Man charged in fatal stabbing near Inland Highway in Winchester

A 60-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing a Winchester resident during an attack adjacent to an Inland Empire highway was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder.

Joseph Henry Mokate of Hemet was arrested Friday following a Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigation into the death of 29-year-old Boris Stepanyuk.

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Mokate, who is being held without bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, was slated to make his initial court appearance Wednesday afternoon at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.

According sheriff's Sgt. Lance Stoyer, shortly before 7 p.m. Thursday, the defendant and victim were involved in an unspecified confrontation along Highway 79, near Thompson Road in Winchester.

Stoyer said Mokate pulled a weapon and stabbed Stepanyuk at least once in the upper body, after which he fled.

Witnesses called 911, and patrol deputies and paramedics reached the location a short time later, pronouncing the victim dead at the scene.

Central Homicide Unit detectives took over the investigation and arrested Mokate the following day without incident in Palm Desert.

A possible motive for the alleged attack was not disclosed.

Mokate has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

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