Philadelphia Man Charged With Murder for the Third Time, Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office Officially Confirms
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The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office announced in a press briefing on Wednesday that 38-year-old Philadelphia resident Marcus Haynes has been formally charged with first-degree murder, marking the third time he has faced murder charges in the last 14 years.
According to official court documents, the latest charge stems from a November 2023 shooting in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, where 29-year-old Tyrone Jenkins was shot and killed outside a corner convenience store. Investigators said Haynes got into a verbal altercation with Jenkins before pulling an unregistered 9mm handgun and firing three shots at close range, striking Jenkins in the chest. Surveillance footage from the store and nearby residential buildings captured the entire incident, and law enforcement officers later recovered the weapon used in the shooting from an abandoned vehicle linked to Haynes, with ballistic testing confirming a match to the bullet fragments recovered from Jenkins’ body. Additional evidence includes cell phone location data placing Haynes at the scene at the time of the shooting, and testimony from three eyewitnesses who have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors under witness protection. Haynes is also facing additional charges of illegal possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, aggravated assault, and tampering with evidence.
Court records show Haynes was first charged with murder in 2010, accused of shooting and killing a 17-year-old during a neighborhood dispute, but he was acquitted by a jury after the prosecution’s key witness recanted their testimony. He was arrested again on murder charges in 2017, linked to the fatal shooting of two men during a drug deal, but those charges were dismissed 18 months later due to insufficient evidence. Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry noted in the briefing that her office took over the latest case at the request of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, to avoid the procedural missteps that led to the dismissal of the previous two cases. If convicted on the latest first-degree murder charge, Haynes will face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole under Pennsylvania’s three-strikes law for repeat violent offenders. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for next Tuesday, and his public defender has not yet released a statement on the charges.
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As a Kensington resident who has lived here for 13 years, I’m just so relieved to hear this news. Everyone in our neighborhood knew Haynes was responsible for the earlier killings, but people were too scared to speak up before. I hope the witness protection program holds up this time so we can finally get this dangerous guy off our streets for good.
This case is such a tragic example of how gaps in our justice system let violent offenders reoffend. The first two cases fell apart because witnesses didn’t feel safe testifying, and now another young man is dead because we failed to hold Haynes accountable the first two times. We need to fund stronger witness protection programs across Pennsylvania immediately.
Wait, let’s not rush to judgment before the trial starts, right? The justice system has wrongfully convicted people before, and just because Haynes was charged twice previously doesn’t automatically make him guilty this time. The prosecution says they have solid evidence, so let’s let the jury do its job to make sure we get justice for both the victim and the accused.
How did someone with two prior murder arrests even get access to an illegal gun in the first place? Our state’s gun laws are full of loopholes that let people with violent felony histories easily purchase unregistered firearms off the street. This case should be a wake-up call for our legislature to pass stricter illegal gun trafficking laws right now.