A Dorchester District Court judge today ordered a 64-year Dorchester woman held without bail for the May 8 stabbing death of a man eight years her senior but left the door open for reconsideration of that order, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced.

In holding VERNA SEWELL (D.O.B. 12/21/44) without bail, Judge Kenneth V. Desmond accommodated a request by Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum, a former Domestic Violence prosecutor now assigned to Conley’s Homicide Unit. Desmond granted Sewell’s attorney the chance to seek a lower monetary bail later this month.

Polumbaum told the court that the victim, 74-year-old Julius Scott, called 911 from his Talbot Street home shortly before 7:30 Friday evening. Scott told Boston Police that he had just been stabbed by a woman who then left his apartment. When police and emergency medical technicians responded to the scene, they found Scott unresponsive with a stab wound to his chest.

He was transported to Boston Medical Center, where doctors pronounced him dead of his injuries.

Early Saturday morning, a Boston Police detective processing the crime scene encountered Sewell at a nearby bus shelter. Noting that she fit a description of Scott’s companion as provided by neighbors, the detective told her he was investigating a case nearby and engaged her in conversation. She allegedly made statements that she had been in the building earlier, that a man had hit her with a brick, and that they had struggled over a knife.

In a subsequent interview at Boston Police headquarters, Polumbaum said, Sewell repeated her statement that she had been struck in the head and that Scott had somehow been stabbed in the struggle that followed. She allegedly stated that she had left Scott’s apartment and stayed away because she had seen the Boston Police vehicles respond to the scene.

Sewell had no visible injuries when examined by police and EMTs, Polumbaum said.

Sewell will return to court on May 20 with attorney Aviva Jeruchim.