It was almost 3 a.m. on New Year’s Day when Anthony Spaulding tried to quiet down one of the people attending a party inside his Allston home and was then killed when he was stabbed during a fight that followed his request, prosecutors said.
Brian MacDonald, 24, of Brighton, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to murder for allegedly stabbing Spaulding. He was ordered held on $500,000 cash bail.
Officers responded to 48 Pratt St. at about 2:40 a.m. There they found Spaulding outside suffering from stab wounds. He was rushed to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where he later died. Spaulding was stabbed at least twice, according to prosecutors. It was the first murder in Boston this year.
Holly Broadbent, an assistant district attorney, said MacDonald came to the party with his girlfriend, who was the invited guest.
She said that Spaulding stepped out of his bedroom and told MacDonald to quiet down. That’s when the two started to fight. They rolled down some stairs and the fight spilled outside.
A person at the party told police that when MacDonald was pulled off of Spaulding both were covered in blood. MacDonald then fled the scene with a cut hand.
Broadbent said police were able to identify MacDonald as a suspect because of witness statements, video surveillance of him fleeing the scene and the blood trail from his cut hand that led officers toward his home.
MacDonald’s attorney, Tom Hoopes, suggested that the stabbing was an act of self-defense.
He said MacDonald’s criminal history consists of a speeding ticket, that he has spent his entire life in the Greater Boston area and was recently promoted to an assistant manager at a local Sears auto shop.
“This is not a murder case. This is not a first or second-degree murder case,” said Hoopes as he suggested his client was defending himself.
MacDonald’s mother attended Wednesday’s arraignment, but did not comment to reporters at the hearing.
“This case is just a sad, sad situation for everybody involved, for the parents, for the victim and for the defendant,” Hoopes said.
Spaulding was a student at The New England Institute of Art in Brookline.
About eight of Spaulding’s friends attended the arraignment of his accused murderer, but did not want to speak with reporters.
Some of them left the courtroom crying.
Allison
Bubello, a fellow student at the school, said she was not at the party
and did not know what happened, but she said Spaulding “never once
seemed to have a violent streak in him.”
“He was always a respectable, well spoken guy,” she said.
Bubello also said Spaulding was “an amazing drummer” with a remarkable passion for the instrument.
“The students of [the Institute of Art] are going to be affected by this for a long time,” she said.
