Michigan man rearrested in homicide

SYCAMORE -- Thanks to the power of police computer databases, a man arrested in DeKalb County Friday on a driving violation and released by a judge on Saturday was rearrested Monday on a charge that he killed his roommate in Michigan.

DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott said a man later identified as James W. McKinney, 49, of Pittsford, Mich., was stopped by a sheriff's deputy after midnight Friday at Route 64 and Five Points Road. Scott said the deputy used a computer to "run" the license plate of the minivan the man was driving and discovered the driver's license of the van's owner, 71-year-old James Harper of Pittsford, had been suspended.

Scott said McKinney at first was charged with driving on a suspended license and, because he at first claimed to be Harper, he was charged with obstruction of justice. After being held overnight in the county jail, a judge released him the next day. However, Scott said, the sheriff's office had impounded the car and two handguns found in the car, and held onto those after McKinney was released.

Meanwhile, back in Michigan, according to press accounts from there, Harper was found dead on Saturday in his home, shot in the head. Michigan investigators began looking for McKinney, who had been living with Harper for some time. They learned via another computer search that McKinney and Harper's van had been stopped in Illinois on Friday. So on Monday morning, DeKalb County officials received a call from the sheriff's office in Hillsdale County, Mich., saying that office had just obtained a warrant for McKinney's arrest as a suspect in Harper's murder.

Scott said his deputies found McKinney about 10:40 a.m. Monday at the Hope Haven homeless shelter in DeKalb. McKinney was being held in the county jail Monday night, pending extradition to Michigan.