June 16, 2025
Provided Image/Swiger Photography
Dominique 'Rem'mie' Fells' body was found June 8, 2020, in the Schuylkill River near Bartram’s Garden Dock & Community Boathouse. Akhenaton Jones, 41, of West Philadelphia, has been convicted of murdering and dismembering the 27-year-old transgender woman.
Five years after Dominique 'Rem’mie' Fells was fatally stabbed, dismembered and dumped into the Schuylkill River, the man behind the gruesome slaying of the 27-year-old transgender woman has been convicted of murder and will spend the rest of his life in prison, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office said Monday.
Akhenaton Jones, 41, of West Philadelphia, was found guilty June 9 following a weeklong trial — his second in the case surrounding Fells' death in June 2020. Jones was convicted of abuse of a corpse at his first trial in December, but the jury in that case had been unable to reach a verdict on the more serious charges.
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Fells' murder shook the LGBTQ+ community in Philadelphia, becoming a prominent case highlighting the vulnerability of transgender women and the disproportionate toll of violence against trans women of color.
Fells, a dancer and aspiring fashion designer, was stabbed at least 40 times at Jones' home on the 3900 block of Powelton Avenue on June 7, 2020. Jones then dismembered Fells using an electric saw and disposed of her body in the river near Bartram's Garden Dock & Community Boathouse in Southwest Philly, authorities said. Fells' remains were found in the water in the days after her disappearance.
Witnesses said Fells attended a party at Jones' house and was last seen entering his bedroom the night she was killed. Jones fled to California in the weeks after Fells' death, evading authorities until he was arrested in Los Angeles that November.
DNA evidence collected from Jones' West Philly home connected him to the crime, and prosecutors said video evidence showed Jones loading Fells' remains into a van that was later seen traveling to the river. A hazmat suit and knife were recovered from Jones' home.
"I think it's one of the most savage and personal and hateful crimes I've ever seen," Assistant District Attorney Ashley Toczylowski said at a news conference Monday. "To stab her 40 times, I can think of nothing more hateful. Why he did that, we may never get an actual answer to that."
Jones' trial was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and further complicated by his decision to represent himself in court, prosecutors said. At his first trial, Jones admitted to dismembering Fells but claimed the murder had been committed by another person.
Fells' family members joined prosecutors on Monday morning to reflect on her life, calling her "a bright light" and a "protector" who looked after those she loved.
"Dominique's life mattered, and we will continue to honor her memory every day," said Fells' mother, Terri Edmonds. "This does not feel like a loss that was just within our immediate family, but (also) to the many people who in the summer of 2020 were moved by Rem’mie's story while in the throes of their own life-changing experiences."
District Attorney Larry Krasner called Fells' murder a clear example of how vulnerable groups are targets of violent crime.
"This is what hate gives us. Hate gives us crime. Hate gives us murder. Hate gives us killing," Krasner said. "But haters lose, and this hater lost. Akhenaton Jones lost."
Jones could not be charged with a hate crime because the statute in Pennsylvania does not include people in the LGBTQ+ community, prosecutors said.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation has recorded at least 372 cases of fatal violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people in the United States since 2014. In a report last year, the organization said nearly half of the 36 cases reported from November 2023 to November 2024 involved Black trans women. Many cases are believed to be unreported and are initially misreported because the gender of victims is not accurately identified.
Fells' uncle, Roland Williams, said the family will carry her memory forward and continue to honor her life.
"In her short time with us, the gift that she left us is priceless," Williams said.
Jones will be sentenced in September. The first-degree murder charge carries a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.
