A Montgomery County man will spend up to 60 years in prison for his part in killing a Bethlehem teen who was stabbed and set on fire outside a city apartment complex, the state Attorney General’s Office said.
Yzire Jenkins-Rowe, 28, of Collegeville is one of four people charged in the 2018 killing of 18-year-old Tyrell Michael Holmes. On Monday, Jenkins-Rowe pleaded guilty in Northampton County Court to third-degree murder, criminal conspiracy to commit murder, and arson. He was sentenced to 27½ to 60 years.
Holmes was stabbed multiple times and set ablaze while still alive outside the Parkhurst Apartments on Watkins Street.
At the time of the killing, Jenkins-Rowe and the co-defendants were members of a gang called “Money Rules Everything,” authorities said.
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 Township.
Prosecutors have said Dunkins, the gang leader, no longer trusted Holmes and conspired with the others to kill him. Holmes, who lived with Jenkins-Rowe and Dunkins for a time, had told others he feared he would be killed.
Harper has already pleaded guilty to aggravated arson and is awaiting sentencing. Welcome has a trial scheduled for Sept. 29. Dunkins, found guilty by a jury earlier this year, will be sentenced June 24.
“This defendant and his co-defendants callously took the life of someone who considered them friends,” Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a statement. “This dangerous individual will be held accountable while spending decades incarcerated. I applaud everyone involved in the investigation and prosecution of this heinous crime.”
This case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Christopher Phillips and Senior Deputy Attorney General Katherine McDermott.
