St. Paul woman charged with murdering longtime boyfriend

A St. Paul woman was charged Monday with fatally stabbing her longtime boyfriend, by whom she is seven weeks pregnant.

Natalie J. Pollard, 33, was charged in Ramsey County District Court with one count of second-degree murder in the July 2 death of Obinna Udo Nwankpa, 30.

According to the complaint: Police were called about 4:30 a.m. to the 600 block of Burr Street for a domestic dispute and found Pollard standing in the living room, her shirt covered in blood, and Nwankpa face down at the bottom of the basement stairs. Blood covered the stairs.

Nwankpa had a stab wound to the left side of his chest, and was unconscious and making gurgling sounds. He was taken to Regions Hospital, where he died.

Pollard, who is pregnant with Nwankpa's child, has four children who were home at the time. It's unclear whether Nwankpa is their father.

Pollard gave police inconsistent accounts of the stabbing, the charges said. She allegedly said that Nwankpa entered the house through a window and that they argued in the basement about the laundry. She said she didn't know how he was stabbed.

She allegedly told another officer that Nwankpa left earlier in the day with a bottle of vodka and returned drunk. She said he came through a window and went to the basement, where he climbed on top of her with something in his hand.

She said she woke about 2:30 a.m. and told him to be quiet because he was playing music and being loud. Tired and not feeling well, she told him to leave. Nwankpa returned around 4 a.m., Pollard allegedly told police. She said he hit her and tried to stab her, but that she was able to turn the blade toward his chest.

Police did not observe injuries to Pollard, the charges said. She eventually said that she, not Nwankpa, had the knife and that she followed him to the basement with the weapon concealed behind her back the second time he entered the home.

"She said she had [the knife] for protection," the complaint said. "She said he had hit her in the past but she did not report it. She said that he came at her and she started to fight with him."

"He was swinging at me and I was swinging at him," she allegedly told police.

Police have said that they've been to the home several times over the past few years in response to domestic disturbances.