Police charged Keron Lamont Wilkins, 30, of 104 Home Trace Circle in Clayton with one felony count of bigamy, according to an arrest warrant filed at the Wake County Magistrate's Office early Tuesday morning.

Bigamy is a Class 1 felony, punishable by four to 10 months in prison.

Police accused Wilkins of marrying Shannetta Dawn Stone, 32, of Richmond, Va., on March 20 while he was married to Chaka Miles Wilkins, his wife of eight years and the mother of his children, ages 4 and 8 months.

Stone first learned of the suspected bigamy April 19, when she talked with Keron Wilkins' mother, Cynthia Moody, a teacher's aide in Emporia, Va.

Stone said Moody told her that her son was married to someone else.

Stone confronted Wilkins, but he lied, saying he was not married. Stone gave him a week to produce divorce papers or she would call the police.

More than a week passed.

Then Chaka Wilkins discovered text messages her husband had sent Stone early Monday. She called Stone before dawn.

"Around 4 a.m. the phone rang, and this girl says, 'Dawn, this is Chaka Khan Miles Wilkins. This is Keron's wife,' " Stone said. "I sat up in bed."

The women talked awhile. They hung up, and Chaka Wilkins called again, this time with Keron Wilkins on the speaker phone.

"Who is Dawn?" Stone recalled Chaka asking her husband. When he refused to answer, Stone says, she asked, "Oh, you not going to tell her we live together in Cary?"

The Wilkinses in Clayton began arguing and hung up.

On Tuesday after midnight, while Keron Wilkins sat in his Clayton home, Stone and Chaka Wilkins talked in code over the phone so their husband could not understand that they were orchestrating his arrest.

Police Capt. Michael Williams of Cary said he had no idea why Keron Wilkins married two women. "He didn't make any statement at all to us when we arrested him," Williams said.

Cary police are also investigating the possibility that Keron Wilkins may be married to a third woman, Williams said.

Chaka Wilkins could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Her voice mail greeting is a song with the words, "I want to be the one you believe in with your heart, this time."

Keron Wilkins made his first court appearance at 2 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Wake County jail. His attorney or family members could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Stone works with developmentally disabled children and is a licensed real estate agent. She also models and said she has been featured in advertisements for Bank of America and The Learning Channel.

She met Keron Wilkins at a gas station in Emporia, Va., late last year. Stone said Wilkins made a remark about her outfit: a low-cut top, short shorts, fishnet stockings and boots with stiletto heels.

"He was leaving the store," Stone said. "Then he backed up when he saw me at the pump and said, 'Hey, miss lady.' "

The two exchanged phone numbers and communicated for nearly three weeks before he visited her in Virginia for a weekend. She visited him at a Cary apartment the next week, Stone said.

A whirlwind romance led to Wilkins' marriage proposal. Stone said it was during Lent.

"I thought maybe God had sent me that special person because I was fasting and praying," said Stone, a single mother of two small boys. "I thought I might as well do it because I'm getting old."