POUGHKEEPSIE – Fifty-two-year-old Jennifer Krinsky of Massachusetts testified in the murder trial of Roy Johnson Jr., on Friday before Dutchess County Court Judge Edward McLoughlin. Krinsky, like the victim, Paul Kutz, was in town to visit her daughter for Marist College Family Weekend in October of 2022.
She told the court that on Saturday night she was invited to the room where the two men were staying.
On Saturday, October 1, 2022, Krinsky had been at the TGI Fridays across the street from where Johnson allegedly went on an armed rampage on Sunday, October 2, 2022, in the Courtyard by Marriott hotel killing Kutz. When trying to leave the restaurant, Krinsky drove her Maserati into a light pole in the parking lot. The vehicle was towed by a company and stored at their yard until Krinsky could arrange for it to be picked up.
On October 7, 2022, the Town of Poughkeepsie Police contacted the company and told them the vehicle was being impounded by the police, who then picked it up. On October 19, 2022, the Town of Poughkeepsie police told Mid-Hudson News that the Maserati was “believed to had a possible involvement in the incident,” and also said “It has been determined that the vehicle had no relevance to the case,” and it was released to Krinsky.
On the night she struck the pole, Krinsky told a witness that she was approached by two black men in the restaurant who invited her to join them for a party across the street (Courtyard). On October 1, 2022, she also told the person that one of the men, now identified as Johnson, had a gun on him.
In court on Friday, Krinsky gave a different version of events. The Marist mom testified that she had booked a room at the Holiday Inn on South Road for the weekend to see her daughter. Upon arriving, she said, she was approached by two men, now identified as Devin Taylor and Roy Johnson Jr. At some point, Krinsky ended up at the Courtyard hotel, in the room that Taylor and Johnson were using. Krinsky testified that she had observed an AR-15 in the room, but admitted that she did not notify the police or the hotel staff of the firearm.
The trial is expected to conclude this week.
