MALDEN, Mass., Feb. 25 -- A Massachusetts handyman pleaded innocent Friday to charges he used a packaged pipe bomb to murder a waitress who refused to date him.
Steven S. Caruso, 44, showed no emotion when he was arraigned in Malden District Court for first-degree murder in the Jan. 20 death of Sandra Berfield, 32, of Everett, Mass.
Berfield died when she opened a package authorities allege Caruso left on her front porch. Berfield's 14 older brothers and sisters, however, sobbed openly in court when prosecutors described the force of the blast that killed her.
Caruso has been in custody on weapons charges since his arrest Jan. 22. He was ordered held without bail at Friday's arraignment.
Middlesex County District Attorney Martha Coakley announced late Thursday that after a month-long investigation, he was being charged with murder.
"The investigation focused on materials found at his house" in Medford, Mass., Coakley said. "We also recovered some documentary evidence that was like a recipe to put a bomb together."
The pipe bomb reportedly measured 2 inches in diameter and 4 inches in length and was placed in a package that Berfield's found on her porch and brought up to her second floor apartment.
Authorities said the device was triggered by a battery that activated a switch when the package was opened.
Coakley said the investigation pointed to Caruso from the start because he previously had stalked her. He served a six-month jail sentence last year for vandalizing her car, and also was jailed briefly for violating an order to stay away from her.
Berfield reportedly met Caruso at a restaurant where she worked. She told co-workers that he had asked her to go out with him, but that she refused. It was after that that Caruso slashed her tires and poured battery acid and antifreeze into her car's gas tank.
