Judge sets $50,000 bond in Warren murder

Staff report

WARREN

Judge Thomas Gysegem of Warren Municipal Court set bond at $50,000 after Teajuanna J. McKinnon pleaded not guilty Tuesday to killing her boyfriend, Rayen L. Patterson, early Saturday at his Oak Circle Southwest home.

She posted bond Tuesday afternoon and was released.

Patterson’s mother, Theresa Patterson of Columbus, said after the hearing: “My heart goes out for [McKinnon] and her family,” adding that neither McKinnon nor her son “deserves to be where they are.”

She said she had not been close enough to the situation to know the specifics of her son’s relationship with McKinnon, but people who were close “have been telling him to leave her alone,” she said of McKinnon. “Things just happen. It’s crazy. I’m just going to put it in God’s hands now.”

McKinnon turned herself in to Warren police Monday morning after having been charged Sunday.

McKinnon’s mother called police about 3 a.m., saying Patterson had been shot, then telling a dispatcher she knew this because her daughter told her.

McKinnon and Patterson had a history of domestic violence, with Patterson having been convicted of domestic violence against McKinnon in 2012.

In that incident, McKinnon told police Patterson had come to her house drunk and initiated a verbal altercation, then spit at her, then poked her in the face, then struck her in the face.

No visible marks were on her face, police said. Patterson said the argument began after he spit tuna fish at her by accident.

Last Dec. 19, police were called to McKinnon’s home at 5:33 a.m. Patterson reported that McKinnon had stabbed him in the neck with a kitchen knife, leaving a two-inch cut behind his ear. He said it happened during an argument they were having about another man.

Patterson refused medical treatment. No charges were filed.