St. Paul woman sentenced for fatally stabbing boyfriend

A St. Paul woman has been sentenced to a decade behind bars for fatally stabbing her boyfriend last year.

Kayla Janea Pope, 22, was sentenced Tuesday to over 10½ years (128 months) at the Shakopee Correctional Facility. She was given credit for 249 days already served.

RELATED: Woman pleads guilty to murder in stabbing of boyfriend

St. Paul police were called to the area of Seventh Street East and White Bear Avenue just before 10 p.m. on Sept. 10, 2021, a criminal complaint states. There, officers found 23-year-old Eric T. Brown unconscious, suffering from a stab wound near his left shoulder blade. He was pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour later.

Officers saw Pope run away, but she later returned and had a bloodstain on her shirt, the complaint states. However, she initially said a masked man stabbed Brown and fled, then said it was a drug deal gone wrong. Surveillance video showed Brown running away as Pope chased him, then Brown collapsing.

Pope eventually told officers she and Brown were in an abusive relationship and she tried to stab his backpack with a steak knife but he turned as she stabbed and hit his back.

She pleaded guilty to his murder in February.