AUBURN — A local man charged with murder in the stabbing of a Lewiston man last month told his mother he had argued with the victim over drugs, police said.

Bryan Peabody Androscoggin County Jail photo

New details were released in the case after an arrest affidavit for Bryan W. K. Peabody, 25, of 116 Hampshire St. was unsealed in Androscoggin County Superior Court.

The document includes information that wasn’t disclosed during a bail hearing in 8th District Court in Lewiston last month.

In the affidavit, written by Maine State Police Detective Jennifer King, who is leading the investigation, Peabody’s mother, Tina Pollock-Reyes, told a state police investigator that her son said he had arrived home from work the night of June 3 to find Lawrence Kilkenny, 48, smoking crack cocaine on the porch of Peabody’s building with a few other people.

Peabody asked Kilkenny to leave, “and that led to a confrontation between him and Bryan,” King wrote.

Peabody told his mother “he was suicidal because he thought he had killed Lawrence and that he knew he had hurt Lawrence, but he didn’t know he had died until the neighbor told him.”

Peabody and his mother drove to the local police station together the day after the stabbing. Peabody asked that a lawyer be present before he would answer any questions. He wasn’t questioned, King wrote.

Peabody’s mother did speak with police, saying she picked up her son on the street shortly after learning from King that police were looking for him, King wrote.

Another detail from the affidavit was a witness statement to a state police detective who said she went to Peabody’s apartment building with a friend the night of the stabbing to buy some pot.

After leaving, then returning to that address, she was smoking pot and drinking beer when she spotted Kilkenny “sitting on the steps wearing a shirt that was soaked in blood. She asked him if he got stabbed and he replied, ‘Yeah, I f—ing did . . . talk to that fag boy next door,’” according to the affidavit.

The witness told police she believed Kilkenny had been referring to Peabody.

“She has known Peabody for some time and knows he gets angry when someone questions his sexual preference,” King wrote.

During the June bail hearing for Peabody, his attorney, James Howaniec, told the judge that some of the evidence suggests a hate crime may have been committed against Peabody at the time of the incident.

At that earlier hearing, King said several witnesses were interviewed about the incident, including one who said Peabody “just suddenly snapped” and started fighting with Kilkenny, dragging him from one side of the driveway to the other before realizing he’d been stabbed.

King testified the witness said Peabody had been under a lot of stress because he recently had difficulties in a romantic relationship.

Assistant Attorney General Robert “Bud” Ellis said at the hearing last month that Kilkenny sustained about 20 slashing or puncture wounds, including two in the back that punctured a lung, resulting in a fatal loss of blood.

Peabody remains in jail after a judge denied him bail. A grand jury indicted him earlier this month on a charge of intentional or knowing or depraved indifference murder.