AUSTINTOWN - The Pennsylvania man accused of killing his estranged wife and two others last week and fleeing here with his young daughter waived his right for an extradition hearing in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Monday.
Austintown police on Saturday apprehended Kevin Cleeves, 35, of Waynesboro, Pa., without problems. His 4-year-old daughter, Leia, was unharmed, reports said. She was released from St. Elizabeth Health Center after police brought her there for an examination.
Mike Thompson, of the Mahoning County Prosecutor's Office, said the sheriff in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, will make the arrangements to take Cleeves home.
Cleeves also is facing local charges of improper handling of a gun in a vehicle and drunken driving. Those charges are expected to be dropped.
Reports said Austintown police, working with Pennsylvania State Police, received information the Cleeves sent a text message to family members in East Rapids, Mich., letting them know he was near Winston's Tavern on North Canfield Niles Road.
Reports said he threatened to kill his daughter if he saw police.
Officers apprehended Cleeves at gunpoint and found a loaded semiautomatic Glock handgun with a 35-round extended magazine in the backseat. Reports said the magazine had 16 rounds left of hollow-point ammunition. Police also found a 15-round magazine with eight rounds left in Cleeves' pocket, reports said.
Austintown police also performed a gunshot residue test and turned it over to Pennsylvania authorities.
Cleeves is facing three counts of criminal homicide in Pennsylvania District Court for fatally shooting 25-year-old Brandi Cleeves, 28-year-old Vincent Santucci and 55-year-old Rosemary Holma late Friday.
Court records indicate he admitted he shot the three people.
On Friday, Pennsylvania state police said in an affidavit that Cleeves told relatives he had been trying to contact his wife to make arrangements to pick up his daughter, and went to Santucci's house in Quincy Township, Pa., to make sure the girl was safe.
Police said Cleeves saw his wife, Santucci and the girl in a car and confronted the couple in the driveway but was ordered off the property.
Authorities said he then opened fire about 9 p.m. Friday, shooting Santucci in the car and then his wife when she jumped out, and finally the older woman as she ran toward him. Police said he took the girl and fled, later telling authorities he was trying to get to a relative's house in Michigan.
Reports said local officers first spotted Cleeves' black 1992 Toyota Paseo about 4 a.m. Saturday.
Officers found Cleeves' car in the parking lot of the Best Western Hotel. While waiting for the Mahoning Valley Crisis Response team, Cleeves got in his car drove to the Walgreen's in the Weston Plaza, where officers apprehended him.