DULUTH — A Virginia man has pleaded guilty to the 2021 murder of a former girlfriend — a woman that he had been arrested for violently attacking less than a year earlier.
Virginia, Minn., man pleads guilty to killing former girlfriend in 2021
Derek Malevich had been arrested for violently attacking Kristen Bicking less than a year earlier.
October 13, 2022 at 10:41PM
Derek Edward Malevich, 42, was indicted by a grand jury in February on two counts of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Kristen Bicking. He entered a guilty plea to second-degree intentional murder and first-degree aggravated witness tampering on Thursday in St. Louis County Court, according to a news release from County Attorney Kimberly Maki.
Malevich will serve 40 years in prison with additional consecutive time for witness tampering. His sentencing is set for Nov. 28.
According to the criminal complaint, Malevich called 911 to request that an ambulance come to his apartment in the early hours of May 12, 2021. He said he came home and found someone stealing from him, so he bashed the person's head in and stabbed them. Then he discovered it was his ex-girlfriend. Bicking was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Malevich wasn't at the apartment when authorities got there. He later was found, with no injuries, at a nearby hotel.
In September 2020, Bicking told the Virginia Police Department that she had been choked by Malevich. According to the criminal complaint, authorities described her as having a bump on her forehead that was larger than a golf ball, crusted blood on her face, nose and clothes and bruise marks on her neck.
Bicking's murder was the 10th of 20 confirmed homicides by intimate partners in Minnesota in 2021, according to the news release.
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