Friends and family say Colono adored his daughter and that fatherhood changed him.

“He was like every other teenager. He went to school because he had to, but when his daughter was born he did what he had to do,” friend and neighbor Sheryl Nicolas says. “He just completely changed. He said, ‘I can’t hang out now, I have to go be with Jade right now.’”

Marcus Colono says that the child was at their home several days each week.

“He loved his daughter. That was his pride and joy,” Nicolas says.

Colono was also devoted to his girlfriend, who he had been dating since middle school. They had planned to get married.

“A lot of young relationships don’t work out, but they stuck together,” Marcus Colono says. “He was the type of guy who would prefer to spend the night with his girlfriend than with his guy friends. If he had to choose it would be with her.”

An Unfair Portrayal

Roughly a year after the birth of his daughter, Colono got into trouble with the law, including an arrest for possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute.

But his brother says the criminal record “represents a poverty-stricken teenage father” and emphasizes that Colono never had a history of carrying a weapon.

“I think people in the real world will read about Michael Colono and relate to that,” his brother says. “As a young father, it’s a struggle.”

In July 2001 Colono was arrested for trespassing, and two months later he was arrested for possession of 16 small bags of crack cocaine with intent to distribute, as well as the destruction of property.

He pled guilty to those charges and was given a two-year jail sentence—although the sentence was suspended for three years and never served.

In November 2001 Colono was admitted to the Brighton Treatment Center in Boston, a residential program that provides counseling and education.

Though friends say he sought help voluntarily, the Department of Youth Services refers young people to the center, according to Nancy Pappas, a representative of the organization that oversees the program.

Pappas could not disclose the circumstances under which Colono came to be in the center, but says he “completed the program successfully” and was discharged to his home in February 2002.