Kidnapped Warren woman turns self in, talks to police

Staff report

WARREN

Alicia Binion, the woman who police said had been kidnapped during a homicide Dec. 2 on Stephens Avenue Northwest, “turned herself in to us when she returned to the area,” Warren police said.

Binion, 36, is “a little emotionally distraught over the whole thing. But other than that, she’s OK,” said Capt. Robert Massucci.

Police interviewed her, and she’s “safe and sound right now,” he said. She is not in custody.

Nothing in the interview changes the way the police department views the homicide and kidnappings of Binion and another woman that night, Massucci said.

Shawn Johnson, 49, who has ties to the Detroit area, is charged in the shooting death of John P. Kellar, 41, of Niles. Kellar’s death was ruled a homicide as a result of one or more gunshot wounds.

Johnson is still at large, Massucci said.

Kellar’s fiancee, 22, asked a resident of West Market Street to call 911 for her Dec. 2. The resident told police she had been abducted from a house on Stephens by a man named Shawn who shot someone at the house.

The woman said she got away while the man was at Rocky’s Am Pm Food Mart on West Market Street. The store’s surveillance video showed Johnson and Binion inside the business.

Police said they were aware people have suggested that Binion may have known Johnson before the abductions, but they were reserving judgment on whether anyone except Johnson deserves to be charged.

Johnson, Binion, Kellar and the second woman who was abducted all have criminal records. And police reports for the house on Stephens suggest that illegal activity was taking place at the dwelling the past few years.

The home is owned by Carl Binion, 58, father of Alicia Binion. Carl Binion was sentenced to three years in prison earlier this month after committing a felonious assault and aggravated burglary at a neighbor’s house.