Family Weekend Gone Wrong

On October 7, 2022, Marist College was holding a family weekend for parents to visit their children. Many parents paid top dollar for a hotel close to the college. However, at a nearby Courtyard by Marriott, an unfortunate turn of events took place.

Roy Johnson, an ex-con, murdered Paul Kutz, a parent visiting his freshman children. Roy Johnson was trying to get behind the front desk at the Marriott hotel. However, when he was stopped by the clerk, Johnson turned around and shot the person closest to him. That person happened to be Paul Kutz. The bullet pierced Kutz’s major organs including his heart and lungs. Before the bullet exited the body it also broke one of Kutz’s ribs. Kutz was dead within minutes.

Johnson had made plans to rob the hotel with his accomplice, Devin Taylor. Taylor booked a hotel room where he stashed various illegal weapons that they could have used to rob the hotel. Johnson was a known fugitive at the time and was wanted for gun and drug charges out of Georgia. He was also a suspect in an August 9th homicide investigation. Johnson had been labeled a criminal fugitive when he skipped his court hearing for his gun and drug charges. The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office put a warrant for his arrest on a national database shortly after the court hearing.

Weeks later, Johnson was deemed a key suspect in the murder of Darren Villani in the Poughkeepsie area. Numerous sources were confident that Johnson was in the Poughkeepsie area, but officials didn’t directly look for Johnson despite the evidence present. Justice was served and both men were arrested by Poughkeepsie police.

Johnson was prosecuted with one count of second-degree murder and two firearm charges. Taylor faced three firearm charges. Poughkeepsie police concluded that this was a random attack, and they are further investigating the situation.