Press Release
Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn announced that a Fall River Superior Court jury convicted Jonathan Keith Niemic on Monday, 10/3, of First Degree Murder connected to the October 2010 stabbing homicide of 34-year-old Michael Correia in New Bedford.
After a nine-day trial, the jury deliberated for about three hours over the course of two days before returning its guilty verdict today around 10:45 a.m. The jury found the defendant guilty on both deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity/ cruelty theories.
Mr. Niemic, 28, of Fairhaven and New Bedford, was immediately sentenced by Judge Rene Dupuis to serve life in prison with no possibility of parole.
The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney William McCauley and Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Purcell.
The stabbing of Mr. Correia, a Fairhaven resident, occurred outside an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting near the Trinity Church Soup Kitchen on Purchase Street on October 20, 2010.
The defendant had been previously convicted of this murder in 2012, but the conviction was overturned by the Supreme Judicial Court last year. The SJC, in its 2015 ruling, said the trial judge during the 2012 trial did not properly instruct the jury about the elements needed to prove first degree murder. The SJC also said the former prosecutor made improper arguments to the jury during the 2012 trial.
“This was a very brutal killing, especially with the victim dying in his father’s presence. The defendant had just been released from jail and without provocation, assaulted the victim and stabbed him repeatedly in front of a number horrified people,” said District Attorney Quinn. “I’d like to thank the jury for their attention to this matter and for returning a guilty verdict based on both theories of first degree murder, which was certainly supported by the evidence. I also want to thank the witnesses and the victim’s family for their perseverance and patience during two trials.”
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