Suspect in fatal Poughkeepsie hotel shooting charged with involvement in another murder

One of the suspects charged in the fatal Marriott shooting of a Long Island father visiting Poughkeepsie for a college family weekend has also been charged in connection with another murder.

Devin Taylor is charged with the August 9 shooting and murder of Darren Villani in Poughkeepsie, the Dutchess County District Attorney’s office said Wednesday. He was charged with second-degree murder and possession of a weapon and will next appear in court for that murder on February 22.

If convicted, Taylor could face life in prison for his role in Villani’s murder, which occurred nearly two months before the high-profile shooting at a hotel near Marist College that killed 53-year-old father Paul Kutz of East Northport.

Taylor and another man, Roy Johnson Jr., were charged with the incident. Johnson Jr., the alleged shooter and a known fugitive at the time, pleaded not guilty to Marriott firing 30 shots in and around the Courtyard Hotel.

Questions remain as to why the suspected trigger was on the streets in the weeks before he died. Johnson has been wanted by Georgia law enforcement since July 2022 on weapons and drug charges, and law enforcement has been following him in connection with the alleged gang-related murder of Villani, but Poughkeepsie city police have not arrested him based on a valid police gun warrant. time.

Johnson Jr. was not charged with Villani’s murder. Taylor, who was arrested at the scene with Johnson Jr. and stayed in a hotel room with him, is charged with possession of a weapon for the shooting at the Marriott. Police said they found AR-15-style guns, instructions for using the bombs and other materials in a hotel room rented for the couple by an employee.

Poughkeepsie police said Wednesday that while they knew the alleged shooter who killed his father in a seemingly accidental hotel lobby shooting was a fugitive, they couldn’t arrest him for one simple reason: they couldn’t find him. his.

Numerous law enforcement officials say that leaving Johnson Jr. on the street after the summer shooting was a mistake, and that the police had the opportunity to take him into custody weeks before he allegedly shelled the hotel and killed Kutz.

While the Poughkeepsie police and the district attorney’s office said they knew Johnson Jr. was a fugitive, they said they couldn’t arrest him for one simple reason: they couldn’t find him.

The district attorney’s office and Poughkeepsie police did not say when they first checked databases to see if Johnson Jr. was wanted elsewhere. But several law enforcement sources told NBC New York that Johnson Jr. was believed to have been in Poughkeepsie immediately after the August 9 shooting in Villaney, and some officials wanted to take him away.

When we first see the father killed in a weekend hotel shootout, the I-Team reveals new information about the two men charged with his death, including the alleged shooter, who investigators said was also wanted. Reported by Jonathan Dienst.

Several law enforcement sources told News 4 that while the police wanted to make an arrest, the district attorney and others wanted to wait. The Dutchess County District Attorney’s office said the office “never requested a stay of arrest” for Johnson Jr., saying there was never evidence to justify an arrest in connection with the murder.

The city’s police department, which said they were also looking for him in the August murder case, said they couldn’t find him because he didn’t have a permanent address. At the time, sources told the city’s police department that Johnson Jr. was hiding from police by staying at hotels in New York and other states.

But despite the fact that he believed he traveled out of state, several law enforcement officials said the police never approached US Marshals, State Police or the FBI-led Joint Crime Task Force for help with his wanted.

U.S. Marshals, the FBI, the New York State Police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Southern District of New York declined requests for comment on the matter.

The two men taken into custody in the Poughkeepsie hotel shooting are also under investigation as suspects in a previous robbery and murder, Jessica Cunnington said.