SJC Rejects Reduced Verdict in College Student's Murder

BOSTON -- The state's highest court has rejected an appeal by convicted killer Robert Gulla to reduce the 26-year-old Shirley man's first-degree murder verdict to manslaughter in the 2010 brutal slaying of a Fitchburg State University student.

In a decision issued Wednesday, state Supreme Judicial Court Justice Kimberly S. Budd wrote, "The evidence at trial did not support a finding of sudden passion induced by reasonable provocation, sudden combat, or excessive use of force in self-defense.''

She concluded the court can find "no reason to reduce the degree of guilt or grant a new trial.''

During Gulla's 2012 trial in Middlesex Superior Court, the jury heard how on Jan. 23, 2010, Gulla beat, strangled, stabbed and shot the victim between the eyes with a pellet gun, killing 19-year-old Allison Myrick, of Groton, in the basement of his family's Shirley home.

After all that, Gulla extinguished his lit cigarette on her flesh. tried to kill himself by cutting his wrist and shooting himself in the head with the pellet gun. The

Gulla, then 21, was found guilty of first-degree murder by deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty. Gulla was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In arguing that Gulla's 2012 verdict should be reduced to manslaughter from first- degree murder in the slaying of Allison Myrick, attorney Paul Maidman argued that Gulla's trial attorney should have used some sort mental-health and crime of passion defense.

Gulla has a variety of mental-health issues, including Asperger's Syndrome compounded by alcohol abuse, Maidman argued.

Gulla and Myrick, a freshman at Fitchburg State University, had been dating on and off for four months. Myrick ended the relationship due to Gulla's abusive behavior toward her and began dating someone else.

On the day of the murder, Myrick, who still had an active restraining order against Gulla due to his past assaults, went over to his house to talk to him. He flew into a rage after seeing her texting her new boyfriend, killing her.

Mental-health expert Allison Fife, a prosecution witness, testified that while Gulla has a personality disorder with traits of other mental illnesses, he is intelligent and high-functioning.

Fife testified that Gulla knew right from wrong and was capable of forming the intent to kill. Fife told the jury that Gulla's behavior was not driven by mental illness, but "extraordinarily severe signs of rage.".

Courtesy photos of Robert Gulla and Allison Myrick.