SAGAMORE BEACH — Caleb Greeson's lawyer says his client was acting to protect himself when he allegedly stabbed Daniel Cardoza to death Sunday night.

"Any and all actions were in self-defense, especially when my client was almost left for dead," Falmouth-based attorney J. Drew Segadelli said yesterday.

A fight broke out between Greeson, Cardoza, and a third man at the Shell gas station near the Sagamore Bridge, possibly because of remarks made to a woman in the car with Greeson, Segadelli said.

But it's too early to say definitively what caused the melee, a sentiment echoed by prosecutors over the past two days.

Cardoza and his friends had just left a cookout to buy cigarettes at the station's convenience store when they met Greeson, one of his friends told Bourne police, according to a report on the incident. The two were acquaintances, but the extent of their relationship is unknown, Segadelli said.

Several onlookers reported seeing a fight break out between two black men and one white man, Bourne police Detective John Doble wrote in his report.

One woman told police she saw a white man, who other witnesses identified as Greeson, "pull out a knife, hitting one of the black males three to four times."

Another woman saw the three men "tussling" before hearing someone yell, "He's been stabbed."

Both women reported seeing a man — Cardoza, 22, of Bourne — soaked in blood.

When police arrived at the gas station around 10:30 p.m., they were told by witnesses that Greeson, 18, of Bourne was the assailant, according to the police report.

Greeson took off on foot after the fight, heading east in the general direction of the Ella F. Hoxie School in Sagamore, Doble wrote in his report.

Investigators determined that Greeson had stopped at a nearby house minutes after the scuffle. A resident there told police Greeson had what appeared to be blood on his clothes.

As police continued to track Greeson using K-9 units from the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office, a neighbor reported a disturbance at the Hoxie School, just a short distance from the gas station. Officers found Greeson lying on the pavement of the school's parking lot, bleeding from stab wounds, according to the report.

Investigators believe there was at least one group of people searching for Greeson after the initial stabbing. Four men and one woman were arraigned in Falmouth District Court Monday on home invasion charges resulting from their alleged attempt to find him.

But it is still unclear when in the evening Greeson was stabbed, and who attacked him, Segadelli said.

No one has been charged with that crime and the investigation into the stabbings is ongoing, according to the Cape and Islands District Attorney's Office.

"We don't have a lot of evidence from when he was attacked," Segadelli said. "We're still evaluating videotape and other witness statements about weapons in the initial encounter."

Greeson was flown to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston for treatment. He was placed under arrest there at about 4:30 a.m. Monday, the police report states. He refused to provide any information to investigators, Doble wrote.

He was arraigned at the hospital Monday on charges of first-degree murder, assault and battery, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

He was ordered held without bail because of the nature of the crime, the potential penalty for the charges and his record of juvenile convictions, court records show.

Segadelli said his client was in stable condition yesterday.

While investigators continue to piece together the events of Sunday night, Cardoza's friends and family are starting to mourn.

A Facebook group has been established in his honor and members are sharing their thoughts about him on the group's "wall."

His family is making funeral arrangements.

"I'm 67 years old. I would always think that my kids would be burying me," his cousin, Robert Cardoza Sr. of Wareham, said yesterday. "But we're burying them."

Article taken from www.capecodoniline.com