A Chelsea youth was held on a quarter-million dollars’ cash bail today following his arraignment as an accessory after the fact to the January stabbing death of 50-year-old Israel Vasquez, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

At a closed door hearing in the Juvenile Session of Chelsea District Court, Assistant District Attorney Gretchen Lundgren told Judge Marjory German that the 17-year-old defendant – who was 16 at the time of the offense and thus charged as a juvenile – helped MARVIN RUANO GARCIA (D.O.B. 4/28/85) dispose of Vasquez’ body after Garcia allegedly stabbed him to death on the morning of Jan. 5, 2010.

Garcia was arrested by Chelsea Police and State Police assigned to Conley’s office later on Jan. 5 after obtaining witness statements and other evidence that he fatally stabbed Vasquez during an argument inside the apartment they shared.

Significant forensic evidence developed in the course of the ongoing investigation indicates that the defendant played a key role in placing Vasquez’ body in a trash can after the stabbing, prosecutors said. The trash can was left on Grove Street to be found by passersby later the same morning.

The defendant was represented today by attorney Scott Rankin. He will return to Chelsea District Court Sept. 2.