Attorneys delivered opening statements yesterday in the murder trial of former Harvard graduate student Alexander Pring-Wilson.

Assistant District Attorney Adrienne Lynch focused on the events leading up to the stabbing death of Cambridge teen Michael D. Colono in April 2003, while defense attorney Rick Levinson focused on his client’s character.

The two sides presented differing accounts of the early-morning stabbing outside of Pizza Ring on Western Ave., with the prosecution calling it murder and the defense calling it self-defense.

Lynch argued that the defendant was walking by the parked car where Colono sat when the 18-year-old called attention to Pring-Wilson’s stumbling, laughing at him and calling him “shit-faced.” After the two exchanged words, Pring-Wilson opened Colono’s door and with his folding knife stabbed Colono five times, the prosecution said.

But the defense contended that it was Colono—not the defendant—who opened his own car door and that Colono threw the first punch.

“The evidence isn’t here for you to see,” Levinson told the jury, in reference to the prosecution’s concession that police recovered no identifiable prints from the car to prove who opened the door.

Levinson said Pring-Wilson was attacked by Colono and his cousin Samuel E. Rodriguez.

“[Pring-Wilson’s] sole purpose was to stop the beating they were administering to him,” Levinson argued.

But Lynch emphasized that Pring-Wilson repeatedly refused medical attention and did not appear seriously injured to police.

The prosecution also argued that a 911 call Pring-Wilson made to the police immediately after the incident—where he claimed he was “just a fucking bystander”—showed that he kept describing the incident differently.

The defense had attempted to suppress Pring-Wilson’s 911 call to the police last May, but a judge denied the motion.

According to Lynch, Pring-Wilson told the police over the phone that he had witnessed a stabbing, and had attempted to “be a big guy” and intervene.

Once police arrived on the scene, Lynch said the defendant told police no stabbing had occurred and that the victim and perpetrator had fled in the same direction.

Though the prosecution portrayed Pring-Wilson as the aggressor, the defense criticized Colono’s own character.

“You will learn that the 18-year-old had a blood alcohol level of .08,” said Levinson. “Michael was on probation—the drinking, as I have said, is a violation of his probation,” he added later.