POUGHKEEPSIE – One of the accused “Courtyard Killers”, 26-year-old Devin Taylor, was arraigned in Dutchess County Court on Wednesday, February 1, after a grand jury indicted him on a murder charge for the 2022 murder of Darren Villani on Mansion Street in Poughkeepsie.
City of Poughkeepsie Police had responded to a shooting near 283 Mansion Street on August 9, 2022, at 1:44 a.m. When they arrived, they located Villani, 28 of Poughkeepsie, laying next to his vehicle with gunshot wounds. The victim was transported to a local hospital where he died from his wounds.
After the October 2022 arrest of Taylor and Roy Johnson Jr., for the shooting death of Marist dad Paul Kutz in the lobby of the Courtyard Hotel on South Road in the Town of Poughkeepsie, city cops released additional information regarding the Villani investigation. City of Poughkeepsie Police Captain Rich Wilson had previously told Mid-Hudson News that Taylor’s alleged accomplice in the Courtyard murder, Roy Johnson Jr. 35, was present near Mansion at Smith Streets at 1:45 a.m. That location is near where Villani was murdered at the same time.
Taylor, an ex-con, is facing several felony weapons charges related to the Courtyard case in addition to the felony murder charge for Villani’s death.
The investigation into the homicide of Darren Villani is continuing. Anyone with information on Villani’s homicide is asked to call the City of Poughkeepsie Police Department’s confidential TIP LINE at 845-451-7577.
