Fight, stabbing at Lynn restaurant leads to five being held without bail

A judge ordered four men and a woman held without bail after police said a fight at a Summer Street restaurant Sunday moved outside and resulted in three people being stabbed.”(A witness) stated that one of his friends was being stabbed multiple times by one of these individuals and described it as if he was being gutted like a pig,” Lynn Police Officer Ronald Diaz wrote in a report.Jennifer Echeverria, 23, of 65 Elm St., David Echeverria, 20, of the same address, Starling Guerrero, 27, of 60 Rogers Ave., Alvaro Santana-Rodriguez, 21, of 173 Shepard St., and Julio Valdez, 37, of 6 Hawthorne Blvd., Salem, were arrested late Sunday night and charged with three counts each of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon; armed assault to murder; and assault and battery.A plea of not guilty was entered on each defendant’s behalf Monday in Lynn District Court.Police responded at approximately 11:30 p.m. Sunday to the El Pulgarsito Restaurant on Summer Street on the report of a fight with multiple stabbing victims, and to an Elm Street house to where the suspects had allegedly run, according to police reports.Police found three 32-year-old men had been stabbed; two of the victims were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston while the third was taken to Salem Hospital.Essex Assistant District Attorney Justin Edwards said Monday that surveillance footage from the restaurant showed that an argument occurred in the establishment. Three men subsequently left, followed outside by two of the defendants, Edwards said. A fight that he said police described as “a melee” ensued in the street, with Jennifer Echevarria allegedly holding one person down and punching him while another man stabbed the alleged victim. The victims all had non-life-threatening injuries, police later learned.Edwards requested the defendants be held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing when the alleged victims – at least one of whom Edwards said he believed remained in the hospital – could testify.Defense attorneys did not challenge probable cause but asked the hearing be continued so the public defender’s office could prepare.Judge Ellen Flatley ordered the defendants held without bail pending the dangerousness hearing.