Crystal Robinson remembered coming back to her Bethlehem home one day in April 2018 to find a number of city police officers there. The responding officers asked her if she could identify any tattoos that her grandson, Tyrell Holmes, had.
She told them he had a tattoo of Mother Mary on his arm. At that point, officers told her that Holmes, 18, had been killed. All Robinson could do at that point, she said, was fall to the ground in a pain she “never felt before.”
Investigators later determined Holmes had been kidnapped, stabbed, then set on fire near a Dumpster in the city. They alleged four of his friends, members of the “Money Rules Everything” gang, were responsible.
“What was done to him was pure evil,” his grandmother said.
On Thursday, Alkhion Dunkins, 26, of Bethlehem, described by police as the leader of the gang, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the April 24, 2018, killing — what Holmes’ grandmother described as “pure torture.”
Dunkins was found guilty in March of homicide, conspiracy to commit that offense, murder, conspiracy to commit that offense, arson, aggravated arson, kidnapping and possessing an instrument of crime. Investigators said Yzire Jenkins-Rowe, 26, Zahire Welcome, 27, and Miles Harper, 26, also were involved in the killing.
“No sentence that I can impose will service justice for Tyrell and his family,” Judge Michael Koury said.
Authorities said all five were friends, and the four turned on Holmes when they suspected he was stealing marijuana and working with a rival gang. He was taken from an apartment on Raspberry Street, then taken to Parkhurst Apartments, where he was stabbed and set on fire.
Robinson, whose statement was read by a family member Thursday in court, described Holmes, her first grandchild, as well-loved by his family. He had a strong faith in God, and often attended church on Sundays with his family, she said.
Not a day goes by she does not think about her grandson, she said. Robinson lamented the fact that she will never see him get married, or have children of his own.
“We will never get to see him smile again,” she said.
Judge Koury called the murder “devastating,” and told Dunkins that he robbed Holmes’ family of ever having a future with him.
Holmes had suspected the group might do something to him, and he sent a message to someone before his death, saying to remember the names of Jenkins-Rowe, Dunkins and Welcome if anything happened.
Pennsylvania Senior Deputy Attorney General Christopher Phillips told jurors during closing arguments in Dunkins’ trial that the stab wounds alone would likely have killed Holmes had they not been treated, but the fire was what killed him.
The AG said Jenkins-Rowe, Welcome and Harper went through efforts to hide the crime, including avoiding routes with cameras, and disposing of their clothes and Holmes’ phone.
Koury noted that Dunkins, a Freedom High School graduate and one-time Moravian University student and athlete, had a supportive family. Dunkins transferred to Northampton Area Community College, where his grades dropped, and he had to withdraw from college altogether after getting charged in a robbery. The judge said something must have gone wrong around that time.
“It’s actually sad,” he said. “Because you were on a good path in college and high school.”
Dunkins, who maintained his innocence during trial, sat quietly, clad in an orange Northampton County Prison jumpsuit while Robinson’s statement was read. He did not speak during sentencing.
Robinson asked for all four men to be sentenced to life in prison, where they can think about what they did and ask God for forgiveness.
“Rest in peace my precious and loving Tyrell,” she said.
Dunkins was sentenced to life in prison, the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder. In addition to that, he was sentenced to 23 to 50 years in prison for the remaining offenses he was found guilty of.
“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 Dave Sunday said in a news release announcing the sentencing. “I commend my team and our law enforcement partners for seeing this conviction through and obtaining justice.”
He is the second of the four charged to be sentenced in the killing. Jenkins-Rowe pleaded guilty to third-degree murder earlier this month, and was sentenced to 27½ to 60 years in prison.
Harper, who pleaded guilty last year to aggravated arson, will be sentenced in July. Welcome is scheduled to go to trial on the charges in September.
Authorities have said they were all part of the Money Rules Everything gang, which was flagged by police in 2015. Officials have said the gang met in high school and began committing crimes that escalated.
Former DA Terry Houck said in 2021 after Dunkins’ arrest that he believed the gang was essentially powerless. Crimes committed by the gang include shootings and robberies, according to officials.
