A judge has granted a motion for a new trial for Joseph Cousin, the 31-year-old man who was convicted in 2002 of killing 10-year-old Trina Persad after shooting her in the face with a shotgun.
According to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, a judge ruled that one of Cousin’s attorneys “had performed prior legal work for other clients that presented a conflict of interest” at the time of the trial.
Trina Persad
According to the DA’s office, Cousin was a “member of the notorious Magnolia-Intervale-Columbia gang.” On June 29, 2002, he was on a mission to retaliate against rivals at Jermaine Goffigan Park in Roxbury, where Persad was playing.
Civilian witnesses – including fellow gang members, rivals, and individuals completely unrelated to the victim or defendant – testified that Cousin fired a shotgun from the passenger’s side of a stolen Honda Civic, sending pellets through Persad’s face and skull and into her brain, causing fatal injuries. That testimony was corroborated by Cousin’s fingerprints in two locations on the passenger’s side of the vehicle and a spent shotgun shell consistent with the murder weapon inside the car when it was recovered. Cousin was arrested next to the stolen car about 15 minutes after the shooting by a Boston Police officer unaware of the gunfire at Goffigan Park.
Suffolk DA Dan Conley filed a notice of appeal after the judge’s ruling came down on Friday.
“Flawed as this ruling is, it’s primarily an interpretation of case law on conflict of interest,” Conley said. “It does not question the integrity of the jury’s verdict or the sufficiency of the evidence. The fact remains that Joseph Cousin armed himself with a loaded shotgun, pointed it out the window of a stolen car, and pulled the trigger, killing a 10-year-old girl in a playground named for another murdered child.”
The case will return to Suffolk Superior Court on Thursday, Feb. 18.
