A Bucks County jury convicted a 31-year-old man on Thursday, for killing a former co-worker last year in Bensalem Township.
According to authorities, Dominique Isaac Harris, of Philadelphia, stabbed Michael Pickens multiple times and then ran him over with a car.
Harris was found guilty of first-degree murder and possession of an instrument of crime. The jury deliberated for about two hours before returning with the verdict. Sentencing was deferred to a later date.
During the four-day trial before Common Pleas Judge Raymond F. McHugh, Chief Deputy District Attorney Kristin McElroy outlined to the jury the brutality of Harris’s killing of Pickens, a former co-worker at a Wendy’s restaurant in Bensalem, the DAs office said.
Just before the end of his shift in the early hours of March 30, 2022, Pickens was taking the trash out when he was confronted by Harris who was lying in wait. Harris had been fired from Wendy’s two months earlier after a fight with Pickens, McElroy told jurors.
In a “vicious attack” that lasted several minutes, Harris chased Pickens down the street, catching him in the parking lot of a nearby beverage store. There, Harris repeatedly stabbed Pickens, 54, of Bensalem, who tried “valiantly” to fight off his armed attacker.
“Dominique Harris was unrelenting, this was personal,” McElroy told the jury during closing arguments. An autopsy later showed that Pickens was stabbed 46 times, with more than half to his head and neck and some so deep that they pierced his lung, McElroy said.
Harris fled the scene after the stabbing, leaving Pickens bleeding out on the parking lot, and for the next eight minutes, he fought for his life, attempting to get up or crawl to safety.
“But Michael Pickens’ will to live could not overcome the defendant’s will to kill,” McElroy said. Harris returned to the parking lot in his car and ran Pickens over twice. After the second time, Harris got out of the car, loaded Pickens into the backseat and dumped his body a few miles away.
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