It's voluntary manslaughter for career criminal charged with gunning down visiting Kentucky woman

A Suffolk County Superior Court jury today found Casimiro Barros of Roxbury guilty of voluntary manslaughter, rather than first-degree murder, in the March 24, 2007 death of Chiara Levin outside a Dorchester house party, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.

Prosecutors had sought a first-degree conviction, which would have sent Barros away for life without the possibility of parole.

The case of a second man charged with Levin's murder, Manuel Andrade, 36, of Dorchester, has yet to come to trial. Levin was killed in the crossfire between the two, which prosecutors say was the violent culmination of a long-standing beef between Barros's Roxbury boys and Andrade's Dorchester associates.

Prosecutors allege Barros and Andrade got into a battle inside - which ended with Andrade throwing a plate of food at one of Barros's pals and then shooting him in the shoulder for good measure - and that they took the fight outside, pulling guns and taking aim at each other. Officials say one of Barros's bullets hit Levin, sitting inside Andrade's Escalade, in the head, killing her. Levin had met Andrade at a club earlier in the evening but was not involved in the fight, officials said.

By the time he'd turned 20, Barros was already listed by the state as an "an armed career criminal" for a variety of gun-related violent crimes.

In addition to the reduced murder charge, which could get him 20 years, the jury found Barros guilty of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm, the DA's office says. He's scheduled for sentencing tomorrow morning.