Peabody restaurant stabbing suspect held without bail

PEABODY, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com/AP) - A cook at a Peabody restaurant charged with fatally stabbing a co-worker was held without bail Monday.

A not guilty plea to a first-degree murder charge was entered on behalf of 23-year-old Jaquan Huston, of Salem, at his arraignment Monday in Peabody District Court.

Authorities say Huston stabbed 38-year-old Elivelton Dias in the back at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday in the kitchen of P.F. Chang's at the Northshore Mall, and then fled the restaurant. He was arrested at his home.

Bill Blundell was working in the kitchen of the restaurant Saturday night, and said he heard screaming, and saw a foot-long sushi knife plunged into Dias' back all the way to the handle.

"I was a couple feet away from him. My body was turned, I turned around and saw the knife in his back," he said.

Prosecutors said in court Huston thought Dias had been talking about him behind his back.

Huston's mother, Shawn Maron-Huston, says her son told her he had been threatened by Dias and "snapped."

Family members say Dias was an immigrant from Brazil who became a father about two weeks ago.

Cox Media Group