COURTHOUSE — Dominique Devlin was murdered by her 18-year-old ex-boyfriend in retaliation for setting him up to be robbed at his Arch Street home two weeks earlier, according to Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman.
Brandon Tremayne Pierce, 18, of the 1300 block of Arch Street, was charged Thursday with the 16-year-old girl’s July 20 murder and was arraigned in District Judge Margaret Hunsicker’s district court at 3 p.m. following the DA’s press conference. The defendant is being held in county prison without bail.
On July 6, Norristown police rushed to the area for a report of shots fired and arrested two suspects who witnesses said were hiding in the bushes outside Pierce’s residence, though officers were unaware of the planned home invasion that night.
The DA was unable to say Thursday whether the suspects had fired at Pierce during the incident. However, during the homicide investigation, detectives were able to corroborate Devlin’s involvement in the robbery plot.
Days after Pierce found out about the betrayal, he vowed to get even with her and allegedly pulled a small semiautomatic handgun from his pocket to show someone he knew, according to the criminal complaint.
“The defendant learned of his former girlfriend’s complicity, and he had made statements to others that he was going to ‘get’ her because he believed she had set him up,” the DA said.
Text messages exchanged between Pierce and Devlin on the evening of July 19, an hour before she was killed, suggest he lured her from Willow Street, where she been talking to friends, to East Basin Street and DeKalb streets.
Pierce and Devlin conversed for a short time while leaning against a parked car on Basin Street, which witnesses characterized as “friendly” and “normal.” The couple was last seen walking toward a grassy area behind 1108 DeKalb St.
Minutes later, shots were fired, and Devlin ran out onto East Basin Street and collapsed at the corner of Green and East Basin streets. The girl, who had been shot twice in the chest and once in one hand, drew labored breaths as she lay on the street critically wounded.
Soon after arriving at Montgomery Hospital, she was pronounced dead.
Soon after the shooting, the defendant’s friends reportedly saw him walking quickly onto Spruce Street from DeKalb Street.
A joint investigation by Norristown Police Department and the Montgomery County Detective Bureau was immediately launched into the fatal shooting, and the DA said investigators have been working nonstop on the case.
Alongside the walkway of 1108 DeKalb St., detectives recovered a Mauser 6.39 semi-automatic handgun. In close proximity to the weapon, police found a Villanova University baseball cap, an Adidas brand T-shirt and pants. A bottle of beach was also recovered nearby.
The gun was tested by county Detective John Finor and determined to be the weapon that fired the bullets recovered from the victim’s body, according to authorities.
DNA samples from the T-shirt, pants, baseball cap and gun grips were compared to samples from Pierce, and testing revealed the DNA on the hat, pants, T-shirt and gun were consistent with the defendant’s DNA.
After the shooting, the defendant allegedly put the Adidas clothing and the baseball cap in a bottle of bleach to in an effort to destroy evidence.
The recent surge in violent crime in Norristown is not isolated, Ferman said, referring to crime committed by youths in Philadelphia and elsewhere that has recently made news.
“There’s a great deal of anger among young people, a recklessness. There is unfortunately sometimes a lack of supervision,” she said. “And when I look to our neighbors in Philadelphia and see what’s going on with flash mobs, I have to wonder if we’re not all seeing different versions of the same thing.”
Devlin’s mother, Kimberly Spearman, who was interviewed Thursday night, had suspected Pierce of killing her daughter for weeks.
“I knew it was him,” she said. “I had no doubt.”
Spearman had been interviewed by investigators, and realized early on in the month-long investgation that police were looking for Pierce.
“I am truly, truly glad that they found him,” she said.
Ferman credited Norristown residents for providing crucial information during the investigation that helped solve the case. Too often, authorities say, cooperation is lacking.
“We are here a month after a very serious crime announcing an arrest,” the DA said. “That would not have happened had the Norristown community not stepped up and shared information with the police.”
The DA hopes the community will be equally helpful in the future, because law enforcement can’t solve crimes in a vacuum.
“If people living in a community are willing to give thugs a free pass, then violence takes over our streets,” Ferman said.
A preliminary hearing for Pierce is scheduled for Aug. 26 at 11:30 a.m. at Judge Hunsicker’s district court.
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