POUGHKEEPSIE – Roy Johnson, Jr., the 35-year-old accused of killing the father of a Marist College student on October 2, 2022, at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in the Town of Poughkeepsie, was arraigned in Dutchess County Court on Friday morning.
During the arraignment proceedings, the prosecutor for the Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office, Kristine Whelan, produced a detective from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia who sought to have Johnson extradited to Georgia where he is considered a “criminal fugitive” after Georgia police arrested him on felony gun and drug charges and he failed to appear in court. Warrants were issued out of the Georgia court in July, but police could not locate him until he was arrested on October 2nd after murdering 53-year-old Paul Kutz.
Johnson, represented by Kevin Prue and Robert DeMono of the Dutchess County Public Defender’s Office, waived his right to extradition before entering a plea of not guilty to the felony charges of murder and criminal possession of a weapon for the Courtyard incident.
Dutchess County Court Judge Edward McLoughlin ordered Johnson back to the Dutchess County Jail without bail.
Johnson’s accomplice in the Courtyard case, 28-year-old Devin Taylor, appeared for his arraignment later in the morning, represented by Mara Timourian of the Dutchess County Public Defender’s Office.
Taylor is charged with three felony counts of criminal possession of a weapon. After entering a plea of not guilty, Judge McLoughlin remanded Taylor to the Dutchess County Jail and removed the bail that a lower court had set.
