Mother says teen murder witness had been threatened

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The mother of the 15-year-old murder witness who was fatally shot on the eve of the trial said Tuesday that her daughter asked for police protection and was told she didn't need any.

''She say, 'I want the protection because I'm afraid,''' Iris Rivera said in an interview outside her home. ''They say, 'Don't worry about the protection.'''

But police and the attorney general's office insist that Jennifer Rivera was offered help several times and always declined.

Prosecutors met with the family a week ago and were not told of any fears when they asked if she needed help, Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse said.

''I wish to God we had known of that before Sunday,'' he said. ''We had no knowledge of any threats.''

Rivera was the state's key witness in the trial of Charles Pona. The trial was to start Monday but was postponed indefinitely after she was shot Sunday. She died Monday.

Lawyers for Pona, who has been free on bail for about a month, deny their client was involved.

Iris Rivera said that a week before her daughter was shot, someone who did not identify themselves called one of her daughter's friends and said: ''Don't walk with Jennifer, somebody is going to kill her.'' So when detectives and prosecutors met with Jennifer last week, the teen asked them for help, Rivera said.

But police Maj. Martin Hames said the teen and her mother repeatedly told his detective assigned to the case that they did not want protection.

''Every time the detective had contact with her he made that offer and she said no,'' Hames said.

The teen had testified in Pona's November bail hearing that she heard gunshots then saw Pona fleeing from the area where Hector Feliciano, 17, was killed in August. Pona, 19, has been free on $10,000 cash bail since April 22.