PORTLAND, Maine — An Everett, Mass., man has been indicted for elevated aggravated assault after police say he stabbed a Portland man who allegedly made a derogatory racial comment about him in November.
The stabbing caused the victim to suffer “serious” injury, according to court documents.
Steven Sayles, 26, was indicted earlier this month by a Cumberland County grand jury. He remained in Cumberland County Jail on Thursday afternoon, held on $10,000 cash bail or $50,000 property, according to jail officials.
According to affidavits filed by several Portland police officers, Sayles and three or four other men approached a man and woman in a parking lot near the Oxford Street Shelter early on the morning of Nov. 13. The two groups engaged in friendly conversation until the victim, a 33-year-old Portland man, allegedly used a racial slur to refer to Sayles, who is black.
Sayles then allegedly drew out a knife and stabbed the victim five or six times in the back, arm and leg. According to a report by medical staff at Maine Medical Center, the knife grazed the victim’s kidney and just missed his lung.
Several people, including a shelter employee, witnessed the altercation.
Sayles is scheduled for trial in Portland Superior Court on March 14.