A Danville Wendy’s employee who stabbed a co-worker in the head while saying she would kill her was sentenced to 12 years after an attempted murder plea.

Prosecutors reported that Tichina Marshall, 29, pleaded guilty Friday to attempted first-degree murder and was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, plus three years of mandatory supervised release.

The aggravated battery charge against her was dropped in the plea deal. Before the plea, she had faced up to 30 years.

The attack took place in May last year at a now-closed Wendy’s in Danville, Illinois. Marshall stabbed her co-worker while the victim was talking with a manager.

She had already threatened to kill her co-worker

Prosecutors said Marshall had threatened to kill the same co-worker a month before the stabbing. No motive for the attack was given in court disclosures tied to the case.

During the assault, Marshall told the victim, “I am going to kill you.”

Video described by the Vermilion County State’s Attorney’s Office showed Marshall stabbing the co-worker at least two times in the face and once on the top of the head.

Victim left with a fractured skull

Prosecutors said the victim was found laying on the floor, bleeding uncontrollably and nearly unconscious. She suffered a one-inch stab wound to the head and a fractured skull.

Vermilion County State’s Attorney Jacqueline Lacy said the penalty reflected “the violent nature of this attack and the devastating injuries suffered by the victim.”

Lacy also said no sentence “can undo the lasting effects” of what Marshall did.

Marshall was charged in the case identified as 2025-CF-399. The victim was not named in the public account of the sentencing.

A workplace threat followed by a stabbing to the head is not a spat. It is attempted murder, and 12 years is the bill coming due.