BELFAST – The Searsport man accused of stabbing his brother to death last weekend told a state police detective he was tired of being beaten by his brother and had a knife ready to defend himself.

Charged with manslaughter, Michael Nickerson, 49, made his first appearance Wednesday afternoon in 5th District Court. Judge Patricia Worth set bail at $50,000 cash or $200,000 real estate surety.

Nickerson was unable to make bail and returned to Waldo County Jail in Belfast after the hearing.

In an affidavit filed Tuesday, Detective Dean Jackson of the Maine State Police said Michael Nickerson reported the stabbing to police dispatchers at 4:38 p.m. Sunday, saying, “Send an ambulance really fast. My brother’s been stabbed. I stabbed him.”

Nickerson told the dispatcher that he and his brother Charles Nickerson, 44, with whom he shared a house at 126 Brock Road, had been fighting.

Charles Nickerson was taken by ambulance to Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast, where he died a short time later. An autopsy completed Monday revealed the cause of death was multiple stab wounds to the chest.

Jackson interviewed Michael Nickerson at the house on Sunday evening. The detective learned that Michael’s two children, a 13-year-old girl and 10-year old boy, shared the small house, along with Charles’ 23-year-old daughter, who had moved in a month earlier.

Nickerson said Charles had become upset when Charles and his adult daughter returned home earlier in the day and found a note on the daughter’s door from Michael’s teen daughter calling the young woman a bitch.

Charles confronted the teen and Michael about the note, Michael told the detective.

In the affidavit based on his interview with Michael Nickerson, Jackson wrote: “Michael then went into his bedroom and was watching television. Charles then entered Michael’s bedroom and told him to leave the house. Michael [refused] because he had nowhere to go.

“Charles then punched Michael in the face two times knocking him back in a chair and then fell on top of Michael and continued to punch him. Michael then picked up a knife from a table next to his chair with his right hand and jabbed it two or three times at Charles’ left side.

“[With] the last jab he felt the knife go into Charles’ body. Charles then ran out of the room and collapsed on the floor in the living room,” the detective wrote.

In an interview with Nickerson on Tuesday, he told Jackson and another detective that he had placed the knife near the chair “in preparation in case Charles came in his room to assault him. Michael stated he was tired of being beat up by his [brother] and had the knife to defend himself because he knew that Charles was upset.”

When Charles struck Michael, Michael admitted to grabbing the knife and jabbing Charles in the side six or eight times, according to Jackson.

“Michael stated that he just snapped and was angry that Charles was assaulting him again,” Jackson wrote.

In a mug shot photo taken after his arrest Tuesday, distinct bruising was evident under and over Michael Nickerson’s left eye. The bruises were less red and less pronounced when Nickerson appeared in court Tuesday.

As Nickerson got out of a police cruiser to be escorted into court, reporters asked Nickerson how he got the bruises, and he said the answer would be revealed in court.

On Monday, Clyde Nickerson, another brother who lives next door to the house Michael and Charles shared, said Charles had struck Michael in the past. He said the brothers had been feuding for some time over household chores and the behavior of Michael’s children.

The two had shared the house, which Charles Nickerson owned, for about two years, Clyde Nickerson said. Both worked in a family painting business, a friend said Wednesday.

In court Wednesday, Michael Nickerson told the judge he understood the charge, but shook his head from side to side when bail terms were stated.

If Nickerson is able to raise the cash or real estate surety, the conditions set by the judge require him not to use or possess drugs or alcohol or dangerous weapons. He would also have to submit to random searches of his residence.

A status conference on the case was scheduled for Feb. 22 in Waldo County Superior Court in Belfast.