Rich Pedroncelli / AP file

Teacher Cecilia Richardson helps a student tie a ribbon honoring murder victim, third grader Leila Fowler, at Jenny Lind Elementary School in Valley Springs, Calif., Monday April 29, 2013.

A 12-year-old California boy accused of fatally stabbing his 8-year-old sister pleaded not guilty during a closed court proceeding on Wednesday, his attorney said, according to NBC News affiliate KCRA.

The young boy who has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Leila Fowler spoke once during the Calaveras County juvenile court proceeding, saying “yes” when the judge asked if he waived his right to a speedy trial.

There is no “smoking gun” pointing to the boy’s guilt, said attorney Mark Reichel, who is representing the boy.

The boy originally said that an intruder was responsible in the death of his sister, setting off a two-week manhunt centered on the Northern California town of Valley Springs. Officers went door to door in a search for the tall man with long gray hair who the boy said he startled before discovering his bleeding sister.

“We’re still in the middle of our own personal investigation of the facts,” Reichel said, according to KCRA.

The boy’s family has said they’re supporting their son until all the facts are known.

“Until they have the proper evidence to show it’s my son, we’re standing behind him,” the boy’s father Barnet Fowler told the Associated Press. “If they have the evidence, well, that’s another story. We’re an honest family.”

The boy, who is not being named by NBC News because he is a minor, is attending school classes from his single-room jail cell, KCRA reported.

“We talk to him often, and he’s doing pretty well actually,” Reichel said. “It’s not ideal, but it’s acceptable for now.”

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The 12-year-old brother of an 8-year-old girl stabbed to death in her home last month has been charged with second-degree murder, NBC station KCRA in Sacramento reported.

His sister, Leila Fowler, was found in their Valley Springs home in Northern California on April 27 with knife wounds.

The brother, who reported the stabbing to police, told investigators that he had scared off a long-haired intruder.

The boy’s attorney, Mark Reichel, told KCRA Tuesday that the boy may have lied about the intruder, making up a "macho" story, but that didn’t mean he was a killer.

Calaveras County sheriff’s deputies searched several homes in the area in an attempt to gather evidence before arresting the boy on May 11. He is being held in a juvenile detention center.

Reichel told KCRA that he met with the boy in jail on Tuesday.

Police have not revealed what evidence they have in the case.

After the boy’s arrest on Saturday, Calaveras County Sheriff Gary Kuntz made a brief statement.

"Citizens of Calaveras County can sleep a little better tonight," Kuntz said, according to NBCBayArea.com.

Faculty members at his college said he got good grades. His co-workers at the local library had kind words to say about him. Neighbors remembered him as a friendly kid growing up.

When Dylan Quick, the suspect in Tuesday’s stabbing spree at Lone Star College in Texas, was arrested, it came as a shock to seemingly everybody who knew him – or thought that they knew him.

“He has shared with us that he has had fantasies about stabbing people since the age of 8,” Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday about Quick. “He has been planning this event for some time.”

The stabbings at Lone Star, located in the Houston suburb of Cyprus, occurred Tuesday morning just after 11 a.m. Garcia said investigators believe the victims were randomly selected, and said a “razor utility knife” made by X-acto was used in the attacks.

It’s unclear what caused Quick to allegedly plan and execute the attack that led to 14 of his classmates being wounded.

"There are no signs that he was a problem student," Dr. Audre Levy, president of Lone Star College's CyFair campus, said at Wednesday's news conference. "I do know that he worked in the library, and the library staff had very fond things to say about him."

His next-door neighbor in Houston, Michael Lincoln, told The Houston Chronicle that Quick always struck him as a “very friendly kid.” But he said that he is “real quiet and keeps to himself.”

He told the paper that just last week, Quick helped him pull down a branch that had fallen on his roof. Other neighbors also described him as polite and helpful.

According to The Chronicle, Quick was born hearing-impaired, and went to a mainstream school in Houston until 2004, and then was home-schooled.

Handout / Harris County Sheriff's Office via Reuters

Dylan Quick, 20.

Garcia said on Wednesday that authorities hadn’t found any evidence that Quick had been bullied. He had worked in the town’s public library for a year and was just featured in his school’s “student spotlight” blog on April 1, which said Quick was also in a book club. The blog has since been taken down, but screenshots captured by KPRC.com, NBC’s affiliate in Houston, show that Quick had big plans for his future, according to the profile: to transfer to the University of Houston after getting his associate’s degree from Lone Star, and eventually pursuing a career in accounting.

Authorities apprehended Quick – a 20-year-old with curly, red-hair – shortly after the stabbings were reported from inside the health science building at the school’s CyFair campus.

The entire incident only lasted "a couple of minutes. That's how fast it happened," Garcia said.

Inside Quick’s backpack, investigators found another precision knife that wasn’t used in the attack, he said.

Investigators described Quick as matter-of-fact during their questioning.

"He has been very forthcoming," Garcia said.

Quick has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault. He was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Harris County district attorney told NBC News his family had hired an attorney for him. Investigators executed a search warrant on Quick's house, confiscating his computer and other items to try to get an idea of what may have prompted him to allegedly plan the attack.

All of the victims in the attack are expected to recover.

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• Student charged with assault in stabbing spree at Texas college

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 10, 2013 11:42 AM EDT

At least 14 people were hurt Tuesday in a stabbing spree at a Texas community college apparently carried out by a student who was later taken into custody, authorities said.

At least two victims were in critical condition. It was not immediately clear how severe the other injuries were. The stabbing happened at the CyFair campus of Lone Star College, in the Houston suburb of Cypress.

Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle via AP

Dylan Quick, right, a suspect in the multiple stabbings on the Lone Star CyFair campus, is escorted by a Harris County Sheriff's Office investigator on Tuesday.

Law enforcement officials have identified student Dylan Andrew Quick, 20, as the suspected assailant, and the Harris County District Attorney's Office has filed three charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. 

Bond has been set at $100,000 for each charge, but more could be filed, officials said.

Quick used a "razor-type knife" in the attack, according to a statement from the Harris County Sheriff's Office. He told authorities he had fantasies of stabbing people to death since he was in elementary school, and indicated he had been planning the attack for long period of time.

The school said the attack happened “in and around” its health science building.

Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute said it had two patients in critical condition and six in all, including four flown there by helicopter. Three patients were upgraded to good condition Tuesday evening and one had been discharged.

A spokeswoman for another hospital, North Cypress Medical Center, said it had taken six stabbing victims who were in stable condition.

Two other victims were treated at the scene and declined to be taken to the hospital, the sheriff said.

The school closed for the day and ordered students to find shelter somewhere safe. Campus police caught the suspect, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said. The school will open Wednesday for regularly scheduled classes. Counselors will be on hand to speak with students and employees.

The stabbing happened just after 11 a.m., a college official said. The school had warned students that a second suspect might be at large, but sheriff’s officials said later that they believed they had the only suspect in custody.

Lone Star College student Kayla Brightkrite was walking down an empty hall on her way to class Tuesday when a teacher quickly pulled her into his classroom, she told NBC News in an email.

Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle

Life Flight personnel rush a stabbing victim off a helicopter at a Houston hospital after a stabbing spree Tuesday near Lone Star College in Cypress, Texas.

She initially had no idea an attack had taken place until other students quietly huddled in the room told her.

"I asked a guy what was going on and they said a kid had just been stabbed in the neck down the hall from them and they heard someone scream, 'Oh my God! Call 911!'" she recalled.

Brightkrite stayed in the classroom for nearly 45 minutes until school officials said they could exit out the back of the building.

In the parking lot, she saw a man in handcuffs being put in a police car. "He looked at me and once he got into the car, he gave me a large demented smile," Brightkrite said

In January, three people were shot at a separate campus of the same college. A federal official said that those shootings appeared to be gang-related. A 22-year-old man was charged with aggravated assault.

The Lone Star system of colleges has 90,000 students in all.

Related content:

• Student: I tackled Lone Star stabbing suspect 

This story was originally published on Tue Apr 9, 2013 8:38 PM EDT

Boston police on Thursday announced the arrest of a man they suspect lured the mother of one of his children into an ambush where he restrained her as his current girlfriend stabbed her in broad daylight.

Daquan Sparks, 19, has been charged with assault with intent to murder for allegedly holding the victim while Samia Jones repeatedly stabbed the woman in the shocking attack that took place Monday in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood.

Jones, 17, was arrested hours after the attack and plead not-guilty for the same charge her boyfriend now faces.

According to police, Sparks asked the victim to meet him to her a pair of shoes for their eight-month-old child. But as she walked down the street with a stroller, the ex-boyfriend attacked, holding her while Jones stabbed her multiple times.

The woman remains in stable condition and the child was not hurt, according to police.

After the attack, the bloody and bruised woman dragged herself and her stroller to an ice cream shop where she collapsed.

Sparks will be arraigned in Dorchester District Court on Friday.

A young mother pushing her baby in a stroller was stabbed repeatedly in broad daylight Monday in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester.

After the vicious attack, which left her year-old infant unharmed, the woman dragged herself and her blood-spattered stroller around a corner before collapsing in front of an ice cream shop, local NBC affiliate WHDH reported.

“Whoever did it, definitely cowards, to do something like that to a young mother,” ice cream store owner Joseph Conway told the Boston Herald. “She was stabbed pretty badly. There was blood all over the stroller.”

The unidentified woman was stabbed several times on Monday around 4 p.m., police told The Associated Press. She was rushed to Boston Medical Center, and her injuries were not considered life threatening.

“It’s pretty shocking, yeah. I’ve never heard of anything like that happening before,” local shopkeeper Eric Lundquist told WHDH.

A 17-year-old female suspect was arrested later on Monday in connection with the stabbing, WHDH reported.

A Delaware man was in custody on Monday after stabbing his elderly parents, police said.

The incident occurred Sunday at around 9 a.m. at a home in Greenwood, Del. where the suspect and his parents live, police said.

Ricky Brewington, 51, allegedly used a butcher knife to stab his 80-year-old mother and 82-year-old father in the kitchen of their home. Investigators said the victims then drove to a local fire department for medical care, while Brewington called 911 to report the incident.

Read more news on NBC10.com

A police officer arrived at the home and took Brewington into custody without incident. His parents were taken from the fire station to Nanticoke Hospital where they were both in stable condition.

Brewington was charged with attempted murder and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony. He was committed to Sussex Correctional Institution on $150,000 cash bail.

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WASHINGTON -- Police found several weapons stashed in a Metro station as they investigated a fatal stabbing.

According to court documents, crime scene investigators found a gun behind a locker on the north end of the Woodley Park platform, a bloody knife on top of a pylon and another knife hidden in a phone booth at the other end. All the items are believed to have been placed in the seconds after 18-year-old Olijawon Griffin was stabbed to death on the mezzanine platform early on Nov. 17.

The Woodley Park Metro station exits on Connecticut Avenue, leading to the National Zoo.

Read more news on NBCWashington.com

Prosecutors describe the murder as the result of a chain of robbery and violence that began as what one witness described as a setup to steal Griffin's expensive Helly Hansen jacket, which can retail for $300.

The nine suspects arrested ranged in age from 15 to 17. Only one was originally charged as an adult, but juvenile charges were dropped against four defendants, all 17, on Monday and they were charged as adults with armed robbery.

Yara Nardi/F3 Press

Reid Schepis is taken into custody Thursday after he was alleged to have stabbed fellow student Fabio Malpeso.

Updated at 4:15 a.m. ET on Nov. 5: ROME -- A 19-year-old American was in critical condition Friday after he was allegedly stabbed while he slept by a fellow student following a night of partying in the Italian capital, officials told NBC News.

The victim, New Jersey-born Fabio Malpeso underwent surgery for stab wounds to his lungs and other parts of his body. Police said Friday that Malpeso was in critical but stable condition in intensive care at a hospital in Rome. 

Authorities said the motive for the attack, which happened in an apartment that overlooks Rome's famous Colosseum early Thursday morning, was unclear. However, detectives suspect "drug- and alcohol-related delirium" might be a factor.

The alleged assailant, who was taken to a police station and then a prison in central Rome, was named as Reid Alexander Schepis, 20. The suspect and victim are both students at John Cabot University, an American college in Rome.

Police said Schepis, a resident of Reggio Calabria in southern Italy, appeared to have joint U.S. and Italian citizenship, but they were working to establish his nationalities.

Lawyer: Suspect a 'model student'
Schepis' lawyer, Vincenzo Comi, said his client was "distraught and exhausted," after visiting the young man in jail Friday.

"He is clearly under shock, and nothing in his past could have prepared him for this. He has never had any problems with the law and has always been a model student with top grades,” Comi said, adding he did not want to say what Schepis had told him at this stage.

Comi said Schepis’ mother was American and his father Italian, and as far as he was aware Schepis had dual citizenship.

A third man, an Italian aged in his 30s named Andrea Rinaldi, suffered injuries to his arms and hands trying to defend Malpeso, and was also in the hospital, police said.

Paolo Guiso, a judiciary police inspector who is leading the investigation, told NBC News Friday that Schepis and Malpeso had returned to the apartment, where Malpeso's sister Federica and Rinaldi were also staying, after partying in a nightclub Wednesday night and early Thursday.

Yara Nardi / F3 Press

The building where Schepis is alleged to have stabbed Malpeso is not far from the Coliseum in central Rome.

More international coverage from NBC News

"Federica, Rinaldi and Fabio went to bed at 6 a.m. [Thursday]. Reid stayed in the living room. At a certain point, he went to the kitchen, fetched a knife and went into Fabio's room, where he started to stab the sleeping youth," Guiso alleged. 

"Hearing the screaming and commotion, Rinaldi and the victim's sister ran in to see what was happening. They stepped in to defend Fabio, which resulted in Rinaldi suffering cuts to his hands and arms," he said.

"The motive of the attack is still not clear. At present we … believe that the violence was brought on due to a drug- and alcohol-related delirium," Guiso added.

'Best friends'
Guiso said early Friday that he had not been able to speak properly with Schepis as he was "still half asleep and at times catatonic ...  he was almost in a state of unconsciousness at times."

"We have taken him to Regina Coeli prison in the heart of Rome. Within 48 hours from the arrest, he will have to go before the judge who will need to confirm his arrest," he added.

Marta Canigiulia, 20, a student at John Cabot, told NBC News Friday that she was friends with Schepis and Malpeso, though she had only recently met the latter.

“They were best friends ... they are best friends, I hope they still are,” she added. “I loved them for the fact that they were always very cheery. They would always come up to you and say: ‘Hi Marta, what’s up?’ They were always smiling.”

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Referring to Schepis, Canigiulia said with tears in her eyes, “he is a good person.”

“I can’t explain why this happened. Probably it’s because of drugs,” she speculated.

Geraldine Gully, 18, another student, said she did not know Schepis and Malpeso personally but “saw them all the time at school. ... They seemed like very good friends. I was so shocked to hear what had happened because it was so unexpected and you wouldn’t believe it,” she said.

In a statement, John Cabot University President France Pavoncello said he was dealing “with this situation personally” with support from other staff and was in touch with the “involved parties and their families.”

He confirmed the suspect and victim were students at the university, saying they were roommates in an off-campus apartment. 

“I trust you will all join me in sending our prayers to the victim's family for their son's full recovery as well as to the family of the alleged attacker, who is likely shattered by this tragic event,” he added.

Thursday was the fifth anniversary of the brutal murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, that led to the arrest, trial and eventual acquittal of American student Amanda Knox.

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