Marblehead man charged in stabbing; held without bail

MARBLEHEAD – A 20-year-old Marblehead man is being held in Middleton Jail pending a dangerousness hearing after he allegedly stabbed a man during an altercation early Thursday morning, missing the man?s vital organs by “centimeters,” according to a Marblehead Police report.Police responded around 4:15 a.m. Thursday to the area of Washington and Hawkes streets for reports of a fight. They arrived in time to see a man later identified as Matthew Schwartz, of 5 Walnut St., attempting to flee, and took him into custody after a brief standoff with their weapons drawn, according to the report.Witnesses said they saw Schwartz outside a Pleasant Street apartment waving a knife around and yelling profanities, the report said, so two men went outside to calm him down. One of the men told officers Schwartz appeared to be “out of control” and threw several pieces of trash at him and the alleged victim, David Elliot Adkins of Marblehead, before running toward an alley on Pleasant Street.When Adkins and the second man turned around to go inside, Schwartz “rushed Adkins from the rear” and stabbed him in the back, according to the report.During booking, Schwartz told police, “I (messed) up. I got sensitive, I got jealous.”Schwartz told police Adkins had been “trying to hook up with his girlfriend for about three months,” and that he “had an altercation” with the victim several days ago, according to the report. He said he threw a 2.9-inch knife over a nearby fence, but police could not locate it. Police determined Schwartz had a blood alcohol content of .2 percent shortly after the incident, according to the report.Adkins told police he turned his back as Schwartz ran away and then felt “what he thought was ?a punch to my back,?” the report said. The “punch” was actually a 3 to 4-inch-deep knife wound that cut through numerous muscles in Adkins? back, the report said. He was treated and released from Salem Hospital.A judge ordered Schwartz held without bail Thursday in District Court pending a July 27 dangerousness hearing, according to court records.Taylor Provost can be reached at [email protected].