A Macomb County jury convicted a 33-year-old Sterling Heights man of second-degree murder Friday in the stabbing death of his pregnant girlfriend, capping a five-day trial that laid out a bloody scene at a Sterling Heights apartment complex and a defendant found miles away with blood on his hands. Damarion W. Goler was also convicted of assault with intent to cause a miscarriage and tampering with evidence, while jurors rejected the more serious first-degree murder charge after five hours of deliberation.
The jury reached its verdict Friday following a trial that stretched over five days across two weeks before Macomb Circuit Judge Matthew Sabaugh in Mount Clemens, according to the Macomb Daily. Goler, who lived in Sterling Heights, was convicted in the 2024 stabbing death of Mersina Talic, who the report states was 31 years old.
A 3 a.m. Call and a Pool of Blood
The killing happened at about 3 a.m. on March 24, 2024, at Sterling Park Apartments on 18 Mile Road, east of Van Dyke Avenue, where the couple had been moving into their unit, the Macomb Daily's report notes. A neighbor called 911 after hearing a woman screaming and what sounded like someone beating her on the building's second floor, according to testimony described in the outlet's coverage.
When officers arrived, they found a pool of blood just outside the apartment's front door, but no one was inside the unit, the Macomb Daily's report states. Goler had fled the scene, and he was later found outside his mother's apartment near Harper Avenue and 15 Mile Road in Clinton Township, sitting on a top stair and smoking a cigarette. Per the same account, he had a large amount of blood on his hands and a smaller amount on his beard when he was located.
Medical Examiner Details Dozens of Injuries
Talic's body was found in a vehicle, and a paramedic testified that extensive efforts were made to revive her because she appeared to be pregnant, the outlet reported. Medical Examiner Mary Pietrangelo testified that Talic suffered more than 60 blunt-force injuries and more than 50 sharp-force injuries, according to the same coverage.
Goler told police he killed Talic in self-defense, per testimony cited in the report. That claim did not persuade jurors to acquit, but it appears to have factored into their decision to convict on the lesser second-degree murder charge rather than first-degree murder, which they rejected after five hours of deliberation.
Sentencing Set for December, Charge Carries Life Maximum
Under Michigan law, second-degree murder is punishable by imprisonment for life or any term of years, at the court's discretion. The assault charge Goler was convicted of also carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, the Macomb Daily's report states.
Goler is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 2 and is being held without bond, according to the outlet. At his arraignment, the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office had listed charges of second-degree murder, assault of a pregnant individual involving an intentionally caused miscarriage, tampering with evidence and concealing the death of an individual, remanding him without bond to the Macomb County Jail at that time. The prosecutor's office release identified Goler as 31 years old at arraignment, while the Macomb Daily's conviction report lists him as 33; the discrepancy in his age between the two accounts remains unresolved. The prosecutor's office also notes that people accused of a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, a standard that applied throughout the proceedings that led to Friday's verdict.
