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Most of the posts indicate the posters didn't follow the trial and don't know the facts of the case. Junta only saw Costa one time, and that was in full hockey gear. Costa was taller than Junta, so Costa didn't look smaller than Junta at all, but quite larger, considering the hockey gear. Costa clearly started the first fight and inflicted serious injury on Junta. Junta left the building, then began to worry about his son and friends being left in the building with a seemingly crazy man (and Costa had a history of mental disorders that did not come into evidence). Because of that worry, he reentered the building and was blindsided with a sucker punch immediately upon entering. Costa jumped on his back, he threw Costa over his shoulder and fell to his knees and gave him three quick punches. Only in that short span could he have judged Costa's true weight as less than his own. On the stand, Junta came off as very credible, as did the witnesses for him, and even a number of witnesses the state called that testified to only three quick punches. Only a couple of hysterical old ladies testified to the slamming of the head into the floor and the 10-20 punches. The problems with the trial were that the defense lawyer did not bring out that Junta never saw Costa out of the hockey gear, that the defense never called a medical expert on Junta's knee injuries to demonstrate once he had fallen he could not get up, so that he had to end the fight then or Costa would have gotten up and kicked him to death, and finally, that the judge did not let in evidence as to Costa's long criminal and mental health backgrounds. This jury is beating its' head now that it is out of sequestration and knows all the facts, I would imagine. I was surprised at the court's sentence, but then again, the defense lawyer missed the important points.

. Only a couple of hysterical old ladies testified to the slamming of the head into the floor and the 10-20 punches.

Junta's attorney urged the jury to dis-regard the testimony of those two women as they were too emotional about seeing the fight.

A well known defense attorney commenting on Boston talk radio called those remarks "idiotic" as they would not have been appreciated at all by the women on the jury. He said that Junta's attorney pretty much lost the women with that comment.

I have a friend who lives in Charlestown and used to drink at the bar Junta used to drink at (and where Junta's brother in law was murdered, a murder which is still unsolved, and one in which Junta was interviewed as a suspect). He says there are lots of more stories of Junta and rage and fights, except in Charlestown, the "Townies" have a "code of silence" and cops are never called over a beef, and usually not called when someone gets killed, even in a bar room. When the cops do come for a homicide in a public space, pretty much everyone will say they didn't see anything and they were in the restroom when anything took place. It's a different world.