Third Kirkland Shooting Suspect Pleads Not Guilty

The third suspect arrested in connection with the fatal May shooting in Kirkland House pleaded not guilty Monday to first degree murder and three other charges.

Jason Aquino, 23, who was arrested at his home in Harlem on Thursday, was charged with first degree murder, accessory after the fact of murder, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm in Cambridge District Court. Judge Roann Sragow-Licht ordered Aquino to be held in jail without bail.

Aquino’s next appearance at court—a probable cause hearing—will take place at the Cambridge District Court on Sept. 3, according to Corey Welford, a spokesman for the Middlesex District Attorney’s office. Boston attorney Matthew A. Kamholtz will represent Aquino and was present at the arraignment on his behalf.

Aquino was arraigned in the Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday afternoon on a fugitive affidavit—wearing the same white-and-blue-striped shirt that he wore at today’s hearing—and agreed to be extradited to Massachusetts.

The second suspect in the shooting to be detained by police, Blayn Jiggetts, 19, of Mount Vernon, N.Y., was arrested in Harlem on June 9, but has refused to return voluntarily to Massachusetts to face charges. He is being jailed without bail in New York. Prosecutors are seeking a governor’s warrant—which requires the signatures of both the Massachusetts and New York governors—to extradite Jiggetts to Massachusetts to face charges at the Middlesex Superior Court. Jiggetts is scheduled to appear at an arraignment at the Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday.

—Staff writer Bonnie J. Kavoussi can be reached at kavoussi@fas.harvard.edu.