A Sterling Heights district court judge bound over a man accused of brutally stabbing his pregnant girlfriend to death on a charge of first-degree, premeditated murder.

Judge Kimberly Wiegand of 41A District Court ruled Friday that Damarion Goler should face the first—degree murder charge in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens for the March 2024 stabbing of Mersina Talic, 29, outside their residence at Sterling Park Apartments on 18 Mile Road, east of Van Dyke Avenue.

Goler was initially charged with second-degree murder and other charges, but Macomb County prosecutors sought to raise the charge to the highest degree of murder last October following a daylong district-court preliminary examination.

“The court finds premeditation and deliberation by the defendant exists,” said Wiegand, reciting from her written opinion.

She pointed to stab wounds and other injuries that indicated an “acceleration and deceleration” of Talic’s head, as cited by county Medical Examiner Mary Pietrangelo. Talic suffered more than 60 “blunt-force” injuries and more than 50 “sharp-force” injuries, Pietrangelo testified.

Wiegand ruled after receiving legal briefs from Macomb prosecutors and the defense attorney.

After she announced her decision, she denied a request by Goler’s attorney, Gary Kennedy, to revise the charge to open murder, which would allow the circuit judge or jury to decide on the degree.

But Wiegand rejected it after Assistant Macomb Prosecutor Carrie Seward said, “If the people thought that (open murder) was appropriate, that’s what we would have charged. We asked for first-degree murder. … We met the burden of first-degree murder.”

Seward pointed out that because Goler is charged with first-degree murder, the jury automatically be able to consider second degree.

First-degree murder carries a mandatory penalty of life in prison without parole while second-degree murder is punishable by up to life with a chance for parole.

Around 3 a.m. March 24 police received a 911 call from a neighbor who heard “loud” screaming by a woman and the sounds of someone beating her on the second floor of the building,.

Goler was located outside his mother’s apartment unit near Harper Avenue and 15 Mile Road in Clinton Township sitting on a top stair and smoking a cigarette with a large amount of blood on his hands and a smaller amount on his beard.

Talic’s body was found in a vehicle. Extensive efforts were made to revive her because she appeared to be pregnant, a paramedic said.

Goler was mostly cooperative while being arrested and said he killed Talic in self defense.

At the hearing, the attorneys and judge appeared in person while Goler was on video from the jail.

Goler, who faces a Feb. 12 arraignment in circuit court, is also charged with assault of a pregnant individual with intent to cause a miscarriage or stillbirth, concealing a death, and tampering with evidence.

He also faces an unrelated charge of malicious destruction of property between $1,000 and $20,000. He faces a Feb. 4 probable-cause conference in 41B District Court in Clinton Township on that charge.