BOSTON, August 25, 2017— The Dorchester man convicted of murdering of his childhood friend, 24-year-old Anthony Depina, will not receive a new trial, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court this morning affirmed the conviction of JASON “LITTLE J” BARBOSA (D.O.B. 1/8/89), whom a Suffolk Superior Court jury found guilty of first-degree murder in 2013 for the slaying outside a Roxbury night club.

In his appeal, Barbosa had argued that a Superior Court judge erred in allowing a Boston Police detective with extensive knowledge of Boston’s Cape Verdean gangs and specific knowledge of both the defendant and the victim to testify as an expert witness during Barbosa’s trial. In today’s decision, written by Justice Geraldine Hines, the state’s highest court found no error.  Hines wrote that the expert gang testimony was “probative of motive, and provided necessary context for the defendant’s statement to the victim,” referring to Barbosa’s declaration, “You don’t belong here,” after encountering Depina, a Wendover Street gang associate, in what was considered Woodward Avenue gang territory earlier on the night of the murder.

“Moreover, the judge took precautions to minimize any prejudicial impact of the gang opinion testimony. She conducted individual voir dire with each juror, using three agreed-upon questions to confirm the juror’s capacity to consider the evidence only for its limited purpose,” the justices said. “Each time the evidence was introduced, it was accompanied by a thorough limiting instruction, which was repeated in the final charge. Especially where the judge carefully cabined properly admitted testimony with limiting instructions, voir dire, and exclusion of any references to prior acts of gang-related violence, admitting that testimony in evidence was not an error.”

Barbosa also argued that statements made during the trial prosecutor’s opening and closing statements were improper. The justices disagreed.

“The prosecutor’s forceful rhetoric was based on the evidence without focusing on any unnecessarily emotional or inflammatory aspects of the evidence,” the justices wrote. “Moreover, the prosecutor’s description of the victim’s murder was based on the evidence and was relevant to establish the nature of the crime.”

The justices also found no merit in the defendant’s arguments that certain witness statements were improperly introduced, that his trial attorney provided ineffective assistance, or that the evidence was insufficient to prove his guilt.

Evidence introduced by prosecutors during the course of an eight-day trial proved that Barbosa and Depina had been childhood friends but later aligned themselves with rival groups. Barbosa was affiliated with the Woodward Avenue gang after splitting from Wendover Street, of which Depina was an associate.  In the years leading up to Depina’s murder, the two groups were embroiled in a feud that erupted in a number of violent crimes, including a December 2011 shooting in which Barbosa and a second man were injured, the evidence showed.

Two months after the non-fatal shooting, on the night of Feb. 23, 2012, Barbosa encountered Depina at a Norfolk Avenue nightclub. Later that evening, as Depina stood outside the bar, Barbosa drove slowly past him and told the victim, “You don’t belong here.”

As the victim and a female companion were exiting the club to leave the area later that night, a vehicle flashed its headlights in what prosecutors proved was a signal, prompting Barbosa to approach Depina.

“Are you for real, Little J?” the victim said to Barbosa, moments before three gunshots rang out. Depina was struck once in the chest and once in the head and died at the scene.

Prosecutors introduced evidence from a GPS bracelet that Barbosa was wearing at the time of the shooting that placed him at the location and then leaving the area immediately after, as well as cell phone records showing that he made and received calls from Woodward Avenue gang leaders before and after the shooting. This and other evidence proved Barbosa’s involvement in the murder – either as the shooter or as a co-venturer – and that the crime was motivated by a violent gang rivalry.

First Assistant District Attorney Patrick Haggan, Conley’s top trial attorney, prosecuted the case at trial. Assistant District Attorney Teresa Anderson of the DA’s Appellate Division argued the case on appeal.  Katherine Moran, now chief of the DA’s Victim Witness Assistance Program, was the assigned victim-witness advocate.  Barbosa was represented by Patricia DeJuneas.

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