A 29-year-old Dorchester man was held without bail following his indictment and Superior Court arraignment on charges that he stabbed his girlfriend to death following a Valentine’s Day date, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced.

MARIO GONZALEZ (D.O.B. 7/28/79) is charged with first-degree murder for the fatal stabbing of 38-year-old Luz Forty early on Feb. 15 inside her Ridgewood Street apartment.

Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum, who noted that the defendant had a pending case out of Roxbury District Court and was on bail when he allegedly killed Forty, requested that Gonzalez continue be held without bail. Superior Court Clerk Magistrate Robin Vaughan accommodated the Commonwealth’s request.

Polumbaum told the court that Gonzalez and Forty had been in a relationship for six months and had gone out with Forty’s mother to celebrate Valentine’s Day. They took a taxi home at about 1:30 the next morning and dropped Forty’s mother off along the way. Forty later called her mother at about 2:28 a.m. to wish her good night.

At about 3:00 a.m., Gonzalez called 911 and told dispatchers that someone had broken into his third-floor apartment and stabbed his wife. Polumbaum told the court that Gonzalez had used that term to describe his girlfriend.

When Boston Police officers and emergency medical technicians arrived on the scene, they found Forty conscious but suffering from multiple, life-threatening stab wounds. Later, when she was being transported in an ambulance to the hospital, she told paramedics attending to her wounds that her “husband” had stabbed her, Polumbaum said.

After learning of the victim’s ambulance statement, police took the defendant into custody. In a post-Miranda statement to a Spanish-speaking Boston Police officer, Gonzalez allegedly said, “She was the one who hit me first.”

When the officer asked him what really happened, Polumbaum said, Gonzalez said that the pair had an argument in which Forty had hit him with a bottle and come at him with a knife. The defendant allegedly claimed that he took the knife away and used it to stab her several times, after which he apologized, helped her into bed, and called 911.

Gonzalez also made a recorded phone call to a friend from the C-11 booking desk.

“He said he had a problem with his girlfriend and stabbed her,” Polumbaum told the court. In the same phone call, Gonzalez also said, “I don’t know how many years I’m going to get, because the police got me.”

By 8:00 that morning, Forty died of her injuries. A medical examiner later found a total of nine stab wounds on Forty’s body, including six to the upper left of her back, two lethal stab wounds to her left chest, and a defensive stab wound to her hand. Hospital and EMS personnel also initially noted another serious stab wound to Forty’s left front torso, which was then obscured by surgical attempts to save her life.

“The defendant had no knife wounds, and just a scrape on his nose,” Polumbaum said.

After Forty’s death the defendant waived his Miranda rights and was interviewed by homicide detectives. During this interview, Gonzalez allegedly stated that he thought Forty was about to get a knife from a bedroom cabinet, so he grabbed another knife from atop the TV set. He said that during the course of a struggle, Forty somehow got stabbed. He also told detectives that it was her idea to blame the attack on an unknown intruder.

Conley urges anyone in an abusive relationship to seek help from friends, family members, or the DV SafeLink at 877-785-2020.

Gonzalez was represented by attorney Willie Davis. He is expected to return to court on May 14.