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YOUNGSTOWN -- Bond was set at $500,000 when Keylon T. White, 29, of Salt Springs Road was arraigned in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Tuesday on a murder charge in the Aug. 9 shooting death of James Merchant, 28.
White pleaded not guilty and is in the Mahoning County jail. If convicted, he could get 15 years to life in prison. White was indicted last week in what authorities say was a "love triangle."
According to a Younstown police report, they were called at 8:49 a.m. to a home in the 900 block of Alameda Avenue on the North Side for a deceased male in a car.
Police found the man and called out detectives and crime scene personnel.
An officer reported seeing the man slumped over the center console, and the driver's side window shattered. There was a black handgun beside him. Officers also saw a bullet shell casing outside of the car near the driver's side.
An officer spoke with a woman in the home who said she and Merchant had been arguing for a while. She said that morning, Merchant texted her that he was going to shoot and kill her and himself.
She said he texted her "yard or front porch" and said "my blood is on your hands." She said she heard two gunshots and ran with her child upstairs. She said the text came at about 8:30 a.m. She "didn't know he was outside her house," she said, according to the report.
She looked outside a couple minutes later and saw the car in her driveway. She went out "to see what was going on" and found the man shot, she told police. She called 911.
The death was originally investigated as a suicide. An autopsy was performed by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's office and later investigated as a homicide.
erunyan@vindy.com