By Nick Jacques, News Staff
For four years, Nick Payne never lost hope that the people responsible for his daughter’s death would be brought to justice. Now that day may be approaching.
After a lengthy investigation, prosecutors have said two men will face charges related to the 2008 killing of Northeastern student Rebecca Payne, a crime that students said shocked the university community at the time.
“This was never a cold case,” Nick Payne said. “This was never dead in the water.”
Cornell Smith, 30, formerly of Boston, shot and killed Payne in her Mission Hill apartment in a case of mistaken identity, according to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.
Conley said Smith, who is currently serving a 12-year sentence in federal prison on unrelated drug charges, intended to kill someone else who lived in Payne’s Parker Hill Avenue building. Payne and Smith did not know each other.
“She was, in every sense, an innocent victim,” Conley said in a statement.
A building manager found Payne dead in her Parker Hill Avenue apartment on May 20, 2008. Payne suffered gunshot wounds to her legs and chest. Several neighbors said they heard the shots, but no one called the police.
“It rocked a community to its core,” Lauren Ziaks, who described herself as Payne’s best friend, said in an email to The News. “It shocked a lot of people and took the innocence from many people, even those who did not know her.”
Payne, 22, of New Milford, Conn., was an athletic training major and an active member of Northeastern’s athletic training community. She was the president of the athletic training club, the trainer for the women’s hockey team, and she mentored a sophomore athletic training major.
The National Athletic Trainers’ Association set up a scholarship in Payne’s memory. There is also a stone dedicated to Payne in the Garden of Peace in downtown Boston.
The news of Smith’s indictment has brought some closure to family and friends, but they said the pain of their loss has not faded.
“At least someone’s on the way to be accountable for what they did,” Nick Payne said. But he added that, “we don’t have our daughter back.”
Friends described having mixed emotions when they learned of the indictment.
“I got very emotional, then I was overcome by a feeling of relief, knowing the system was going to prevail,” Jessica Meiley, 25, who was Payne’s roommate in Stetson West their freshman year, said about hearing of Smith’s indictment.
Ziaks, 26, said she thought police had stopped working the case. She also said she will be more relieved if and when Smith is convicted.
“I think it will be upon conclusion of the case that anyone will be able to feel at peace,” she said.
Payne’s parents will hold a march from Parker Hill Avenue to City Hall Plaza in her honor on May 20, the fourth anniversary of her death. The march will begin at noon.
A second man, Michael Balba, has been charged with four counts of perjury in connection with the case.
Prosecutors say Balba regularly bought crack-cocaine from Smith, and drove Smith to Payne’s building the night of the murder.
During Balba’s April 30 arraignment, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum said Balba waited in his car and smoked crack while Smith entered the building to shoot Payne. An unidentified third man stood guard.
Balba was granted immunity, but he allegedly lied to a Suffolk County grand jury during an investigation into Payne’s murder.
James Dangora Jr., Balba’s attorney, said Balba told the grand jury he could not remember some of the details of May 20, 2008.
“If he has no memory, then he has no memory,” Dangora said to the Boston Globe. “He did testify and he cooperated to his fullest ability.”
Trial Magistrate Gary D. Wilson set Balba’s bail at $100,000.
It remains unclear when Smith will return to Massachusetts to face charges.
Payne’s family and friends are anxiously waiting for that day to come.
“There are a lot of questions I still have and a lot of things I have yet to understand in regards to this case,” Ziaks said.
