AUBURN – A teen charged in the February stabbing death of a Lewiston man is expected to claim he was acting in self-defense, his lawyer said Thursday.

A judge ordered Sergio Hairston, 18, held without bail while he awaits trial, likely to be held early next year.

Androscoggin County Superior Court Justice Ellen Gorman listened to arguments made by both sides during a probable cause hearing Thursday afternoon before deciding Hairston might pose a danger to the community if released on bail.

Hairston’s attorney, Heather Walker, said the evidence will show her client acted in self-defense when he was in the Bartlett Street apartment where Richard Lessard was stabbed to death. Following the hearing, Hairston pleaded “not guilty” to murder and aggravated assault in connection with the case.

More than a dozen of Hairston’s supporters, including family members, turned out for the hourlong hearing. Hairston, who had been held at Androscoggin County Jail, wore a royal blue jail suit.

Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese presented evidence supporting the grand jury indictment that charged Hairston with murder and aggravated assault. She noted Hairston had been charged as a juvenile with assault and criminal threatening.

She called to the witness stand the lead investigator for the Maine State Police. Detective Herbert Leighton outlined the events on the morning of Feb. 23 when Lessard was stabbed to death.

Hairston’s behavior was “very dangerous,” she said, “very scary.”

Witnesses said Hairston had followed Lessard up to the second-floor apartment. He was looking to collect a $250 drug debt from Lessard’s son, Dustin. Lessard went to look for his son’s phone number.

When Lessard’s wife, Pauline, told Hairston to leave the apartment, he refused, Leighton said. She pushed Hairston and he cut her chest with a knife. She hit him in the head with a box containing window blinds.

Lessard’s daughter, Karie, said she came into the apartment and found her father on the floor, Leighton said. Lessard told his daughter he was going to die. “He stabbed me,” Lessard told her.

Police matched a description given by Karie Lessard of Hairston, who was about three-tenths of a mile from the stabbing scene, his lip bleeding. Leighton said she had seen Hairston when he first came to the apartment. During a pat-down search, police found a bloodstained knife and bloody washcloth on Hairston, Leighton said.

Walker said there were no witnesses to the stabbing who saw a knife. Leighton said Pauline Lessard told police in an interview that she saw Hairston making a plunging motion in Lessard’s direction but didn’t see a knife. She later forgot the events involving her husband, she testified Thursday after Walker called her to the stand.

She told police she had smoked crack and marijuana and had been drinking beer before the stabbing, Leighton said.

She had been awakened by her husband. After the altercation with Hairston, she left the apartment to hide because a court order barred Lessard from having contact with his wife and she knew the police would be coming, she said.

There was no evidence that Hairston went to Lessard’s apartment intending to commit murder, Walker said. “I suggest to the court this is a case of self-defense.”

Hairston was allowed into the building and into the apartment, she said. He didn’t run from police.

He is in medium security at jail, where he is pursuing his General Equivalency Diploma along with church and Bible studies, she said.