BOSTON, Oct. 13, 2016—The East Boston man who shot 29-year-old Luis Paul Rodriguez to death in Chelsea will not receive a new trial, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

In an unpublished decision released today, the Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed the murder conviction of JONATHAN CARVALHO (D.O.B. 10/29/89).  A Suffolk Superior Court jury in 2011 found Carvalho guilty of second-degree murder for gunning Rodriguez down during what the victim believed would be a fistfight.

On appeal, Carvalho claimed that the trial judge erred in the instructions given to the jury, including in the failure to instruct jurors on self-defense.  The appeal court, however, found no error in the jury instructions.

“The defendant was not entitled to a self-defense instruction, because the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to him, did not raise even the possibility that he used all reasonable, available means of retreat before resorting to the use of force…. There was no evidence that the defendant’s means of egress was blocked, or that he, armed with a gun, could not have simply run away from the victim’s raised fists,” the court wrote.

The court likewise found no merit in Carvalho’s other arguments on appeal, including a claimed violation of his Miranda rights, challenges to prospective jurors, and a prosecutor’s statements that Carvalho claimed played to the juror’s sympathy.

“We discern no error, as the prosecutor’s comments were supported by testimony and within the scope of permissible argument,” the justices stated.

Carvalho was initially charged with first-degree murder, but a jury in 2011 convicted him of the lesser charge of second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole.

At trial, prosecutors presented evidence and testimony to prove that Carvalho and Rodriguez were involved in an ongoing dispute that they planned to settle with a fistfight at a Crescent Avenue parking lot on the afternoon of Aug. 10, 2010.   When Carvalho produced a firearm during the fight, Rodriguez turned to flee.  The evidence showed that Carvalho shot the victim in the back, then shot him once again as he stumbled into a Crescent Avenue residence.  Chelsea Police detectives and State troopers assigned to Conley’s office obtained a warrant for Carvalho’s arrest that evening and tracked him to Savannah, Ga., with the help of US Marshals.

Assistant District Attorney Amy Galatis of the DA’s Homicide Unit prosecuted the case at trial.  Assistant District Attorney Amanda Teo argued the case on appeal.  Carvalho was represented by Claudia Leis Bolgen.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.