News · Sterling Heights
Sterling Heights man convicted of murder in the 2024 stabbing death of his pregnant girlfriend; sentencing set for Dec. 3
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — A Macomb County jury has convicted a Sterling Heights man of murder in the March 2024 stabbing death of his pregnant girlfriend, a killing that also ended the life of her unborn child, county prosecutors said Wednesday.
Damarion Winston Goler, 33, was found guilty Friday, Oct. 16, of second-degree murder, homicide causing the death of an unborn fetus and tampering with evidence in a homicide case, the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office said, as reported by WDIV Local 4 and CBS Detroit. The verdict came after a two-week trial, WDIV reported. The victim was Talic Mersina, 31.
What prosecutors say happened. According to the prosecutor’s office, Goler stabbed Mersina several times near the door of the couple’s apartment near 18 Mile Road and Van Dyke Avenue on March 24, 2024. Sterling Heights officers sent to the complex around 3 a.m. for a welfare check found blood in the hallway but no one inside the apartment, WDIV reported.
Later that day, Clinton Township police were called to the area of Harper Avenue and Glenwood Street on a report of a man covered in blood. Officers found Goler and Mersina in her car, parked outside the apartment building where Goler’s mother lived, prosecutors said. Goler was arrested. Mersina was taken to a hospital, where she and her unborn child were pronounced dead.
“I hope this conviction brings some measure of closure to the victims’ family,” Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido said in the office’s news release. “The defendant has been held accountable for his actions, but no verdict can undo the tragic loss or erase the pain this family has endured.”
What comes next. Goler has been held without bond in the Macomb County Jail since his arraignment in March 2024. He is scheduled to be sentenced at 9 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 3, by Macomb County Circuit Judge Matthew P. Sabaugh, according to the prosecutor’s office.
What the verdict means under Michigan law. Second-degree murder carries a sentence of life in prison or any term of years, at the judge’s discretion, under MCL 750.317. Michigan law also treats an attack on a pregnant woman that kills her unborn child as its own felony, with the same maximum of life or any term of years, when the attacker intended that harm or acted in willful disregard of it, under MCL 750.90a. Tampering with evidence in a criminal case where the top charge carries more than 10 years is a separate felony punishable by up to 10 years, under MCL 750.483a. The judge will set the actual terms under Michigan’s sentencing guidelines at the December hearing.
More Sterling Heights news, including the city’s {IL('stories/sterling-heights-news-safest-big-city-michigan-fbi-2025-crime-data-1020.html','ranking in the latest FBI crime data')}, is on our {IL('places/sterling-heights.html','Sterling Heights page')}.
Anyone in Michigan facing domestic violence can reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at any hour by calling 1-800-799-7233 or texting START to 88788.
Sources:
WDIV Local 4, “Jury convicts Sterling Heights man in stabbing death of pregnant girlfriend,” Oct. 21, 2026 (verdict, two-week trial, prosecutor’s account, sentencing date and judge), https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2026/10/21/jury-convicts-sterling-heights-man-in-stabbing-death-of-pregnant-girlfriend/
CBS Detroit, “Sterling Heights man convicted of stabbing death of pregnant girlfriend,” Oct. 21, 2026 (charges, Lucido statement, bond), https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/sterling-heights-man-convicted-stabbing-death-pregnant-girlfriend/
Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office, newsroom, https://www.macombgov.org/departments/prosecutors-office/news
Michigan Legislature, MCL 750.317 (second-degree murder), https://legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-750-317; MCL 750.90a (crimes against a pregnant individual resulting in death of the fetus), https://legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-750-90a; MCL 750.483a (tampering with evidence), https://legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-750-483a
Photo: WeaponizingArchitecture, “Macomb County Courthouse.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Macomb_County_Courthouse.jpg
More from Sterling Heights
Election 2026 · October 20, 2026
Sterling Heights voters decide two charter changes: special elections for long council vacancies and a $50,000 purchasing limit
One proposal would let voters, not the council, fill seats with two or more years left. The other would raise the spending amount that needs council approval from $5,000, set in 1968, to $50,000.
News · October 20, 2026
Clinton River Road's $10 million rebuild: one-way traffic now, a new trail and signals by November 2027
Work on 4.5 miles between Canal and Hayes runs two seasons. Northwest-bound drivers detour in the Canal-to-19 Mile and Saal-to-Hayes sections, which reopen for winter.
News · October 20, 2026
Sterling Heights council votes 4-3 to keep its Flock license plate cameras through 2028
After a meeting of more than five and a half hours, the council renewed the two-year contract early Wednesday. The city runs 23 cameras at an estimated $84,100 a year; police say usage will now be reviewed every 30 days.
News · October 20, 2026
After a crude oil leak at 18 Mile and Mound, federal regulators order Energy Transfer to check hundreds of pipeline repairs it has no records for
A failed 2010 repair sleeve on a 1967 pipeline leaked about 15 barrels into a gas station lot on Sept. 18. A 16-mile segment stays shut until regulators approve a restart.