MEDFORD, Mass. — Cambridge District Court prosecutors on Friday charged Victor J. Rivas with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon leading to serious bodily injury and with carrying a dangerous weapon. Rivas, 51, was involved in an altercation on Tuesday night in an apartment at 116 Norfolk St. in Cambridge that led to a fatality. Rivas pled not guilty through his public defender, who argued that Rivas had acted in self-defense.
Assistant District Attorney Jacob McCrindle told Associate District Court Justice Kareem A. Morgan that the state was continuing to investigate whether a charge of murder or manslaughter was warranted. He said there was some evidence corroborating the defendant’s claim that he had acted in self-defense.
McCrindle and public defender Carolyn McGowan provided more details about the incident, which was said to have happened during a marijuana purchase. Rivas had been admitted to the building by another resident, a woman, who was in the studio apartment with the decedent, who has not been named. Rivas and the decedent then went into a bathroom, where the other resident heard an argument ensue…