Authorities: Man in jail asked witness to leave Ohio for Fla.

The witness could have stayed in jail and earned $25 per day but left custody and posted bond instead.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — A man charged with killing two people at a Southwest Warren apartment complex Aug. 2 asked an eyewitness to the crime to go to Florida and stay with his mother, police and prosecutors say.

That caused a prosecutor in the case to have the woman arrested Thursday so she could be detained as a material witness, but she posted bond the next day and was released.

Michael L. McDonald, 25, of Lener Avenue Southwest, pleaded innocent Monday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to two counts of aggravated murder in the shooting deaths of Mocha Jones, 25, and Donte Broadus, 31, near Jones’ Colt Court apartment.

If convicted, McDonald could get the death penalty.

McDonald also pleaded innocent to bribing someone connected to the shootings Aug. 3, but authorities won’t say who was bribed.

On Aug. 6, however, according to a document filed by Chris Becker, an assistant county prosecutor, McDonald called someone from the Trumbull County Jail, who in turn called Keyonna Vaughn.

During the call, McDonald asked Vaughn to stay with his mother in Florida.

Vaughn witnessed the double homicide and has given Warren police a recorded statement regarding the incident, Becker wrote in a court document.

The conversation between McDonald and Vaughn prompted Becker to ask Judge Andrew Logan to have Vaughn, 21, of Colt Court, taken into custody and held as a material witness.

Vaughn was picked up by Warren police Thursday, and Judge Logan ordered that she be held in the Trumbull County Jail until she either testifies in the case or pays $5,000 bond.

Vaughn could have been paid $25 each day she remained in the Trumbull County Jail, as spelled out in state law, Judge Logan said.

Vaughn stayed in the jail about 24 hours between Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon before posting bond and being released, according to jail records.