Murder trial starts for ex-policeman

PROVIDENCE - A former Providence policeman was afraid for his life when he shot and killed his neighbor in a dispute over a children’s ball game, his attorney told jurors Tuesday.

Nicholas Gianquitti is on trial for murder in Providence Superior Court, where attorneys gave opening statements and described how a quiet Sunday on a cul-de-sac full of family homes turned to pandemonium last May and left James Pagano, 44, dead of a gunshot.

The men were neighbors in Cranston, where Pagano was a firefighter.

Pagano had friends and relatives over to celebrate his son’s 9th birthday party. As kids played a pickup baseball game in the front yard, one hit a foul that lodged the tennis ball they were using in Gianquitti’s car between the spoiler and trunk.

When the kids went to retrieve the ball, Gianquitti came out and cursed at them. When Pagano found out, he marched to Gianquitti’s house, his father, Anthony trailing him.

Pagano banged on the door, and Gianquitti finally answered. After the argument, Pagano punched Gianquitti in the face.

That’s where attorneys’ versions of events diverge. Prosecutor William Ferland said that after Gianquitti recovered, he pulled a gun from a holster on his back waistband and shot a hollow-tipped bullet at Pagano, striking him in the lower back.

Ferland said Gianquitti chased the critically injured Pagano down the driveway, firing again but missing, and cornering him behind a car, where he said, “I’ve got you now, Jim,“ before going back into his house.

But defense attorney William Devine said the punch toppled Gianquitti, who tumbled down several stairs and landed in a pile of trash bags in his basement.

The much larger Pagano came toward him, and Gianquitti fired out of fear, Devine said.

“Nick fired his gun because he believed that his life was in danger,“ Devine told jurors.

The gun went off a second time as Gianquitti tripped over the threshold on his way out of his house, Devine said, and he ran to the bleeding man and yelled for his wife to call 911.

Pagano’s wife, Adriana, testified that she was already calling 911 and that she had seen her husband throw the punch.

She cried as she testified about what she saw next: her husband’s mother and father helping a police officer drag a dying Pagano down the street to an ambulance because the scene at the house was not secure.

The bullet had traveled up to his chest, and Pagano died in surgery.