Prosecutors first filed a homicide complaint hours after the killing, then added child-harm counts as the case moved into court.
KENOSHA, Wis. — Prosecutors in Kenosha have widened the criminal case against Marckus Plaza, the man accused of killing his estranged wife inside their home, adding new counts after an initial homicide complaint and asking the court to keep him jailed on a $2 million bond.
The case has moved through several stages in less than a week: an emergency welfare check, an arrest warrant while the suspect was missing, a 30-hour manhunt, an arrest nearby and then a court hearing that brought emotional statements from the victim’s family. The woman was later identified as 28-year-old Makayla Plaza. Early charging papers accuse Marckus Plaza, 33, of first-degree intentional homicide with use of a dangerous weapon. Later television court reports said prosecutors added two felony counts of causing mental harm to a child, plus misdemeanor counts tied to entering a building and resisting or obstructing an officer.
The starting point for the prosecution is a criminal complaint signed April 1 in Kenosha County Circuit Court. That filing says police were dispatched at about 6:20 a.m. to 7428 22nd Ave. for a welfare check after a friend reported hearing violence during a phone call with Makayla Plaza. The complaint identifies the defendant as Marckus Luke Plaza and says officers went to the house, where he answered the door, called himself “Allen” and then shut the door on them. One officer went to the rear of the home and, according to the filing, saw Plaza dragging a body through a basement window. Officers forced entry, the complaint says, and Plaza fled by hopping a fence into a neighboring yard. The document then lays out the physical basis for the homicide charge: officers found Makayla Plaza dead in the basement, blood in the house, signs of a struggle and a cellphone bent in half.
The complaint is brief, but it contains the most direct official allegations made at the start of the case. It says Makayla Plaza had a knife in her left eye when officers reached her. It also says two children shared by the couple were found in the residence and later became important witnesses in the probable-cause narrative. One child told officers, “Daddy hit mommy,” according to the filing. At the Children’s Advocacy Center, the complaint says, that same child later said, “Momma got dead,” and added, “daddy use a knife, my dad do it.” Those statements gave prosecutors a direct account to place beside the physical evidence inside the home. Still, complaint language is not a trial finding, and many core questions remain open, including how prosecutors will present the children’s statements, what forensic evidence will show about the attack and whether the defense will challenge the sequence described by police.
As the filing moved into a broader case, more details surfaced through local television reporting from court and police briefings. WISN reported that prosecutors described a recorded phone call in which Makayla Plaza could be heard saying “help,” “let go of me” and “I’m sorry,” while a man they identified as Marckus Plaza replied, “Nope. It’s too late for that.” That report also said court records showed Makayla Plaza had sought a temporary restraining order in February, but the request was denied. Another February case involving Marckus Plaza remained pending, with misdemeanor allegations that he shared private photos of Makayla Plaza’s boyfriend on Snapchat and then fought him. Those earlier records do not decide the homicide case, but they help explain why prosecutors and grieving relatives framed the April 1 killing as part of a longer pattern of conflict during the couple’s separation.
Procedure also changed quickly once the suspect was found. Police said a judge issued a $750,000 cash warrant while Plaza was still missing. Officers arrested him April 2 in the basement of a salon near 75th Street and 23rd Avenue after a shelter-in-place order in the neighborhood. Authorities said he injured himself with a knife during the arrest and that two officers suffered minor injuries in the struggle. By the April 6 court appearance, FOX6 and WISN both reported that a court commissioner raised bond to $2 million. FOX6 said Plaza was due back in court in May for a competency hearing. That means the next major stage may not be about guilt or innocence, but about whether the defendant is competent to proceed through the criminal process. No plea or trial date was listed in the reporting reviewed here.
The courtroom hearing added another layer not found in the formal papers: family reaction. Makayla Plaza’s mother told the court that Plaza should never be allowed out on bond or to see the children again. Her boyfriend, Korey Williams, said he had tried to help her leave what he called abuse and mistreatment. Those statements did not alter the charges, but they showed how quickly the case became both a homicide prosecution and a public account of a broken family. In structural terms, the case now rests on several tracks at once: the complaint’s probable-cause allegations, follow-up evidence from police, expected mental-competency proceedings and the later decision on whether prosecutors seek trial on all counts or resolve any part of the case by agreement. For now, the official record remains a fast-built file that began with a two-page complaint and keeps expanding.
As of the latest court coverage, Plaza remained jailed on a $2 million bond, with a May competency hearing expected and prosecutors continuing to shape a case that grew well beyond its first emergency filing.
Author note: Last updated April 22, 2026.