JERSEY CITY -- The Bayonne woman charged with stabbing her husband to death was covered in blood when police responded to the couple's home early on Thanksgiving morning.

That detail, among others, surfaced this afternoon when Margaret T. Mazurczyk, 50, made her first court appearance on weapons offenses and the murder of Stanley Mazurczyk, her 54-year-old husband.

Police responded to the third-floor apartment on Kennedy Boulevard at 31

st

after getting an 11:58 p.m. 911 call Wednesday from "a witness indicating that the defendant stated she had killed her husband." Police also said a large kitchen knife was near the victim's body, according to the criminal complaint.

Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Leo Hernandez said today in court that Mazurczyk told the responding police officers she had stabbed her husband.

Officials said Stanley Mazurczyk had several stab wounds and was unresponsive when he was found. He was taken to Bayonne Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 12:27 a.m. Thursday, authorities said.

Neighbors in the building told The Jersey Journal that the couple had a volatile relationship and argued often. One neighbor said Margaret Mazurczyk often threw her husband out and he would sleep in his car.

At the hearing, Hernandez argued that the strength of the evidence and the potential life sentence made Mazurczyk a flight risk. He asked the judge allow Mazurczyk's bail to remain at $500,000 cash or bond.

But Defense attorney Johnny Cardona argued that Mazurczyk has been a Hudson County resident her entire life, lived in the couple's current apartment for six years and has no criminal record at all. He asked for the bail to be reduced to $250,000 cash or bond.

In the end, Hudson County Superior Court Judge Sheila Venable said that after weighing all the factors in the case, the bail as set was "fair and appropriate."

Mazurczyk's next court date is on Jan. 12 before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale. She appeared today in Central Judicial Processing court via video link from Hudson County jail in Kearny. She spoke privately with Cardona for a few minutes at the hearing but said nothing during the hearing.