A Northampton County jury found a man guilty of first-degree murder in the death of a man who was burned alive in Bethlehem seven years ago.
Zahmire Welcome, 27, of Whitehall, was convicted Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit that offense, and kidnapping to commit a felony in the April 2018 death of Tyrell Holmes, according to court records. He faces a sentence of life in prison.
Welcome is among four people in the Money Rules Everything gang charged in Holmes’ killing, and the last of them to be convicted. Alkiohn Dunkins, 26, who authorities said was the leader of the gang, was found guilty in March of first-degree murder and sentenced in June to life in prison. Yzire Jenkins-Rowe, 28, of Collegeville, Montgomery County, pleaded guilty in June to third-degree murder and was sentenced to 27½ to 60 years.
Miles Harper, 26, of Allentown, pleaded guilty in April 2024 to aggravated arson, and is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
“This was a brutal killing perpetrated by the defendant and his co-conspirators who are, one by one, being held accountable for their senseless, callous, and cowardly acts,” State Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a news release. “This is not a day of celebration as Mr. Holmes was forever taken away from his loved ones, but we are hopeful the jury’s appropriate verdict offers a sense of justice.”
The state Attorney General’s Office said Holmes was choked out in his apartment on Raspberry Street on April 24, 2018, then taken to Parkhurst Apartments, where he was stabbed and set on fire. Senior Deputy Attorney General Christopher Phillips told jurors during Dunkins’ trial that Holmes had been talking to the wrong people, and Dunkins did not trust him anymore.
The prosecutor told jurors that Dunkins, Welcome and Jenkins-Rowe had tried to kill Holmes weeks before the murder by trying to get him in their car, but he refused to get in. Holmes sent someone a message before his death saying if anything happened to him, that they should remember the names of Jenkins-Rowe, Dunkins and Welcome.
Around midnight the night of the murder, the men lured Holmes into an apartment he shared with Dunkins and Jenkins-Rowe, according to the AG’s office. He was choked out there, and then taken to Parkhurst Apartments, where he was stabbed twice before he was burned alive, Phillips said.
The prosecutor told jurors that the stab wounds alone would have likely killed him had they not been treated, but the fire was what killed him. He said Jenkins-Rowe, Welcome and Harper tried to hide the crime, including avoiding routes with cameras, and disposing of their clothes and Holmes’ phone.
Holmes’ grandmother, Crystal Robinson, said in a statement during Dunkins’ sentencing that what happened to him was “pure torture.” Holmes was well-loved by his family, and had a strong faith in God, she said.
“We will never get to see him smile again,” she said.
Authorities have said the men were part of the Money Rules Everything gang, which was flagged by police in 2015. Former Northampton County DA Terry Houck said after Dunkins’ 2021 arrest that he believed the gang was essentially powerless. Crimes committed by them included shootings and robberies, authorities said.
Welcome will be sentenced in January.
