Ventre was accused of fatally shooting a former friend, Richard R. Cruso, outside the Acorn Social Club on June 6, 1998. He also was accused of shooting and wounding another former friend, Vincent Leonardo, in the same incident, which stemmed from a two-year-old dispute over a broken dirt bike.

During his first trial in 2000, Ventre claimed he acted in self-defense, but a jury convicted him of second-degree murder and assault with a dangerous weapon. Superior Court Judge John F. Sheehan (now deceased) sentenced him to 50 years in prison.

In 2002, the Supreme Court overturned that conviction, saying Sheehan made several mistakes. For instance, the high court said Sheehan's jury instructions on the self-defense doctrine were "gravely inadequate."

The attorney general's office retried the case in November 2004. But that ended in a mistrial when, during deliberations, one juror gave other jurors information he had found on the Internet about the legal definitions of murder, manslaughter and self-defense.

Prosecutors quickly brought Ventre back to trial, and in December 2004, another jury convicted him of second-degree murder and assault with a dangerous weapon. At the time, Lynch said, "The message of this verdict is, don't give up. Retrials and mistrials are facts of life for prosecutors."

In February 2005 Ventre was sentenced to 50 years in prison - including 40 years to serve for second-degree murder and a consecutive 10-year sentence for assault with a dangerous weapon.

But in late November, the Supreme Court vacated that conviction and sent the case back to Superior Court for retrial.

According to the decision, Ventre's defense lawyer, John F. Cicilline, argued that Superior Court Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia had erred when he instructed the jury that being armed with an unlicensed firearm "shall be prima facie evidence" of an intention to commit a crime of violence.

Cicilline said that instruction wrongly shifted the burden of proof from the prosecution to Ventre by requiring him to prove he did not intend to commit those violent crimes.

DURING DELIBERATIONS, the jury sent a note to the judge, asking him to define the Latin term "prima facie." Indeglia responded in a note that said: "Prima facie evidence is evidence that may assist in establishing a fact."

Cicilline objected again, saying the original instruction coupled with the definition of "prima facie" created a presumption that Ventre intended to commit crimes of violence.

Supreme Court Justice William P. Robinson III wrote the high court's 15-page decision, saying Indeglia "may well have caused the jury to reach an incorrect conclusion as to which party bore the burden of proof."

"We have concluded that the erroneous 'prima facie evidence' instruction directly impacted defendant's plainly articulated defense of self-defense by allowing the jurors to infer that defendant intended to commit the crime of violence with which he was charged," Robinson wrote. "Consequently, we cannot in good conscience hold that this particular instructional error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt."

The shooting stemmed from an argument that dated back to 1997, when Ventre brokered the sale of a dirt bike to Cruso. The motorcycle didn't work, and Cruso gave it back to be fixed, but neither the bike nor the money was ever returned to Cruso.

According to trial testimony, Ventre had a chance encounter with Cruso and Cruso's friend, Leonardo, outside a Providence nightclub. The men got into a fight and later met in the parking lot shared by Tony's Colonial market and the Acorn Social Club on Atwells Avenue.

Ventre was accused of shooting the 23-year-old Cruso in the chest - within an inch of a crucifix tattooed on his chest - and then shooting him again when Cruso was on the ground. Ventre also was accused of shooting Leonardo in the shoulder.

The police have said Ventre and his brother hid in a Mount Pleasant house for two months, and Ventre dyed his hair and grew a moustache. The police said the two-family house had surveillance cameras and listening devices installed outside. The police raided the home in July 1998 and arrested them.