PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Three men police say were involved in a brutal assault that escalated into the stabbing death of a Rhode Island man after he left a Providence nightclub will be held without bail as they await trial on murder charges.

Dayquon Stevens, Emery Janarelli-Page and Sequoya Reels-Felder are among eight men charged in connection with the June death of 28-year-old Stephen Cabral of North Providence.

The Providence Journal reports that a judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors showed the men intended to assault Cabral when they surrounded him and could be held responsible for the foreseeable consequences of the attack, even if they didn’t stab him. Prosecutors say another man stabbed Cabral.

Their attorneys argued that Cabral provoked the attack and the men face should at most involuntary manslaughter charges.