Erie News Now | WICU & WSEE in Erie, PAErie Man Charged In Murder of Nikkia Sawyer

Erie Man Charged In Murder of Nikkia Sawyer

Erie police have filed charges in an 8 month old murder case.
A local man is in custody, for the murder of Nikkia Sawyer.

8 months ago a young woman was found murdered inside her Erie high rise apartment, now, her alleged killer is in police custody.
He's identified as 31 year old James Duncan, also known as Jimmie Duncan.
Wednesday afternoon, Erie police charged him with homicide, aggravated assault, and abuse of a corpse.
Investigators say back on June 21st, 2011, he murdered 27 year old Nikkia Sawyer.
She was stabbed to death inside her apartment, at the Highpoint Towers building on Sassafras street.
Erie police say she was found bound and gagged.
Police say the two were familiar with each other, but wouldn't go into detail on exactly how.
Over the past 8 months, Erie police detectives have been conducting interviews, and reviewing lots of evidence in the case, in order to make the arrest.

 "Until you make an arrested in a case like this, everyone wonders who the killer is, is he still walking the streets? And of course, we moved as fast as we could given the circumstances and we feel assured that we have the person." Said Erie Police Chief Steve Franklin.

"This is a very detailed investigation, very time consuming as they all are. But in this particular case the amount of evidence processed, the amount of evidence looked into, leads followed up on, was extensive." Said District Attorney Jack Daneri.

12News did some digging, and found Duncan has an extensive criminal history. Area police have arrested him more than 20 some times on various charges, from resisting arrest to aggravated assault.