A Schuylkill County woman has been jailed after police say she stabbed a man in the back and leg inside an apartment earlier this week.
The victim suffered a stab wound near the center of his back adjacent to his spine and a puncture wound to his left hamstring, police say. Markasha Maxwell, 19, of Schuylkill Haven, allegedly admitted to the stabbing, eventually telling police, “I probably did. I blacked out.”
Police located the shirtless, heavily intoxicated victim at the intersection of Paxson Ave. and Dock St. in Schuylkill Haven at just before 9 p.m. Monday after receiving a priority dispatch for a reported stabbing at 200 E. Main St. The victim showed police and EMS personnel his actively bleeding injuries, which included fatty tissue protruding from the leg wound.
The victim said he went to Maxwell’s apartment earlier in the night at her request. He told police he had been sexually active with Maxwell while his wife was in a rehabilitation facility, and that Maxwell became upset because he would not leave his wife for her. The victim said Maxwell lunged at him with a knife as he tried to walk past her to leave.
Following the victim’s statements, police went to an apartment at 200 E. Main St., where a man outside smoking a cigarette informed them Maxwell was inside. Police found Maxwell inside and took her into custody.
Maxwell agreed to speak with police and provided a different account of the incident. She reportedly said the victim took her cellphone, refused to return it, and made disrespectful comments about her brother. Maxwell told police she “does not play” about her brother, and said she grabbed a knife and stabbed the victim in the leg. She initially denied stabbing him in the back.
Police recovered a kitchen-style knife, bent at a 90-degree angle, from a trash can inside the apartment.
After being transported to the police station, Maxwell provided a second statement. She claimed a physical altercation occurred in which the victim slammed her onto a bed twice before she grabbed the knife and stabbed him in the leg. When police asked again if she had stabbed the victim in the back, Maxwell replied that she probably did and that she had blacked out.
The victim initially refused medical help for nearly 40 minutes, police say. He eventually agreed to be transported to the hospital by EMS after police provided him with a blanket and granted his request to be driven down the block to his residence for a cigarette.
Maxwell was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge James Reiley on charges of felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment, possessing an instrument of crime, and simple assault. Reiley set bail at $50,000 and Maxwell was remanded to Schuylkill County Prison.
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