Whitehall Police Dept.
Na Cola Darcel Franklin, of eastern Pennsylvania, is being accused of killing her fiancé, just hours before they were set to get married, authorities said. Whitehall Police Dept.

Na Cola Darcel Franklin, of eastern Pennsylvania, is being accused of killing her fiancé, just hours before they were set to get married, authorities said.

Franklin, 31, was arrested and charged with criminal homicide Saturday morning in the stabbing death of 36-year-old Billy Brewster in their Whitehall Township apartment.

In an arraignment by video from jail Saturday, Franklin, 31, seemed unable to come to terms that Brewster, was dead. "You got to check again!" Franklin pleaded to the judge, according to the Morning Call newspaper in Allentown.

After District Judge Donna Butler told Franklin that Brewster had been pronounced dead, Franklin wept and covered her face in her hands, the newspaper reported.

"I want my family back," she said, rocking gently back and forth. "I want to go home."

"I ... did ... not ... kill ... him ... on ... purpose," she said, according to the newspaper.

The couple was scheduled to marry at 10 a.m. Saturday, but police said they were called to the apartment shortly after 2 a.m. the morning of the wedding. Authorities reportedly found Brewster bleeding from the torso as he lay on the landing outside his apartment. He was pronounced dead a little over an hour later at a hospital, District Attorney Jim Martin said.

The Lehigh County coroner's office said a preliminary investigation revealed two stab wounds that resulted in a punctured heart.

Steve Engel, a neighbor, said the pastor who was supposed to perform the ceremony came to the building after not being able to reach the couple, the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., reported. Other attendees of the wedding also reportedly showed up at the building throughout the day.

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