BOSTON, April 30, 2012—The Billerica truck driver who allegedly lied to the grand jury investigating Rebecca Payne’s murder was held on high bail today after a weekend spent awaiting his arraignment on multiple perjury indictments, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

Arrested Saturday morning and held since that time, MICHAEL BALBA (D.O.B. 3/1/57) was arraigned today on four counts of perjury for allegedly lying repeatedly to the Suffolk County Grand Jury as it investigated Payne’s May 20, 2008, shooting death.

Another man, CORNELL SMITH (D.O.B. 12/19/81), is charged with first-degree murder for allegedly gunning the 22-year-old Northeastern University student down in her Parker Hill Avenue apartment. Smith is serving a lengthy federal prison term on drug charges after his convictions in state and federal courts.

Both men were indicted Friday after an exhaustive investigation on the street by Boston Police homicide detectives and Suffolk prosecutors behind the closed doors of the grand jury.

“Had this defendant not lied during that investigation, Becca’s parents might not have had to wait four years to find some measure of accountability in their daughter’s death,” Conley said.

Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum, the homicide prosecutor assigned to the case on the day Payne was killed, recommended that Balba be held on $100,000 cash bail. Suffolk Superior Court Clerk Magistrate Gary D. Wilson imposed that amount, further ordering that Balba wear a GPS monitoring device and not travel outside Massachusetts without the court’s permission if he posts it.

Polumbaum told the court that Balba knew Smith as “Jeff” around the time of Payne’s murder and would call him several times per week to buy crack cocaine from him. On the night of May 19 and early morning hours of May 20, 2008, Polumbaum said, Balba met Smith and, at Smith’s direction, picked up a third person and travelled to the area of Parker Hill Avenue. In return, Balba was given a quantity of crack cocaine and told to wait across the street and smoke it.

It was at this time, Polumbaum said, that Smith entered Payne’s building and apartment and committed the fatal shooting.

The gunfire was heard by numerous people in and around the building. None called 911. Polumbaum said Balba heard the gunshots as well and even remarked on them. Shortly afterward, he drove Smith and the third man from the scene. Video surveillance imagery from the area depicts a vehicle similar to Balba’s Ford Explorer driving away from the scene. Cell phone records link him to Smith demonstrate his frequent travel from Billerica to Boston, Polumbaum said.

In the months following Payne’s homicide, Boston Police homicide detectives interviewed Balba. Polumbaum said he initially admitted to his involvement with the person he knew as “Jeff” and acknowledged giving him rides – including to an area consistent with the streets of Mission Hill. When called to the Suffolk County Grand Jury, he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights until a judge ordered him to testify under a grant of immunity from prosecution. That grant of immunity, Polumbaum said, did not extend to perjury charges stemming from false testimony.

On dates in 2010 and this year, Polumbaum said, Balba lied to grand jurors by telling them that he never gave a ride to any other person at the request of “Jeff;” that he never heard or otherwise learned of gunshots during his interactions with “Jeff;” that nothing unusual or significant ever happened during his trips to Boston to buy crack; and that he had no memory of any unique or unusual event during his interactions with “Jeff,” even when other evidence – including his own statements – show that claim to be implausible.

Kara Hayes is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate on the case. Balba is represented by attorney James Dangora, Jr. He will return to court on June 6.

–30–

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