PHOTOS BY MARK LORENZ
Darrin Stephens, left, and John Michelin (both in white), are pictured with their attorneys at their arraignments.
By GAYLA CAWLEY
LYNN – Two men charged with raping and beating a man and assaulting another man were ordered held without bail during an arraignment at Lynn District Court on Monday.
Darrin Stephens, 50, and John Michelin, 31, both of Lynn, are charged with three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, aggravated rape and assault to murder. They were held pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for April 21.
One victim, another Lynn man, was still in critical condition on Monday, police said. He underwent surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital the day before. The other man was treated at Union Hospital for less serious injuries.
Police responding to 8 Chase St. for a report of an assault around midnight on Sunday, found a man bleeding from his left hand. He said he was hit with a baseball bat, but didn’t want to provide any other information. But he gave police a statement that caused an urgent need for officers to check on an injured person inside the apartment, according to a police report from Lynn District Court.
Police opened the door to the basement and saw a man at the bottom of the steps, with a bloody white T-shirt over his head and his pants down to his ankles. Police said there appeared to be blood and trauma to his anal area, according to court documents.
Officers went to the apartment door and knocked. Stephens opened the door and was ordered to show his hands and step out at gunpoint. A 43-year-old woman was ordered out of the bathroom. Michelin was found in the second bedroom, lying on the bed with only socks on. All three people were handcuffed, court documents show.
In the apartment, police found a wooden baseball bat and guitar with blood on the items. Stephens told police that Michelin sodomized the victim with a guitar and broom. Various blood drops and smears were found throughout the apartment, and by the bathroom, it appeared that someone had attempted to clean up a puddle of blood. Police also saw a towel soaked in blood in the kitchen, court documents show.
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At Union Hospital, police got a statement from the first man, who had said he and Stephens got into an argument, and that he punched Stephens. He told police Michelin got involved by punching him in the face, and Stephens later got a bat and smashed it on his finger. The man said Stephens and Michelin then turned their attention to the other victim. He gave no other reason for them fighting with the victim, other than that they didn’t like him because he was a fall-down drunk, court documents show.
The man told police Michelin held the victim up from under his arms and Stephens punched him repeatedly in the head and face. He didn’t recall Stephens using a bat on the other victim, but remembered he did have the bat last, court documents show.
Before finding the second man, police had learned there were about four people in the apartment with one possibly “laid out” and one armed with a bat. When officers went around the building and paused outside a door leading into the basement area, but not the apartment itself, police said they could hear at least two people. Police reported hearing someone who appeared to be “straining in some way making grunting like noises that indicated some type of physical exertion,” according to court documents.
Police then heard someone say “just leave him out here. Come on,” followed by a door closing. Police then saw two men in the kitchen who hadn’t been there before, later identified as Stephens and Michelin, court documents show.
Alicia Andrews, the attorney for Michelin, said she had no comment. Arthur Carakatsane, who represented Stephens on Monday, also declined comment because another attorney was going to be taking over the case.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.