Pring-Wilson opened the car door, and the altercation escalated into a fistfight, Lynch said.

Denner and Lynch agree that Samuel E. Rodriguez, Colono’s cousin, joined in the fight, punching Pring-Wilson at least once.

At some point in the fight, prosecutors said, Pring-Wilson stabbed Colono five times with a pocket knife later recovered in his apartment.

Denner said that his client did not instigate either the verbal or physical altercation, and stabbed Colono in self-defense after he was assaulted.

According to Denner, his client suffered a concussion in the fight.

Colono and the two people in his car then left the scene, Lynch said, because Colono did not realize he had been stabbed.

According to Lynch, Pring-Wilson called 911 once Colono had left and when police arrived professed to be a bystander.

After the incident, Lynch said, Pring-Wilson left a cell phone message for his friend Jennifer Hansen, whom he had spent time with earlier that night.

In that message, he told Hansen that he stabbed a man who attacked him and asked her not to tell anyone.

“I just got attacked. I stabbed them a couple times...I have a killer headache...I had a swell time tonight. I hope you guys made it home,” Pring-Wilson said on the message, according to Lynch.

Colono later died at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Pring-Wilson was arrested at his apartment later that morning.

Denner argued that Pring-Wilson’s 911 call demonstrated his decency and remorse—a theme featured prominently at the hearing.

“Had he not called 911, there’s a good chance he would not be here today,” Denner said.

According to Denner, Pring-Wilson has taken a voluntary leave-of-absence from Harvard.

University officials did not return calls for comment.