HARRISBURG — Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that Alkiohn Dunkins has been sentenced to a lifetime in prison — plus 23 to 50 years — for killing 18-year-old Tyrell Holmes in 2018.
Twenty-six-year-old Dunkins, of Easton, was previously found guilty by a Northampton County jury of first-degree murder and related crimes regarding the death of Holmes, who was found stabbed and set on fire near a dumpster outside an apartment complex. Dunkins also was ordered to pay $9,622 in funeral expenses to the victim’s family.
Dunkins and the other three charged co-defendants were members of a gang that referred to themselves as “Money Rules Everything.”
“Considering the calculated, callous, and evil acts committed by this defendant, this life sentence is wholly appropriate, and we hope it provides a measure of justice to Tyrell’s loved ones,” Attorney General Sunday said. “I commend my team and our law enforcement partners for seeing this conviction through and obtaining justice.”
Tyrell’s grandmother wrote a statement, which was read in court by a relative during sentencing.
“The young men who took (Tyrell’s) life through pure torture will never understand how they destroyed my life as well as all Tyrell’s relatives that dearly loved and adored him,” she said. “What they did to him clearly demonstrated that they had no compassion or empathy for human life. What was done to him was pure evil.”
In April 2018, police found the victim on fire with four stab wounds to the neck and torso. Investigators determined Holmes, Dunkins, and Yzire Jenkins-Rowe had lived together for a period of time, and Holmes had told others he feared Dunkins would kill him.
Phone records, surveillance video, and other evidence led to the arrests of Dunkins; Jenkins-Rowe, 27, of Collegeville; Miles Harper, 26, of Allentown; and Zahmire Welcome, 26, of Whitehall.
Jenkins-Rowe previously pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, criminal conspiracy to commit murder, and arson. He has been sentenced to 27½ to 60 years in prison. Harper has already pleaded guilty to aggravated arson and is awaiting sentencing. Welcome has a trial scheduled for September 29.
This case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Christopher Phillips and Senior Deputy Attorney General Katherine McDermott.
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