One of many suspects charged in the lethal Marriott lodge taking pictures of a Lengthy Island father visiting Poughkeepsie for a school household weekend has additionally been charged in reference to one other homicide.
Devin Taylor is accused of taking pictures and killing Darren Villani on Aug. 9 in Poughkeepsie, the Dutchess County District Legal professional’s workplace introduced Wednesday. He was charged with second-degree homicide and weapon possession, and is subsequent scheduled to look in courtroom for that killing on Feb. 22.
If convicted, Taylor might face life in jail for his function in Villani’s slaying — which occurred almost two months previous to the high-profile lodge taking pictures close to Marist Faculty that left 53-year-old father Paul Kutz, of East Northport, lifeless.
Taylor and one other man — Roy Johnson Jr. — have been each charged in that incident. Johnson Jr., the alleged gunman and a recognized fugitive on the time, pleaded not responsible to firing 30 pictures in and across the Courtyard by Marriott.
Questions stay about why the suspected triggerman was even on the streets to start with in the weeks main as much as the loss of life. Johnson had been wished by regulation enforcement in Georgia since July 2022 on gun and drug expenses, and had been eyed by regulation enforcement in connection to Villani’s alleged gang-related killing — however Poughkeepsie metropolis police didn’t arrest him on the energetic gun warrant on the time.
Johnson Jr. has not been charged in Villani’s slaying. Taylor, who was arrested on the scene with Johnson Jr. and had been staying in a lodge room with him, faces weapons expenses for the Marriott taking pictures. Police stated they discovered an AR-15-style weapon, bomb manuals and different supplies contained in the lodge room that an affiliate had rented for the pair.
Police for the town of Poughkeepsie stated Wednesday that whereas they have been conscious the alleged gunman who killed a father in a seemingly random lodge foyer taking pictures had been a fugitive of the regulation, they couldn’t arrest him for one easy purpose: They couldn’t discover him.
Quite a few regulation enforcement officers say it was a mistake to depart Johnson Jr. on the road after the summer season taking pictures, and that police had the chance to convey him into custody in the weeks earlier than he allegedly shot up the lodge and killed Kutz.
And whereas police for the town of Poughkeepsie and the district legal professional’s workplace have stated they have been conscious Johnson Jr. had been a fugitive of the regulation, they stated they could not arrest him for one easy purpose: They could not discover him.
The district legal professional’s workplace and police for the town of Poughkeepsie haven’t stated after they first checked databases to study that Johnson Jr. was wished elsewhere. However a number of regulation enforcement sources instructed NBC New York that Johnson Jr. was believed to be in Poughkeepsie proper after Villani’s Aug. 9 taking pictures, and a few officers wished to select him up.
As we get our first take a look at the daddy killed in a lodge taking pictures over the weekend, the I-Group is uncovering new details about two males charged in his loss of life — together with the alleged gunman who investigators stated was additionally a wished fugitive. Jonathan Dienst experiences.
A number of regulation enforcement sources instructed Information 4 that whereas police wished to make an arrest, the district legal professional and others wished to attend. The Dutchess County district legal professional’s workplace has stated that the workplace “never made a request to delay an arrest” of Johnson Jr., saying that there was by no means proof to warrant an arrest be made in the murder.
Town’s police division, which stated they have been additionally on the lookout for him in the August murder, stated they have been unable to seek out him as a result of he didn’t have a everlasting tackle. On the time, sources had instructed the town’s police division that Johnson Jr. had been hiding from police by staying at motels in New York and different states.
However regardless of believing that he had been touring out of state, a number of regulation enforcement officers stated that police by no means requested U.S. Marshals, state police or a joint anti-crime process pressure led by the FBI for assist in monitoring him down.
The U.S. Marshals, FBI, New York State Police, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration and the Southern District of New York have declined requests for touch upon the matter.
The 2 males taken into custody for the taking pictures at a lodge in Poughkeepsie are additionally being investigated as suspects for a earlier theft and homicide, Jessica Cunnington experiences.