's annual visit to the Combat Zone after the end-of-season dinner at the Harvard Club of Boston.

Apparently the jury believed the stabbing was a planned, joint enterprise, and decided that it did not wish to differentiate between the three men, as the judge had said it could do if it believed they acted independently of one another.

The lawyers for the defense had tried to show that the fight broke out spontaneously when the three men rushed to the aid of a woman several team members were chasing.

Although the woman denied it on the stand, several team members testified she had stolen the wallet of one of the football players.

But apparently the prosecutor was more persuasive than the defense attorneys, because Allen and the other defendants were convicted, and given the life sentence that is mandatory for first-degree murder under Massachusetts law.

The three men will not be eligible for parole.

The jury did not find that the men always acted in concert, however. Only Easterling and Soares were convicted of assault on Thomas J. Lincoln '77, another football player who was stabbed during the brawl, which will add eight to ten years to their life sentences.

Henry F. Owens III, Allen's attorney, said shortly after the sentencing that all three defense lawyers will submit appeals for their clients to the State Supreme Court in the next week, so the trial is likely to continue for some time longer.

And next year, the football team will probably not head for the Combat Zone when the break-up dinner breaks up.