Marcus Byrd, 19, is charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of a 47-year-old man at a New Year’s Eve party on Chicago’s South Side. (Chicago Police Department booking photo)
CHICAGO (STMW) – After fatally stabbing a man on New Year’s Eve, Marcus Byrd told police the victim “said something smart — and he only stabbed him once,” prosecutors said.
Byrd, 19, of the 5200 block of South Drexel Avenue, was charged with one count of first-degree murder, according to a police News Affairs release.
Judge Laura Sullivan set Byrd’s bond at $700,000 during a Sunday hearing in Central Bond Court (Br. 1). He must appear in court again Monday.
Byrd arrived Dec. 30 at the home of Michael Pope, 47, in the 6700 block of South Halsted Street. Police said Byrd and Pope had a “family acquaintance.”
Byrd got into an argument with Pope and Pope’s sister, and about 11:30 p.m. New Year’s Eve, Byrd went in the kitchen, got a knife with an eight-inch blade and backed Pope into a corner of the family room and stabbed him in the chest, prosecutors said.
Pope was pronounced dead at 1:33 a.m. Saturday at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. A Sunday autopsy determined he died of a stab wound to the abdomen and the death was ruled a homicide.
Witnesses identified Byrd as the attacker, and a kitchen knife was recovered at the scene, police said.
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