Nicolas Blanchard stands next to his attorney, Ed Folsom, at his initial appearance Monday at the Cumberland County Courthouse. Blanchard is charged with stabbing a 15-year-old during a soccer game in Scarborough on Friday. (Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald)
A 20-year-old Scarborough man has been ordered held on $1,000 bail after he was charged with stabbing a 15-year-old in the Scarborough High School parking lot during halftime of a school soccer game Friday, court records show.
Nicolas Blanchard faces one count of aggravated assault and one count of violating the conditions of his release after he allegedly stabbed the boy in the lower parking lot of Scarborough High School over a supposed $20 debt, according to police reports filed in Cumberland County Unified Criminal Court.
Blanchard, who goes by “Nico,” is accused of rushing toward the victim and stabbing him in the chest before running off.
In addition to the bail amount, Judge Andrew Horton also ordered that Blanchard comply with a Maine pretrial contract, that he stay off town-owned property in Scarborough and that he not possess knives or blades, and submit to random searches.
Blanchard’s criminal history is scant, according to the state Bureau of Identification. He was arrested in September for criminal trespass at the Maine Mall.
Blanchard’s attorney, Ed Folsom, declined to comment.
According to police, the victim did not immediately realize he was stabbed, but after a few minutes he felt a burning sensation and saw blood, police said.
“I asked (the victim) if he saw anything in Nico’s hand,” Scarborough Police Officer Daniel Donovan wrote in a report filed in support of the charges. “He told me it all happened so fast he did not realize he was stabbed until a few minutes after the interaction.”
Believing the wound was not serious, friends of the victim drove to Walgreens, bought a bandage and anti-bacterial cream. The victim and his friends then returned to watch the second half of the girls semifinal soccer game.
The victim went to the hospital later that night only when the bleeding did not stop and at the urging of his friends, police said. He received two stitches to close the roughly one-inch wound to his left chest area, police said.
The victim told police that Blanchard hung around with high school students and picked on them, and that the victim was the only one who would stand up to Blanchard, who had also been sending the victim messages on social media to the affect of “I am going to eliminate you,” the police report said.
The two young men met through a mutual acquaintance, police said, but it was not clear how close they were.
According to the victim, Blanchard had stolen money from the victim before, and in return, the victim had punched Blanchard on two occasions, once in the face and once in the stomach.
Police interviewed Blanchard at his home. Before investigators mentioned anything about the nature of the victim’s injuries, Blanchard told them, “I did not stab him,” the police report said.
Blanchard said he had a knife but did not stab the victim and only wanted to scare him because he owed him money, at one point talking over the detective as the officer attempted to read Blanchard his Miranda rights.
After Blanchard was read his rights and agreed to waive them, he told detectives he carries knives to protect himself “because he never knows what will happen in the streets,” the police report said.
The knife he used was in the center console of his car outside the home, and after Blanchard gave police consent to search his vehicle, they found four knives. One of them had blood on it, but Blanchard told police the blood was his own, and that he had cut himself more than a year ago and showed an old scar on his arm. He was arrested at his house and taken to Cumberland County Jail.
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