A former New Bedford and Fairhaven resident – who was 22 in 2010 when he stabbed to death a 34-year-old Fairhaven man outside an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting at the Trinity Church soup kitchen on Purchase Street in New Bedford – was convicted by a jury in late October after the second of two retrials held in Fall River Superior Court.
Jonathan Keith Niemic, now 35, initially was convicted in 2012 of the first degree murder of Michael Correia and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
A retrial four years later resulted in the same conviction.
The more recent retrial resulted from a 2019 decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court overturning the 2016 murder conviction. The SJC ruled that the commonwealth at the time used improper statements during closing arguments to the jury.
This time around, however, the jury only convicted Niemic of second degree murder with a maximum prison sentence of 15 years to life.
That means he will be entitled for a parole hearing in less than two years.
Crime of passion
Niemic had only been out of jail for five days – after serving less than two months for larceny and resisting arrest – when he confronted and stabbed Correia five times.
A doctor who treated the victim at St. Luke’s Hospital testified that Correia was stabbed twice in the chest, once in the abdomen and twice in the back. One frontal wound, he said, perforated the heart and the other tore the liver.
Correia reportedly died in the arms of his father that night.
The jury for the second retrial, however, did not find that Niemic acted either with “deliberate premeditation” or “extreme atrocity,” either of which would result in a first degree conviction.
“Dope fiends and pathological liars”
Niemic’s fatal attack stemmed from his jealousy and rage after he found out while still in prison that a woman he previously considered to be his girlfriend had become close to Correia.
Boston-based defense attorney John Amabile argued that his client acted in self-defense and actually disarmed Correia – who Amabile claimed had brandished the murder weapon after first punching Niemic in the face.
“He (Niemic) is totally innocent,” he told the jury.
“It was very spontaneous,” Amabile said, adding that “everyone in this case is a criminal and a drug addict.”
It came out during the three trials that both Niemic and Correia either were drug addicts or habitually abused drugs.
Amabile also downplayed the credibility of a key witness who testified against Niemic, saying that the man “shot dope before he talked to the cops. He’s a pathological liar and has been a dope fiend for 30 years.”
He also argued that the jury should consider the fact that Niemic has a documented history of mental illness.
During the trial, a clinical forensic psychologist testified that Niemic was diagnosed at the age of 16 with having had a “major depressive disorder,” as well as anxiety, after years of abuse at the hands of his father, mother and stepfather.
Prosecutor and Bristol County deputy defense attorney William McCauley, however, argued that the murder of Correia was clearly “a premeditated, planned killing.”
McCauley told the jury Niemic went looking for Correia that night and retrieved the knife from a parked car after confronting the victim – who was talking on his cell phone and at one point gave a wave of his hand to Niemic, signaling him to wait until he was done with the call.
Niemic construed that gesture, McCauley said, to be “the last straw” which is why he went to the car for his knife.
“He gets the knife, puts up his hood (hoodie) and punches Mr. Correia, who is unarmed and defenseless.”
McCauley reiterated witness testimony that when Niemic pulled out his knife, Correia said: “You’re gonna use a knife on me?”
“He (Niemic) had the opportunity to disengage and he didn’t,” McCauley said. “He thrust the knife into the heart and was not swinging wildly, and then chased him down and stabbed him in the back.”
“Then he jumps in the car and says ‘Go!’ (to a friend who was driving the vehicle that night) and throws the knife out the window,” McCauley said.
Victim impact statements
After the jury came back with its verdict, and before sentencing was handed down, Correia’s mother and sister read their victim impact statements to Judge Daniel O’Shea.
“A piece of me died that day, and it’s still dying,” the older woman said.
The victim’s sister recalled the phone call she received 13 years earlier on Oct. 20 informing her of what had transpired that night.
“‘Your brother has been murdered,’” she said she was told.
The woman described her late brother Michael as having been “funny, loving and one of the most caring people I know” and was convinced he would have become a drug rehabilitation counselor had he not been slain.
She also said Niemic during the trials had shown “no remorse or conscience” and vowed in the future to attend “every parole hearing.”
“I will not give up till the day I die,” she said.
A letter was also read aloud from a woman who previously was friendly with the victim and subsequently adopted his daughter, who was five when her father was stabbed to death.
“She (the girl) visited him at the (drug) treatment facility where he was treated,” she wrote in her letter, in which she also described Correia as having been “kind, gentle and goofy.”
Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn, during a brief press conference outside the Fall River Justice Center building, noted that while Niemic will be eligible for parole within two years’ time he nonetheless respects the jury’s decision.
“I’m satisfied he was convicted of murder,” Quinn said.
Niemic’s father, Keith Niemic, formerly of Fall River, is currently serving a life sentence for the 1995 murder of a Spindle City man.
The elder Niemic stabbed his victim to death after an altercation that involved a woman outside a Plymouth Avenue apartment house in Fall River. He told police the victim, who was intoxicated, had threatened to shoot him.