AUBURN – The man accused of killing Casey Stanley sat in Androscoggin County Superior Court Wednesday with more than a dozen of the dead man’s family and friends looking on.

Some stared. Some glared. Some cried as Ryan Muncey, 28, of Drew Street in Lewiston attended his first court appearance in connection with the slaying. He sat in a bright orange jail suit, his wrists and ankles shackled. He said nothing.

Muncey was back in Maine after being arrested and held in Illinois Sunday as a material witness in connection with the fatal stabbing. He was brought back to Maine after waiving extradition.

Police say Muncey stabbed Stanley, 26, of Auburn in the heart with a single, fatal blow the night of June 11 at Moulton Field next to the former Great Falls School.

Muncey had apparently fled the state last week with his girlfriend, Alisha Turner, 25, and possibly with their 1-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son. Police said they don’t plan to charge Turner.

Muncey was ordered held without bail at Androscoggin County Jail until a bail hearing at the end of the month or possibly on July 7 to determine if there is probable cause to continue holding him and whether he should be allowed bail.

Androscoggin County Assistant District Attorney Craig Turner, sitting in for Deputy Attorney General William Stokes, said the case likely would go to a grand jury on July 9. That grand jury could hand up an indictment on a murder charge after hearing evidence presented by the Attorney General’s Office.

A Maine State Police detective swore out a criminal complaint on Tuesday charging Muncey with murder. Conviction is punishable by 25 years to life in prison.

Details about the stabbing haven’t been released by police. Turner said Wednesday that an affidavit in the case, likely revealing many of those details, should be kept sealed until after the grand jury meets.

Stanley’s mother, Vickie, said, “it was hard” seeing the man charged with her son’s death.

“It hurts,” she said outside the courthouse after the hearing. “I lost a part of myself. Casey was a good person. He had a bigger heart than his body was. It was useless, senseless.”

His brother, Donald, said justice wouldn’t be served even if Muncey is convicted and spends the rest of his life in prison.

“I just don’t feel that it’s right that a person can go murder someone and then go sit there and have three meals handed to him every day and watch a color TV and play video games and play pool. That’s wrong. Now he’s got a life of not having to worry about anything.”

One of Stanley’s friends said he felt only anger as he looked on during Muncey’s hearing.

Travis Hale said Muncey didn’t know Stanley, whom he’d known since 2003. Hale said he was with Casey that night when his friend wandered off into the woods to talk on the phone with his fiancée.

“We saw some random guy go running past us,” Hale said. “We didn’t think nothing of it. Just some weirdo running out of the woods. Fifteen seconds later, Casey come out, bleeding from his heart, dying.”

Hale said he felt embarrassed afterward, having been unable to help his friend. “I froze. I couldn’t do anything. I saw him, my friend, bleeding and I knew there was no chance the way he was holding his chest.”