HARRISBURG — Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that a Northampton County Judge sentenced a Collegeville man to 27½ to 60 years in prison for his role in killing 18-year-old Tyrell Holmes in 2018 after he entered a plea on Monday.
Yzire Jenkins-Rowe is one of four people charged in the killing. He pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, criminal conspiracy to commit murder, and arson related to the death of Holmes, who was found stabbed and set on fire near a dumpster outside an apartment complex.
At the time of the killing, Jenkins-Rowe, now 28, and the charged co-defendants, were members of a gang that referred to themselves as “Money Rules Everything.”
“This defendant and his co-defendants callously took the life of someone who considered them friends,” Attorney General Sunday said. “This dangerous individual will be held accountable while spending decades incarcerated. I applaud everyone involved in the investigation and prosecution of this heinous crime.”
In April 2018, police found the victim on fire with four stab wounds to the neck and torso. Investigators determined Holmes had lived with Yzire Jenkins-Rowe and Alkiohn Dunkins for a period of time, and Holmes had told others he feared he would be killed.
Phone records, surveillance video, and other evidence led to the arrests of Jenkins-Rowe; Alkiohn Dunkins, 26; Miles Harper, 26, of Allentown; and Zahmire Welcome, 26, of Whitehall.
Harper has already pleaded guilty to aggravated arson and is awaiting sentencing. Welcome has a trial scheduled for September 29. Dunkins, who was found guilty by a jury earlier this year, will be sentenced on June 24.
This case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Christopher Phillips and Senior Deputy Attorney General Katherine McDermott.
# # #