By Steven Fletcher
Staff Writer
—
A man told a District Court judge Tuesday how a group of men threw him down the steps of a Harvard Street house, started beating him, and that someone stabbed him in the chaos.
A woman described how, when she tried to shield the man, beaten on the sidewalk, someone stabbed her as well.
The two witnesses were among those testifying in a hearing held to determine whether Garth "Pinky" Ramos, 22, of Veterans Way — the man who police allege stabbed the pair — is a danger to the community.
But they and Ramos will have to wait until Friday for Judge Richard Mori to make a decision. Ramos remains held in the Middleton Jail, facing a charge of attempted murder, multiple counts of assault and battery, and three counts of sexual assault.
Officers arrested four other men following an investigation headed by Gloucester police Detective Jeremiah Nicastro into the double stabbing and alleged attempted murder in the early-morning hours of April 6.
The afternoon dangerousness hearing in Gloucester District Court came after prosecutors sought it during a bail hearing for Ramos earlier in the day.
"All I heard was people yelling, screaming, ambulances, cops," said the 23 year-old man who was stabbed during the fight.
He and a 21-year-old woman were stabbed after a house party at 15 Harvard St. turned into a brawl on the sidewalk. The man said he left work to go with the woman to the party. When he arrived, he said everyone there was extremely intoxicated, with 10 to 12 people in the small house.
About 10 minutes later, the stabbing victim said, Ramos asked him why the woman was with someone "like him." He said Ramos' words made him angry, but he bit his lip — until, he said, Ramos allegedly groped the woman.
He said he didn't see it happen, but the 21-year-old woman said she yelled out when it did. He said he tried to hit Ramos, and instead hit Donge Sanon, 20, who struck back and is one of the others facing assault charges.
The fight shoved him out the door, he said, and he fell onto the sidewalk. As he went down, the other men, he said, laid into him, kicking and punching.
The man said he didn't know he was stabbed until he saw blood.
He said he didn't see who stabbed him.
The woman was stabbed as she tried to get between the crowd and the male victim. She said she didn't see who stabbed her either.
The man was stabbed three times in the back. The woman, who entered the courtroom on crutches, was stabbed in the lower back, three inches deep.
"I couldn't see," she said, "there were so many people beating (him)."
Police arrested Ramos, Sanon, Corey James, 20, William Garcia, 23, and Mark Mitchell, 21, on charges of assault and battery.
Nicastro said Ramos' clothes were soaked in blood when police arrived, according to the report; the two knife victims were transported by the Fire Department's Rescue Squad to Beverly Hospital. There, they provided statements to Massachusetts State Police.
Ramos told police who came to the scene that he had tried to stop four white males from beating and stabbing the couple. Ramos, who is black, was allegedly nervous, according to police. And when Nicastro began to search him, he tried to stop the search. Ramos was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct.
Nicastro said Ramos allegedly handed the knife off to Garcia, who told officers he did not know anyone had been stabbed. But Garcia gave the knife to the woman who hosted the party, who told police she wrapped the knife in a plastic bag, then in a sweatshirt, and tossed it into the Annisquam River.
Police, Nicastro said, have not found the knife. One knife, he said, is missing from the home's butcher block set.
Ramos' attorney, Ted Beauparlant, said the Police Department's case was built around Ramos from the get-go, despite other factors in the Harvard Street incident.
"The only target during the case," he said, "was him."
Steven Fletcher may be contacted at 1-978-283-7000 x3455, or sfletcher@gloucestertimes.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevengdt.
