YOUNGSTOWN — The attorney for James Sunderman, 19, of Hayes Avenue in McDonald, filed a written not guilty by reason of insanity plea Monday to attempted murder, felonious assault and kidnapping in a May incident on Youngstown’s South Side.

Sunderman was arraigned Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, with Magistrate Nicole Butler continuing the $200,000 bond set in May for Sunderman in Youngstown Municipal Court. Sunderman is in the Mahoning County jail. Butler ordered Sunderman to have no contact with victims in the case.

Youngstown police said the charges stem from a woman being found at 3 a.m. May 12 in a car in the 600 block of St. Louis Avenue with an apparent gunshot wound. She was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

Sunderman was booked into the Mahoning County jail later May 12 and was arraigned in Youngstown Municipal Court on May 13. Sunderman was indicted on the felony charges by a grand jury last week.

MURDER CASE

Meanwhile, bond of $500,000 was kept the same Tuesday during the arraignment in common pleas court for Davyon D. Alexander, 22, of Diagonal Road in Akron, on charges of murder with a firearm specification, tampering with evidence and grand theft when the property is a firearm or dangerous ordinance, in the June 30 shooting death of Kimani Johnson, 35.

Johnson was found on the sidewalk in front of a house on East Dewey Avenue on the South Side with a gunshot wound to the head. Officers were called there at 11:25 p.m.

Johnson was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital in critical condition and died July 2, according to the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office.

Alexander, James Neail, 42, and a third man were all taken to the Youngstown Police Department on June 30 and questioned regarding the shooting. Alexander and Neail were later taken to the county jail.

A Youngstown police report states that while officers were discovering Johnson’s body, they were advised that a blue vehicle was possibly heading “back to Ridge Avenue.” An officer left Dewey Avenue and went to Ridge Avenue, where he saw a blue Jeep Compass traveling west on Ridge Avenue.

The officer got behind the vehicle as it proceeded onto Thorne Avenue, then Woodland Avenue, north on Hillman Street, back onto Woodland Avenue and then on Ridge Avenue again.

When other police cars joined, they made a stop on the vehicle as three people exited the vehicle. Neail, who was the driver, Alexander and a third man were ordered to the ground in a prone position, and they complied, the report states.

Neail was searched, and a hard object was found in his pocket. When it was removed, it was apparent that it was a plastic baggie containing crack cocaine, the report states. Cash also was found in another pocket. When Alexander was searched, an officer found a gun in his waistband. Neail was charged with felony drug possession.