Not Guilty Plea In Boston's 1st Homicide Of 2013

A Boston man has been held on $500,000 bail after pleading not guilty to murder in connection with a fatal stabbing at a party in the early morning hours of New Year's Day.

Prosecutors say 24-year-old Brian MacDonald stabbed 21-year-old Anthony Spaulding during a brawl at Spaulding's Allston apartment at about 2:45 a.m. Tuesday. The argument was sparked, authorities say, after Spaulding asked revelers to quiet down.

MacDonald had gone to the party with his girlfriend, an invited guest.

Police found MacDonald by following a trail of blood in the snow from a cut on his hand.

Spaulding, from Harwich, was a student at the New England Institute of Art.

MacDonald's lawyer, Tom Hoopes, said the slaying was "self-defense or manslaughter."

"This case is just a sad, sad situation for everybody involved," Hoopes said. "For the parents, for the victim, and for the defendant."

It was Boston's first homicide of 2013 after 58 in 2012.

With reporting by The Associated Press and the WBUR Newsroom