ATTLEBORO - The suspect accused of creeping into a sleeping man's bedroom and stabbing him six times had earlier boasted to friends of committing three murders in his native Guatemala, and investigators are now trying to verify that.

In the meantime, Manuel A. Mendez Jr., 49, who lives in a third-floor apartment at 20 Falmouth St. in Attleboro, was ordered held in jail without bail Wednesday, pending a dangerousness hearing.

Police say he admitted to taking a knife and going to the apartment of 21-year-old German Mendez before dawn Tuesday following a fistfight hours earlier at a Cinco de Mayo festival at El Azteca restaurant on Pleasant Street, prosecutors said.

Before leaving the restaurant, "the defendant told the victim - quote - I'm going to kill you," Assistant District Attorney Jessica Lennon said, reading a police report.

The two men are former roommates and are not related, police said. German Mendez was stabbed six times, including three times in the chest, as he was sleeping in bed at his apartment at 103 Park St. shortly before 4 a.m. Tuesday, according to a police report.

He underwent surgery for a punctured lung at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, where doctors also removed a 5-inch knife blade from his left knee, prosecutors said.

Mendez was listed in good condition Wednesday, and is expected to recover.

During the investigation into the stabbing, detectives learned the suspect had boasted of killing three people in Guatemala and are trying to confirm the information, Lennon said during a bail hearing.

Although the defendant - who police say is known on the street as "Meko" - reportedly had boasted to friends about the murders in Guatemala, he also told police he had never stabbed anyone before, according to a police report.

Lennon said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also filed a detainer on Manuel Mendez, which prevents him from being released from custody.

Lennon told the court police are checking the defendant's background because of conflicting information about his identity.

Police also learned the defendant was recently fired from the Chateau restaurant in Norton for trying to sell false identification to someone else, Lennon said.

The two men, according to a police report, have quarreled in the past, with Manuel Mendez claiming German Mendez owes him $200 in rent money.

Innocent pleas were entered by the court on charges of armed assault with intent to murder, home invasion, resisting arrest and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon. The dangerousness hearing was scheduled for Friday.

Prosecutors are expected to present evidence to back their claim that Mendez is a danger to the community and should be held in jail without bail for up to 90 days while they prepare for trial.