Sister of Alleged Murderer: 'My Brother Was Trying To Protect Me and the Baby'

The woman whose fiance was stabbed to death on Dunburry Road last weekend says her brother, charged with the murder by Baltimore County Police, was attempting to protect her and her unborn child.

Donnell Wilkins, 24, of the 5600 block of Loch Raven Boulevard, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder on April 2. Wilkins is currently being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center with bail denied.

The victim, the fiance of Wilkins’ sister, has been identified as David Cleveland, 35, of the 2700 block of York Way in Dundalk. According to police, Cleveland was found lying on the ground with multiple stab wounds to the back, lying next to a white van where the attack occurred.

“My brother was trying to protect me and the baby,” said Wilkins’ sister, who would only allow her first name, Tameka, to be used in this story. “I’m 17 weeks pregnant.”

The 28-year-old mother of three initiated a brief in-person interview Tuesday afternoon with a Patch reporter.

She was at the home of her mother on Dunburry Road shortly after midnight Friday when the attack occurred. An argument broke out when the woman's brother went inside the house to pick up her children, according to police.

She said reports that an argument or fight had begun in her mother’s home and spilled out onto the sidewalk were incorrect.

“The entire thing happened inside the van,” she said. “That’s where it began.”

She also said all three of her children were inside her mother’s house at the time of the attack, and none had witnessed the attack. A neighbor, who witnessed the event, said previously one of the children had been outside at the time of the attack.

Emotional at times during the brief interview, the woman would not say if she had been to visit her brother in prison.

“I have not lost one, I have lost two,” she said. “I’ve lost my brother and my fiance.”

When asked if there was a history of domestic violence between her and her fiance, she said there was not.

However, one neighbor who witnessed the attack told Patch that she heard the brother saying to his sister, “Stop protecting him, he swung on you.”

Later, when police arrived and picked up the attacker as he walked down the sidewalk, the witness said she heard him tell police, “Nobody’s gonna hurt my family.”

Wilkens' sister would not discuss the details of what precipitated the argument between her brother and her fiance, except to restate that her brother was trying to protect her and her unborn child.

She returned to work Tuesday, but described herself as “hurt,” “crushed,” and still in “disbelief,” four days after the attack.

“My body is numb,” she said.