NORTHAMPTON — A 23-year-old woman pleaded not guilty Wednesday in the March slaying of her boyfriend in Easthampton and will continue to be held without the right to bail.

Jean Marie Echevarria was arraigned on the murder charge before Judge Jeremy Bucci in Hampshire Superior Court after being indicted by a grand jury last month. She’s charged with stabbing Brennen Bleau to death March 14 in the home they shared on Culdaff Street in Easthampton.

When police responded to a report of a disturbance there at around 3 a.m. that night, they found 23-year-old Bleau lying in the kitchen bleeding from five stab wounds to his torso. An ambulance took him to Baystate Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 4:52 a.m., police said.

Police said there was blood in the snow outside, on the landing and on the apartment door.

Echevarria told police she and Bleau had been in a physical fight, during which she armed herself with a kitchen knife, which she swung at him after he pinned her against the kitchen counter.

Police said she appeared to have some abrasions on her legs but was otherwise uninjured. She didn’t claim that Bleau had been armed with any weapon during the fight, according to court documents.

Their next-door neighbors told a Gazette reporter at the apartment complex that Echevarria and Bleau frequently engaged in shouting arguments.

Many of Bleau’s friends and family members attended Wednesday’s brief arraignment. They declined to speak to reporters afterward.

Echevarria had previously pleaded not guilty to the murder charge in Northampton District Court following her arrest in March. She has been held since then at the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center in Chicopee, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Russo said.

Russo said the district attorney’s office had conducted a thorough investigation, and he was confident in bringing the case before the grand jury.

“It’s really the start of the case today,” he said.

Attorney Maura Tansley is representing Echevarria.

The case is the only homicide in Hampshire County so far this year, and the first homicide in Easthampton since 2012.

Staff Writer James Pentland can be reached at jpentland@gazettenet.com.

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