Marc Tremblay was stabbed to death on Thursday. (CBC)

An 18-year-old Halifax man charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of another man appeared in Halifax provincial court Monday.

Aidan David Cromwell is accused of killing 25-year-old Marc Tremblay last Thursday.

Cromwell, who cried during his court appearance, was remanded until a bail hearing on March 6.

Halifax regional police officers found Tremblay at the corner of Ashdale Avenue and Titus Street just before 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 2. They were responding to a report of a stabbing.

Tremblay died soon after paramedics arrived. Police said Tremblay and Cromwell did not know one another.

Tremblay grew up in the Fairview neighbourhood, where he lived with his mother. His life-long friends are fundraising for his funeral and for his unborn child.

Jesse Byrne said he and other friends of Marc Tremblay are fundraising to pay for his funeral. (CBC)

"He was my best friend. Like, there's no other way really to explain it, " Jesse Byrne said Monday.

Another friend, Allan Robertson described Tremblay as "a genuine guy, 100 per cent."

Aaron Wilson said Tremblay he was an only child, raised by his mom.

"She's going to be lost," he said.

His friends say Tremblay, who was over six feet tall, was a friendly giant. They are upset at the way he was portrayed in a newspaper story, quoting Jasmine Mayo — Cromwell's girlfriend.

She told the Chronicle Herald that she and Cromwell were arguing on the street, when Tremblay started a fight. She said she was afraid of him.

Tremblay's friends say that's all wrong.

"He was not an instigator," Wilson said. "He defended people and he was a great person. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"By no means is Mark scary, no. He always had a smile of his face," Robertson said.

Now his friend's are preparing to fundraise for his funeral to ease the load on his mother. Extra money will go towards his baby.

"All the rest of the money, all the donations, are all going to the child's fund for school and for anything that the child really needs," Byrne said.

Both Cromwell and Mayo cried out in court that they loved each other. Mayo lashed out at news cameras.