"What you did was ruthless." Bucks County judge sentences man in coworker's revenge killing
Dominique Isaac Harris sought revenge against the former coworker he blamed for losing his job at a Bensalem fast food restaurant. He’ll spend the rest of his life in prison for it.
On Thursday, a Bucks County judge sentenced the Philadelphia man to mandatory life without parole in state prison for stabbing Michael Pickens more than 40 times, then running over him twice with his car in 2022.
Judge Ray McHugh told Harris that allowing him the chance to see freedom again would put the community at risk.
"What you did was ruthless, it was unnecessary, and it was criminal," McHugh said.
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Before sentencing Harris, the stepfather of 54-year-old Pickens told McHugh that the victim was someone who always helped others, especially the elderly in their Morrisville neighborhood.
"Not a day goes by that you are not on our minds," he said. "In us, you will live forever."
Earlier this year, a Bucks County jury found Harris guilty of the first-degree murder and possession of a weapon in the death of Pickens, who was taking out the trash at the Wendy’s restaurant off Street Road in the early hours of March 30, 2022 when Harris confronted him.
The men were once coworkers at the restaurant, but after an altercation two months earlier, Harris lost his job, which prosecution argued fueled the revenge killing.
Harris chased Pickens to the nearby parking lot of Bensalem Beer and Soda store at the corner of Hulmeville and Street roads, where he pushed Pickens to the ground before stabbing him repeatedly. Pickens had 46 wounds; more than half the wounds were to his head and neck and some wounds were so deep they pierced his lung.
After stabbing his former coworker, Harris drove off. But eight minutes later, he returned and twice ran over Pickens before loading him into the backseat of his car and dumped his body two miles away, at the Cornwells Train Station.
Employees of the beer distributors discovered the bloodstains, boot and a Wendy’s visor outside the store the next morning. Surveillance video footage captured the attack, police said.
Philadelphia police found Harris in Philadelphia later that day and he had blood in the backseat of his car and a large cut on his right hand.
The defense contended Harris injured his hand working on his car the night before and his car was stolen and taken for a joyride.
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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Ex-coworker gets life sentence in revenge killing at Wendy's in Bensalem
