HARRISBURG, PA — Alkiohn Dunkins, 26, of Easton, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced to life in prison plus an additional 23 to 50 years for the 2018 murder of 18-year-old Tyrell Holmes. The sentencing follows a Northampton County jury’s conviction of Dunkins on charges of first-degree murder and related offenses.
Holmes was found stabbed and set on fire near a dumpster outside an Easton apartment complex in April 2018. Dunkins, described as a member of the gang “Money Rules Everything,” carried out what prosecutors characterized as a calculated and brutal crime. Judge-curated restitution orders require Dunkins to pay $9,622 for Holmes’s funeral expenses.
Attorney General Dave Sunday, whose office prosecuted the case, called the punishment a fitting response to the gravity of the crime. “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,” Sunday said. “I commend my team and our law enforcement partners for seeing this conviction through and obtaining justice.”
During the sentencing hearing, relatives spoke of the devastating loss. Holmes’s grandmother’s statement, read aloud in court, lamented the senseless cruelty inflicted on her grandson. “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 wrote. “What was done to him was pure evil.”
Investigations revealed that Dunkins, Holmes, and co-defendant Yzire Jenkins-Rowe had previously lived together, with Holmes expressing fear for his safety. Evidence, including phone records and surveillance footage, implicated Dunkins and others in the crime.
Jenkins-Rowe, 27, of Collegeville, pled guilty to third-degree murder, criminal conspiracy, and arson, receiving a 27½ to 60-year prison sentence. Miles Harper, 26, of Allentown, has admitted guilt to aggravated arson and awaits sentencing, while a trial for Zahmire Welcome, 26, of Whitehall, is scheduled for September 29.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorneys General Christopher Phillips and Katherine McDermott.
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