First came the "blood-curdling screams," followed by the mortally wounded cheerleader clutching her midsection as she staggered into a neighbor's arms.

"She must've seen me because she ran straight towards me," Gail Slomer, testifying at a preliminary hearing yesterday, said of 16-year-old Demi Cuccia, the Gateway High School cheerleader who was killed Aug. 15.

Her ex-boyfriend, John J. Mullarkey Jr., 18, has been charged with her slaying.

"She asked for her mother," Ms. Slomer testified. "I kept saying, 'Demi, stay with me.' I kept trying to talk to her."

Demi died of her multiple stab wounds about 45 minutes later. Mr. Mullarkey survived his self-inflicted throat slashing and was hospitalized.

Following Ms. Slomer's testimony and that of a medic and a police guard who reported incriminating statements Mr. Mullarkey made at the hospital, District Judge Carla Swearingen ordered the boyfriend held for trial on homicide charges.

Defense attorney Robert S. Stewart did not deny that his client stabbed his girlfriend. The lawyer said, however, that Mr. Mullarkey had been using the acne medication Accutane, adding that the drug's harmful side effects can be devastating.

Among the warnings in the Physicians Desk Reference about the drug are a number of potentially hazardous side effects.

"Accutane may cause depression or other mental problems such as: mood swings, aggression, sadness, hopelessness, loss of pleasure, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, change in sleep patterns, restlessness, and irritability. In rare cases, it has prompted thoughts of suicide," an Internet version of the PDR says. The warning adds, "If you begin to feel depressed or become troubled by suicidal thoughts, contact your doctor immediately."

Ms. Slomer said she had been at her daughter's Elliott Road home for about five minutes when she heard the screams from next door.

She and a medic still were tending to the wounded girl at the scene as Mr. Mullarkey was taken away in an ambulance.

Before emergency personnel arrived, she testified that Mr. Mullarkey emerged from the Cuccia townhouse and was spotted by Demi.

The high school junior raised her head as her estranged boyfriend walked past.

"Get away from me!" she screamed, Ms. Slomer testified. "I hate you!" she quoted Demi as yelling at Mr. Mullarkey.

Paramedic Kimberly Edgar said she asked Mr. Mullarkey on the way to the hospital who had cut his throat. In a hoarse voice he responded, "I did it. He was pointing to himself," Ms. Edgar testified.

The suspect was arraigned at Allegheny General Hospital where Allegheny County Police Detective Michael Kuma was assigned to guard him. Mr. Mullarkey's treatment apparatus included a trachial tube, and he could not speak.

At one point, Detective Kuma testified, Mr. Mullarkey tapped on a portable message board to get the officer's attention and wrote a question.

He wanted to know whether a suspect could be held responsible for a crime if he was on medication that may have contributed to his actions, Detective Kuma testified.

The suspect also used the note board to criticize media who incorrectly reported his name. He complained that "the coroner" reported that Demi had been stabbed 16 times, writing that she had been wounded only two or three times with a knife with a 3.5-inch blade.

Under cross-examination by Mr. Stewart, Detective Kuma testified that he never asked any questions of Mr. Mullarkey. The suspect's remarks were unsolicited, he said.

Throughout the hearing, Mr. Mullarkey stared straight ahead in the direction of the judge's bench.