Pa. Man Convicted of Killing Transgender Woman by Stabbing Her 40 Times: 'Personal and Hateful'

A Philadelphia man was convicted of first-degree murder for the mutilation and killing of a 27-year-old transgender woman.

A jury convicted Akhenaton Jones, 41, in the brutal June 2020 killing of Dominique Rem’mie Fells, according to a statement from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

“I applaud Assistant District Attorney Ashley Toczylowski for her skillful prosecution of this difficult and horrifying case,” Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said in a statement. 

“I also want to thank our victim support staff for standing with the victim’s family for five long years, and to the jury for delivering justice for Rem’mie, who was by all accounts a remarkable and creative woman loved by her family, friends and community,” Krasner said. 

Fells’ body was found floating in the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia on June 8, 2020, prosecutors say. Authorities first only found her torso, which had over 40 stab wounds. Three days later, her legs were discovered in a trash bag on the banks of the river. 

Two witnesses told authorities that Fells was spending time with Jones at his home in Philadelphia, according to the prosecutor’s office. The witnesses left the home that night, but when they returned, they found Fells dead in a pool of her own blood, which covered the entire room.  

Prosecutors say investigators then obtained a search warrant for Jones’ home, per their statement. When they arrived, investigators saw blood spattered everywhere and found a knife, an electric saw and a white hazmat suit, all covered in blood. 

Surveillance video showed Jones taking a trash can and trash bag filled with Fells’ remains out of his home and into a white van. According to the prosecutor’s office, surveillance video then showed Jones driving the van to the Schuylkill River. 

Jones fled to California before a warrant for his arrest was issued later that month, prosecutors said. He was arrested in Los Angeles on Nov. 9, 2020, and extradited back to Philadelphia. 

Once authorities got Jones in custody, they matched his DNA to DNA recovered at the scene from the knife, saw and hazmat suit. 

There have been at least 372 cases of fatal violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people in the United States since 2014, the Human Rights Campaign said. A 2024 report found that nearly half of these deaths were of Black transgender women. 

“We are reminded with this, and countless other painful losses — especially within our transgender communities — that there is much left to do until we achieve full equality, respect and support for us all,” The Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs said in a statement. “The murder of transgender people, especially those of color, is truly an epidemic, and a crisis that we cannot afford to allow to persist any further.”

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Jones is scheduled to be sentenced on September 26, the prosecutor’s office said in their statement. 

“The verdict last Monday brought justice for our daughter, but it doesn’t take away the pain of losing her,” Fells’ mother, Terri Fells-Edmonds, said in a statement. “Dominique’s life mattered, and we will continue to honor her every day. To me, she was Rem’mie, but to our family, she was a daughter, granddaughter, niece and friend.”