A 23-year-old St. Cloud woman is facing second-degree murder charges after her boyfriend was fatally stabbed inside her apartment, according to newly filed court documents. The charges reveal troubling details, including a statement she allegedly made to a co-worker just days before the attack.
Katerina Ivanovna Markiv is being held in the Stearns County Jail following the death of 25-year-old Quinton McKay Hughes of Sauk Rapids. Police say the stabbing happened in the early hours of Sunday, Dec. 8, inside Markiv’s St. Cloud apartment.
According to the criminal complaint, Hughes himself called 911 to report he had been stabbed. When officers arrived, he was found unresponsive on the floor, covered in blood, with a single stab wound to the chest. Markiv was kneeling beside him and pressing on the wound.
She told officers she “did not mean to stab him” and said that “when people get mad, they just want to swing stuff.” Paramedics attempted lifesaving measures, but Hughes was pronounced dead at the scene.
In a later interview with investigators, Markiv explained that she and Hughes had been dating since October and that they worked together. She said Hughes had been staying the night at her apartment when the argument began. Markiv admitted she had been drinking throughout the night and became upset when Hughes rejected her sexual advances.
The complaint states that during the argument, she swung a knife toward him, saying she only intended to “scratch” him. She later told detectives, “It just happened. (It’s) literally just a reflex of mine. I sometimes don’t even know my own strength either.”
Police also interviewed Markiv’s coworkers. One of them told investigators that about a week before the stabbing, Markiv said, “she gets so crazy to the point she will kill somebody.” The comment, while possibly said in frustration, now stands out as a disturbing warning.
Markiv appeared in court on Wednesday morning, where a judge set her bail at $2 million without conditions or $500,000 with conditions. The case has shaken both the couple’s workplace and the community, who are now left grappling with the tragic escalation of what began as an argument between two young people.
As the investigation continues, prosecutors will work to determine whether the stabbing was as spontaneous as Markiv claims or the result of an increasingly volatile relationship.
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