BOSTON, Feb. 20, 2015—A Brighton man was convicted today of stabbing Anthony Spaulding, 21, to death after a fight at a New Year’s Eve party at the victim’s Allston home, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

Jurors found BRIAN MacDONALD (D.O.B. 4/7/88) guilty of voluntary manslaughter on the first full day of their deliberations. The verdict came after about two weeks of trial testimony. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders revoked his bail pending sentencing at 2:00 pm on Feb. 26.

Assistant District Attorney Julie Higgins of the DA’s Homicide Unit proved that MacDonald was an uninvited guest at Spaulding’s Pratt Street home, where residents held a party on the night of Dec. 31, 2012, into the morning of Jan. 1, 2013.

Higgins proved that MacDonald was on the second floor of that home near Spaulding’s bedroom. When he and another person became boisterous in that area, Spaulding came out of the bedroom and asked him to keep his voice down. That interaction sparked a physical altercation. The two men tumbled down a set of stairs onto the first floor.

MacDonald and his associate were ejected from the party but lingered outside. Spaulding approached them, Higgins argued, in an attempt to clear the air. Instead, the evidence showed, MacDonald stabbed Spaulding in the chest with a folding knife he had brought to the party. Spaulding’s friends called 911 and emergency medical technicians transported him to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, but he died of his injuries.

MacDonald cut himself on the knife and left a blood trail as he fled the scene. Boston Police followed that trail to his Washington Street apartment, where they found his bloody clothes in a garbage bag. The knife was never recovered.

MacDonald’s co-defendant, BIANCA HOLLENBECK (D.O.B. 7/28/88), is charged with assault and battery. Jurors will continue their deliberations as to that indictment on Monday.

Assistant District Attorney Tara Burdman of the DA’s Senior Trial Unit second-seated Higgins. Timothy Munzert and Katherine Moran were the DA’s assigned victim witness advocates. Attorney Thomas Hoopes represented the defendant.

–30–

All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.