A Miami steakhouse manager appeared visibly nervous in court as he faced a second-degree murder charge over the fatal stabbing of his mother in his $2.1 million Brickell apartment. Stefano Cremasco Cicero, 36, swayed side to side while wearing an anti-suicide smock during his bond hearing on Saturday, and a judge denied him bail after hearing he also has an active US immigration detainer. The case has drawn attention both for the brutal nature of the alleged crime and Cremasco Cicero's evident distress in the dock, though he has claimed he acted in self-defence.

Police were called to the 50-storey Solitair Brickell tower around 5am on Friday, where officers found Cremasco Cicero in the lobby with blood on his hands, clothes and shoes before he led them to his 47th-floor flat, where his mother was found fatally stabbed and pronounced dead at 5.08am. She had reportedly been visiting from Mexico and staying with him. A search warrant turned up bloodstained knives, two blood-marked shirts and a broken wine bottle, while surveillance footage allegedly showed him carrying a knife and moving between lifts covered in blood shortly before the killing. He has not yet entered a plea and is due back in court on Tuesday for a pre-trial detention hearing.