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Paul Devoe case
October 8, 2009
Devoe sentenced to death
UPDATE 4:08 PM
A Travis County jury has sentenced Paul Devoe to death for killing two teenage girls in a Jonestown house in August 2007 during what prosecutors say was a killing spree that left five dead in Texas and one in Pennsylvania.
The jury found that Devoe is a continuing threat to society and there is no mitigating circumstances to warrant a life sentence instead of death.
State District Judge Brenda Kennedy’s court was quiet after she read the verdict.
The jury took less than three and a half hours to reach the verdict.
Devoe was convicted in Travis County of killing Danielle Hensley, 17, and her friend Haylie Faulkner, 15, in Jonestown.
After Kennedy sentenced Devoe to die by lethal injection, family members of Devoe’s victims walked to the witness stand to address him.
Robert Faulkner, Haylie’s grandfather said: “I stand as the head of the family to express our condemnation and disgust at your evil doings.
“May the state of Texas show no mercy on you and may you burn in hell,” he said.
Christina Gribble, Danielle’s mother, took the stand and said: “It’d be a really nice thought to know that if you cared what we are saying to you.”
Devoe appeared not to answer her.
Gribble went on to say that Haylie and Daniell “will be visiting you in that cell.
“They’ll be haunting you. I have nightmares every night and I wake up to a nightmare, and Danielle and Haylie will see that yours are worse. They’ll be in there with you. May you always hear their screams.”
UPDATE 12 PM
The jury in Paul Devoe’s capital murder case left state District Judge Brenda Kennedy’s court at noon to begin deliberating whether Devoe should get the death penalty or life in prison.
Moments earlier, prosecutor Gary Cobb told the jury that Devoe should receive the death penalty for killing five people in Texas and a woman in Pennsylvania in August 2004.
“Help us to start removing that bitter taste of the unfairness that Paul Devoe has put upon all of these families of our communities,” Cobb said.
Earlier, Cobb described Devoe’s acts as “a murderous rampage.”
“They don’t want us to get emotional,” Cobb said, responding to Devoe’s lawyers’ arguments. “You don’t have to get emotional but this trial is about much more than Paul Gilbert Devoe. It’s about what he’s taken away from us as a society.”
Cobb showed the jury pictures of Devoe’s victims while they were alive and after they were killed.
“If you don’t know what to do with somebody who killed six people and behaved how he has throughout his life. … If you don’t already know what Paul Devoe knows, which is if you do this, you deserve to be executed, there is no way I can ever convince you.”
UPDATE 11:02 PM
After defense lawyer Jim Erickson called on the jury to “do something extraordinary and not kill Paul Devoe,” state District Judge Brenda Kennedy adjourned court for a break.
As Darryl Gribble, whose step-daughter Danielle Hensley, 17, was murdered by Devoe, walked out of the courtroom, he said: “Piece of (expletive).” His wife Christina Gribble, who is Danielle’s mother, followed him, saying that during Erickson’s argument she got sick to her stomach in the courthouse bathroom.
Erickson, like his co-counsel had earlier, argued that because of Devoe’s stellar prison and jail record — no disciplinary actions for violence or threats of violence in almost 14 years behind bars — he should get life in prison.
Erickson told the jury they should not be swayed by the emotional testimony that victims’ family members have given from the stand.
Prosecutor Gary Cobb will close the arguments momentarily.
UPDATE 10:25 PM
Paul Devoe’s defense lawyer told a Travis County jury today that he and his co-counsel did not call any witnesses during the guilt/innocence phase of his capital murder trial because Devoe is clearly guilty.
“He knows he did heinous crimes,” Tom Weber said. “We didn’t insult you by putting on witnesses and playing defense games because he did do this.”
Weber then told jurors that they may not give Devoe the death penalty simply because they believe he deserves to be executed.
“A reasonable conclusion is he killed six people we need to seek the death penalty,” Weber said. But that’s not the law, Weber said.
Weber said the state must prove that there is a probability that Devoe will commit continuing acts of violence in order to give him the death penalty.
“He’ll never step foot in this society. So when you decide the question of whether he is going to commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society, the question is: when he is in prison, when he is incarcerated, is he going to commit criminal acts of violence?”
Weber noted evidence that he presented during the punishment phase that showed that Devoe has been in and out of prisons and jails since 1980 and officials at those institutions have never disciplined him for violent acts or threatening violence.
UPDATE 10:02 PM
A Travis County prosecutor told a jury today that while Paul Devoe’s killings of four people — including two teens — in a Jonestown house were particularly brutal and heinous, it’s the murder of an 81-year-old woman in rural Pennsylvania that shows Devoe’s true character.
“I needed a car. I needed money,” Blazey said during arguments on Devoe’s punishment, quoting Devoe’s statement about the crime.
“He decides I gotta do what I gotta do. I’m gonna kill her.
“He could have gone in, taken the keys and left in the car. She wouldn’t have stopped him. She wouldn’t have fought him. By the time he gets to Greencastle, Pa., he is not some drug- crazed, out-of-his-mind killer.
“He is calculated and he is premeditated.”
Blazey then noted that when he was arrested, Devoe had a road atlas with a circle and a star near Greencastle.
“This,” Blazey said while a picture of the atlas page flashed on wall-mounted courtroom screen, “is his memento.”
UPDATE 9:48 PM
State District Judge Brenda Kennedy read to the jury her charge, which explains that the jury must answer two special issues, or questions, with their verdict.
The first is whether there is a probability that Paul Devoe will commit criminal acts of violence that constitute a continuing threat to society.
The second question is whether there is any mitigating evidence that warrants a sentence of life in prison instead of death.
If the first answer is “yes” and the second is “no” then Devoe will receive the death penalty. If not, he’ll be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
EARLIER TODAY
Closing arguments in the punishment phase of Paul Devoe’s capital murder trial are expected to begin momentarily in Travis County’s 403rd District Court.
Prosecutors will argue that Devoe, 46, deserves the death penalty for the killings of two teenage girls in a Jonestown house in August 2007, part of what they say was a killing spree that left six dead in Texas and Pennsylvania.
Devoe’s defense team will argue that he should receive a sentence of life without parole.
Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg is making a rare courtroom appearance for the closing arguments. She is seated in the first row behind Devoe’s defense table next to her first assistant, John Neal.
Behind them are members of Devoe’s family, including his cousin Laura Nelson, who testified yesterday that she has always known Devoe as a loving and caring person. Next to her is Devoe’s sister Elizabeth Petrie. Two young boys, who appear to be about 8 or 9 years old, are with Devoe’s family. Devoe’s family members flew in from their homes in Long Island, N.Y., for the trial.
On the other side of the courtroom are more than a dozen family members of Devoe’s victims, including the parents of Danielle Hensley, 17, who with her friend Haylie Faulkner, 15, were among Devoe’s victims. He was convicted of capital murder in their deaths.
Prosecutors have also presented evidence that Devoe fatally shot bartender Michael Allred, 41, at O’Neill’s Sports Tavern in Marble Falls on Aug. 24, 2007, before driving to Jonestown where he fatally shot Haylie and Danielle along with Haylie’s mother, Paula Griffith, 46, who is Devoe’s ex-girlfriend, and Griffith’s boyfriend, Jay Feltner, 48, officials have said. In a statement read in court by police, Devoe said he then drove to his native Long Island, N.Y., stopping along the way to fatally shoot 81-year-old Betty DeHart for her car in rural Pennsylvania.
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October 7, 2009
Devoe case done for the day; closing arguments in morning
UPDATE 3:45 PM
The punishment phase of Paul Devoe’s capital murder trial ended Wednesday afternoon and state District Judge Brenda Kennedy said closing arguments will begin tomorrow morning.
The jury could sentence Devoe to the death penalty or life in prison.
UPDATE 12:03 PM
Paul Devoe’s aunt, who is the same age as the convicted murderer, told a Travis County jury Wednesday that when they were growing up in Long Island, N.Y., Devoe’s step-father often locked Devoe and his brother in a bedroom.
Laura Nelson said that she went over Devoe’s family’s house about twice a week during their childhoods and Devoe and his brother were locked in the room almost every time. His step-father said they were being punished, Nelson said.
“Being punished constantly is ridiculous,” she said.
Nelson was called to testify by Devoe’s lawyers during the punishment phase of his capital murder trial in Travis County. The 46-year-old sporadically employed handyman was convicted last week of killing two teenage girls in a Jonestown house, part of what prosecutors say was a two-state, six-person killing spree in August 2007.
The jury will decide this week whether Devoe is sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty.
Nelson testified that she never knew Devoe to be violent. “He’s always been caring and loving and sharing and that’s it, that’s why I’m here,” she said.
But another defense witness, Devoe’s sister Elizabeth Petrie, said Devoe has acted violently with his family and others from a young age. He once tried to choke their mother with a telephone cord, she said during cross-examination by prosecutor Dayna Blazey.
Petrie also testified that Devoe called Petrie and their mother during his drive to Long Island after the killings. Petrie testified that Devoe told them he had shot people and did not know if they were alive.
“He told you he did what he had to do in order to come home, right?” Blazey asked.
“Yes,” Petrie said.
“He sounded upset at first, then as you were asking him questions he became angry, is that true?” Blazey asked.
“Yes,” Petrie said.
EARLIER TODAY
A forensic psychiatrist told a Travis County jury Wednesday that Paul Devoe has no conscience.
Dr. Richard Coons said that he interviewed Devoe for about two hours just days before his capital murder trial in Travis County began. Coons said that during the interview, Devoe talked about killing six people in August 2007, his history of abusing women and abusing drugs.
“I didn’t see an ounce of remorse from this fellow when I evaluated him,” Coon said.
The jury convicted Devoe of capital murder last week in the deaths of teenagers Danielle Hensley and Haylie Faulkner in a Jonestown house. At the close of the punishment phase of the trial, which could come as early as today, the jury will decide whether Devoe receives a sentence of life in prison or the death penalty.
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October 6, 2009
Devoe's lawyer: 'He's an absolute jerk'
UPDATE 3:45 P.M.
A private investigator working for convicted capital murderer Paul Devoe told a Travis County jury today that Devoe has been in and out of prisons and jails in New York and Texas since 1980 and has only once been disciplined.
The testimony lays the groundwork for Devoe’s lawyers to argue he should not receive the death penalty because he poses no danger if confined to prison for the rest of his life.
At the close of the sentencing phase of his trial, expected this week, the jury will decide whether Devoe receives life in prison or the death penalty.
Devoe was convicted last week of capital murder in the deaths of two teenage girls in Travis County in August 2007 and is accused of killing a total of six people that month.
Joseph W. Thompson, a former Austin police homicide detective, told the jury that Devoe was disciplined in December 2000 while serving five years in a New York prison for driving while intoxicated. Devoe failed to return to his cell after an alarm indicated his work stint in a shop was over, Thompson said. Devoe claimed not to have heard the alarm, Thompson said.
Thompson said that Devoe had been booked 20 times into the Suffolk County Jail in his native Long Island from 1980 to 2004. He was in prison in Gowanda, N.Y., from 1997 to 2002 and in and out of the Burnet County Jail from 2005 to 2007, Thompson said.
Tom Weber, one of Devoe’s lawyers, asked Thompson whether his research indicates that Devoe would be dangerous if confined in a prison for the rest of his life.
Weber suggested in questioning Thompson that Devoe is a different person while incarcerated.
“We know when he’s out in public he’s an absolute jerk,” Weber said.
“That would be very accurate,” Thompson said.
At the close of evidence in the punishment phase, the jury must answer two questions: whether Devoe poses a continuing threat of committing criminal acts of violence and whether there is any mitigating circumstance that warrants a sentence of life instead of death.
If the answers are “yes” and “no” Kennedy will sentence Devoe to death.
UPDATE 1 P.M.
A Travis County jail guard told a Travis County jury Tuesday that since she began supervising Paul Devoe’s unit in Del Valle, the convicted capital murderer has not had any disciplinary problems.
Sgt. Laura Johnson was the first witness called by Devoe’s lawyers during the punishment phase of his capital murder trial. Prosecutors are asking the jury to give Devoe the death penalty.
Prosecutors said they are not through calling their own witnesses but agreed to the defense calling a few witnesses out of order because of scheduling issues.
Johnson was the first. Under questioning by Tom Weber, one of Devoe’s lawyers, she said Devoe has been classified as maximum security. Johnson did not testify about Devoe’s behavior prior to January, when she took over as night supervisor in Devoe’s unit in Del Valle.
EARLIER TODAY
The punishment phase of Paul Devoe’s capital murder trial continued Tuesday as prosecutors called an expert on the Texas prison system to testify about the potential that inmates who are sentenced to life in prison have for committing violence.
A.P. Merillat, who investigates prison crimes that are prosecuted across Texas, said that if Devoe is sentenced to life without parole rather than death, he will have significantly more interaction with other inmates and prison guards, including during meal, work and group recreation sessions.
Death row inmates, Merillat said, eat alone in their cells, exercise alone and must strip to be checked for weapons before leaving their cells.
Devoe, who last week was convicted of killing Danielle Hensley, 17, and Haylie Faulkner, 15, in a Jonestown house in 2007, could be sentenced to death if the jury agrees with prosecutors that he is a continuing threat to society and there are no mitigating factors that warrant a sentence of life in prison.
Devoe is also accused of killing two others in Jonestown, a man in Marble Falls and a woman in Greencastle, Pa., in August 2007.
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October 5, 2009
Witness: Devoe wielded spiked weapon, fired on group in '88
UPDATE 11:51 A.M.
The jury that will decide if Paul Devoe receives the death penalty for killing two teenage girls in Travis County heard a man this morning accuse Devoe of shooting him more than 20 years ago.
Ralph Mutascio said one night in 1988 he was hanging out with some friends at a 7-11 convenience store in Long Island, N.Y., where Devoe grew up and lived until moving to the Hill Country west of Austin in about 2005.
Mutascio said that outside the store some of the people in his group got into a physical altercation with two others — including Devoe. At one point Devoe took a chain with a spike on it out of a car trunk and began swinging it, said Mutascio. One of the people with Mutascio used a Skil power saw as a weapon, swinging it by the cord, he said.
After the initial confrontation in which Devoe’s friend was beat up, Mutascio and his friends were drinking beer near some woods, Mutascio said. Devoe later drove by with a shotgun and opened fire, he said. The car Devoe was in parked and then Devoe walked toward the group while firing at them again, Mutascio said.
Mutascio said he still has pellets from the shooting in his body.
EARLIER TODAY
The punishment phase of Paul Devoe’s capital murder trial began today as a Travis County prosecutor told the jury that Devoe deserves the death penalty for killing six people during a two-state killing spree in 2007.
“This is the phase where you get to learn about who Paul Devoe really is,” prosecutor Jeremy Sylestine said in an opening statement. “You get to hear about what he’s done, who he’s hurt and everything in his past.”
Sylestine said that the jury would hear about what he called Devoe’s history of alcohol abuse — including a stint in prison in New York for driving while intoxicated — and of physical and psychological abuse of women.
After what is expected to be about three days of testimony, the jury will answer two questions: whether there is a probability that Devoe wll commit future acts of violence that constitute a continuing threat to society and whether there are any mitigating circumstance that warrants a sentence of life in prison rather than death.
If the answer to the first question is “yes” and the second is “no” then Devoe will be sentenced to death.
Last week the same jury that will decide Devoe’s fate took about 20 minutes to convict him of killing two teenage girls in a Jonestown house in August 2007.
According to testimony, Devoe drove to a Marble Falls bar on Aug. 24, 2007 and shot 41-year-old bartender Michael Allred with a stolen gun. Then he went to the Jonestown home of ex-girlfriend Paula Marie Griffith, 46.
At that house, on Hobby Lane, Devoe fatally shot Griffith; her daughter Haylie Faulkner, 15; her boyfriend Jay Feltner, 48; and Haylie’s friend Danielle Hensley, 17.
Devoe then took Griffith’s car and headed east toward his native Long Island, N.Y., according to testimony. On his way he had car problems in Pennsylvania and pulled off the road and into the driveway of 81-year-old Betty DeHart, who lived in a trailer home near the interstate.
The jury heard little of Devoe’s killing of DeHart, which according to court document he has confessed to.
But one of the first witnesses of the punishment phase was a Pennsylvania Trooper Donald Beynon, who showed the jury pictures of DeHart, who was shot in the head on her bed.
Several people in the gallery in Kennedy’s court averted their eyes as the pictures were flashed on a 55-inch LCD screen in court.
Beynon also read a statement that Devoe gave to detectives in Suffolk County, N.Y, where Devoe was arrested Aug. 27, 2007. Part of that statement was read to the jury last week. They heard the rest this week, including the part where he confessed to killing DeHart.
Devoe said that she was on the porch but tried to run inside and lock the door when she saw him coming. He said he broke through the screen door and prevented DeHart from locking the main door.
She screamed and ran into the house, Devoe said in the statement.
“She jumped on the bed and tried to cover herself with her arms and I just snapped,” Devoe said. “I shot her…It was after I shot her that she stopped screaming.”
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October 1, 2009
Prosecution rests; Devoe defense calls no witnesses
After the jury in Paul Devoe’s capital murder trial heard DNA and ballistics evidence linking Devoe to the killings of five people in Texas — including a Marble Falls bartender and four people in a Jonestown house — and one in Pennsylvania in August 2007, prosecutors rested their capital murder case against Devoe.
Devoe’s lawyers rested without calling any witnesses.
State District Judge Brenda Kennedy said jurors would hear legal instructions to guide their deliberations at 10 a.m., followed by the closing arguments.
Earlier, a Texas Department of Public Safety forensic firearms examiner told the jury that a .380 semiautomatic handgun that Devoe had with him when he was arrested in August 2007 matched bullets and shell casings found at a Marble Falls bar where Devoe is accused of killing Michael Allred, 48, at the Jonestown house, and at a house in Pennsylvania where Devoe is accused of killing 81-year-old Betty DeHart.
Devoe is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend Paula Griffith, 46; her boyfriend, Jay Feltner, 46; her daughter, Haylie Faulkner, 15; and Haylie’s friend, Danielle Hensley, 17 on Aug. 24, 2007, at Griffith’s house in Jonestown.
Devoe is only on trial in the deaths of Haylie and Danielle and faces the death penalty if convicted.
Texas Department of Public Safety DNA analyst Jane Burgett said Allred’s blood and Feltner’s blood were found on Devoe’s boots. She said that Devoe’s DNA was found on a cigarette butt in the middle of the living room floor in Jonestown.
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Devoe: 'I just wish I never had that gun'
UPDATE 12 P.M.
In a phone call from jail after he was arrested and accused of killing six people in 2007, Paul Devoe predicted he would receive the death penalty and said, “I just wish I never had that gun.”
The Travis County jury in Devoe’s capital murder trial heard a recording of the phone call between Devoe and Tiffany Waldrop on Thursday, the fourth and likely final day of testimony during the guilt/innocence phase of Devoe’s trial.
If convicted Devoe would receive either the death penalty or life in prison without parole. He is on trial in the August 2007 deaths of Haylie Faulkner, 15, and Danielle Hensley, 18, in a Jonestown house but is also accused of killing four others around that time.
Before the recording was played, Waldrop testified that she had previously met Devoe through his friend Bill Brinlee. She said she mistakenly dialed his phone in October or November 2007 while he was in the Travis County Jail. Devoe apparently checked his messages from jail and returned Waldrop’s call.
Initially it did not sound like Devoe knew who he was calling. Waldrop also did not know who was calling her. But within minutes they both seemed excited when they realized who was on the other end. They together alternated between sounding somber and sounding casual during the several-minute conversation. They both laughed several times.
Waldrop asked Devoe how he was doing.
“I am not doing good. Did you hear about me?” Devoe said.
“Yeah, I heard, dude,” Waldrop said. “How long are you in for.”
“Life. I could get the death penalty,” Devoe said.
Waldrop later asked if it was “all over Paula,” apparently referring to Devoe’s ex-girlfriend Paul Griffith, who was slain at a Jonestown house along with her daughter Haylie, Haylie’s friend Danielle, and Griffith’s boyfriend Jay Feltner.
“What a mess,” Devoe said. “Between drugs, I was on (expletive) that day. Drinking. Just got out of the hospital being bit by a snake. Whole nine yards, man. It was a mess.”
Devoe went on to say: “I just wish I never had a gun. If I never had it I would never be in this mess. How are you doing?”
Waldrop said she was doing well. Devoe asked her to write him in jail.
He then said: “I am not going anywhere. If anything I am going to end up with the death penalty and they’ll send me to TDC or whatever.”
Waldrop asked Devoe if he had spoken to Brinlee. Prosecutors say Devoe stole the gun he used in the killing spree from Brinlee.
“It was Bill’s gun that I used,” Devoe said.
Waldrop mentioned to Devoe at one point that her house got struck by lightning and her computer was destroyed. Devoe said she could have his, and then appeared to lament that he had just bought a new car, a new trailer, tools, a stereo and a computer.
“I ain’t got nothing to do with it anymore,” he said. Then he laughed.
Earlier
A man who last year shared a cell with Paul Devoe at the Travis County Jail testified Thursday that after they met, Devoe told him: “I killed six people.”
Stephen Barr said that in March 2008 he was in the jail downtown for failure to pay child support when guards brought Devoe into his cell.
“He’s sitting there, he’s all fidgety,” Barr said under questioning by prosecutor Gary Cobb. “I said ‘What’s wrong man?”
Barr went on to quote Devoe as saying: “I am going to be here for a long time.”
Barr said that Devoe then said: “I killed six people.”
“I said ‘What?’ He said ‘I killed six people.’ That was the conversation. That was enough for me.”
Devoe, 46, is accused of killing five people in Texas and one in Pennsylvania in August 2007. Prosecutors and witnesses have said that the killing started at a Marble Falls bar on Aug. 24, 2007, where Devoe fatally shot bartender Michael Allred, 41, who stepped in while Devoe was threatening an ex-girlfriend.
Devoe then drove to the Jonestown house of another ex, Paula Marie Griffith, 46, prosecutors said. There he fatally shot Griffith, her boyfriend Jay Feltner, 48, her daughter Haylie Faulkner, 15, and Haylie’s friend Danielle Hensley, prosecutors said.
Devoe then drove Griffith’s white Saturn station wagon across the country heading for his native Long Island, N.Y., according to testimony. In a statement he gave police that was read in court, Devoe said the car had trouble in Pennsylvania so he pulled off the highway and into a driveway on a dead end street. Prosecutors say that Devoe shot and killed Betty DeHart, 81, for her Hyundai, which Devoe said he drove to his native Long Island. He was arrested there on Aug. 27, 2007, with the gun used in all the killings, with Allred’s cell phone and with DeHart’s car in the driveway, according to testimony.
Today could be the last day of testimony during the guilt/innocence phase in state District Judge Brenda Kennedy’s court. If all witnesses finish testifying by the end of the day, closing arguments would be Friday.
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September 30, 2009
N.Y. officer: Devoe asked 'Do you know how many bodies they found?'
UPDATE 3:46 P.M.
A string of law enforcement officers from Suffolk County, N.Y., where Paul Devoe grew up, told a Travis County jury today about statements Devoe made to them after his arrest there in August 2007.
Suffolk County police officer Mike Alfieri told the jury that while waiting in a holding cell in the hours after his arrest, Devoe said he was going to be extradited to Texas and other states.
Alfieri said he was instructed not to engage Devoe in a conversation and not to answer back.
Devoe went on to say, according to Alfieri: “I bet they found me when I turned my damn cell phone on. I had that … off the whole time. Damn.”
Later, Alfieri testified, Devoe said: “The marshal said they were going to come talk to me. What a fool I was. If it wasn’t for her I never would have gave up.”
Then, according to Alfieri, Devoe said: “I had a good (expletive) thing going on in Texas, too. Business, house, vehicles. If it wasn’t for my stupid (expletive) girlfriend. One mistake ruined my whole (expletive) life.”
Officer Kenneth Bombace told the jury that Devoe said: “You know how many bodies they found? Five, six in Texas, maybe 12 bodies.”
Defense lawyer Tom Weber asked the officers whether Devoe admitted to killing or assaulting anybody. The officers said no.
Devoe is accused of killing five people in Texas, including four in the western Travis County city of Jonestown, and a woman in Pennsylvania. He faces the death penalty if convicted of capital murder in Travis County.
UPDATE 12:01 P.M.
The jury in Paul Devoe’s capital murder trial heard evidence today of the route Devoe took from Jonestown in western Travis County, where he is accused of killing four people in August 2007, to the hamlet of Shirley, in his native Long Island, N.Y., where Devoe was arrested three days later.
Vincent Bellino, a senior inspector with the U.S. marshal’s service, testified that Devoe’s route was determined by tracking the activity on the cell phones he was using — his own and the phone belonging to Jay Feltner, who was killed at the Jonestown house. Previous testimony showed that Devoe took Feltner’s cell phone from the house and had it with him when he was arrested
Bellino said that investigators can track the movements of someone using a cell phone, often in real time, by monitoring the cell phone towers that receive the calls through cell phone company data. Each cell tower usually covers an area of less than five square miles, Bellino said.
Bellino said that Devoe made a call to his friend Bill Brinlee that connected via a tower in Belton on Aug. 24, 2007, the night that he is accused of killing Michael Allred in a Marble Falls bar and then killing his ex-girlfriend Paula Griffith, Feltner and two teenage girls in Jonestown.
The call in Belton was made at 11:44 p.m. on Aug. 24.
Devoe was heading into East Texas in the early morning hours of Aug. 25, 2007, and made a call to Brinlee from Arkansas after 9 a.m. that day, Bellion said. He made a call from Tennessee later that day.
On Sunday, Aug. 26, 2007, Devoe drove through Pennsylvania and New Jersey before arriving in Shirley, N.Y. that evening, Bellino said. He was arrested there the next morning.
EARLIER TODAY
The third day of Paul Devoe’s capital murder trial in Travis County is under way in state District Judge Brenda Kennedy’s court.
The first witness was Brandon Feltner, 27, shown at right, the oldest of 48-year-old Jay Feltner’s three sons. Jay Feltner was one of four people that prosecutors say Devoe fatally shot in a Jonestown house in August 2007.
Devoe is accused of killing six people but is on trial in Travis County for the deaths of two teenage girls who were with Feltner at the Jonestown house. If convicted Devoe could receive the death penalty.
Feltner identified his father’s cell phone for the jury. Prosecutors say Devoe took that cell phone and used it on his drive to his native Long Island, N.Y., where he was arrested on Aug. 27, 2007.
Feltner said he bought his father the cell phone about a week before his death after his father had trouble reading the numbers on his old phone.
Feltner said his father lived in Liberty Hill and worked with him at a limestone cut mill. During the work week before he died, his father told Feltner that he had plans to go to Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio with Paula Griffith, 46, her daughter Haylie Faulkner, 15, and Haylie’s friend Danielle Hensley, 17.
They were all shot by Devoe, Griffith’s ex-boyfriend, on Aug. 24 and found two days later, according to testimony.
To see previous coverage of the case go to statesman.com/devoe.
Larry Kolvoord/AMERICAN-STATESMAN PHOTOS
Travis County sheriff’s office deputy crime scene specialist Keith Mutscher on Wednesday points out evidence on a diagram of the house in Jonestown where four people were found dead in August 2007.
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September 29, 2009
Devoe witness describes bar shooting
After Henry Joe Bray told a Travis County jury today that he saw Paul Devoe emerge from a Marble Falls bar on Aug. 24, 2007 after someone had been shot inside, one of Devoe’s lawyers had a few questions for Bray.
Tom Weber asked Bray if he had ever given a written statement to police on what he witnessed. Bray said “no.” Weber asked if he had previously known Devoe, or if had ever been asked to identify Devoe in a lineup.
“No,” Bray said. “I saw him very clearly.”
“I have no doubt that’s true,” said Weber.
Bray testified during the second day of testimony at Devoe’s capital murder trial in Travis County. Devoe is accused of fatally shooting bartender Michael Allred, 41, at the bar, then driving to his ex-girlfriend’s house in the western Travis County city of Jonestown and fatally shooting four people —Paula Marie Griffith, 46; Griffith’s boyfriend, Jay Feltner, 48; her daughter Haylie Faulkner, 15; and Haylie’s friend Danielle Hensley, 17.
Devoe is on trial only in the deaths of Haylie and Danielle but state District Judge Brenda Kennedy ruled before the trial that the jury could hear evidence of all the criminal allegations against Devoe surrounding the shootings.
Devoe has also been charged with killing 81-year-old Betty Jane DeHart. Devoe told police he killed her for her car after having trouble with a car he took from Griffith, according to a criminal complaint.
His lawyers declined to comment on the case before trial and have not suggested what defense Devoe may use in court. While he pleaded not guilty before the evidence phase of the trial began Monday, Devoe’s lawyers reserved their opening statement until later in the trial.
On cross examination of prosecution witnesses on Monday, Weber elicited testimony that showed Devoe to be a heavy drinker and to have suffered a snake bite before the shooting. After his arrest Devoe’s family members suggested that the snake bite may have incited his crimes.
Bray said he was singing in the band when a commotion broke out that night at O’Neill’s. It was around 8 p.m. and they were into their second song when a chaotic scene took over the back of the bar, he told a Travis County jury Monday.
“I saw a gun come up in the air. I heard everyone scream,” said Bray. “I heard a woman say ‘oh my God it’s a gun. Is it real?”
Bray said the band stopped playing and he ran to the Marble Falls Police station next door to report that a man had a gun. He went back into the station moments later and reported that shots had been fired.
Bray said that he saw Devoe run from the bar, jump into a pickup truck, throw it in reverse and drive away. He said he wrote down the license plate number of the truck Devoe was driving and gave it to the dispatcher at the police station.
As he was cross-examining Bray, Weber told Bray, “I am not trying to cast aspersions on your testimony. I am just trying to see what the procedure was.
“I know it’s hard for you to be in here. I don’t mean any insult to you. I am just trying to do my job.”
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September 28, 2009
Devoe ex: "He held a gun to my head"
UPDATE 4:30 PM
Glenda Purcell recalled for a Travis County jury Monday that when her ex-boyfriend Paul Devoe walked into a Marble Falls bar one night in August 2007, she yelled out to the crowd: “Somebody call the police, I have a protective order against this man.”
Devoe, now 46, was “completely decked out in his motorcycle attire” — leather chaps over jeans, a leather cap and black leather vest and went straight to the bar where Purcell was sitting, she said.
“He came up to me and he put his hands over my eyes and he held a gun to my head,” she said.
The gun clicked twice but did not go off. “And it wasn’t the trigger being pulled back, it was the pin,” Purcell said under questioning by prosecutor Dayna Blazey.
She was the sixth witness on the first day of Devoe’s capital murder trial in Travis County, where the former carpenter and painter is charged in the death of two people. Devoe faces the death penalty if convicted.
Earlier in her testimony, Purcell, a massage therapist, said that she had met Devoe in January 2007, when Devoe and another man came into a salon where she worked trying to drum up clients for their construction business.
Within a month, Devoe had come back twice for massages and later the pair began a romantic relationship, Purcell said.
They lived together in her house in Marble Falls until June 2007. She said she had a protective order taken out against him about a month later.
Purcell said that after Devoe put the gun to her head, she ran to the back of the bar looking for bartender Michael Allred, who was in the men’s room making a repair.
When Allred stepped between the two, Purcell said she ran next door, to the Marble Falls police station. She said there were no officers, only dispatchers, in the building.
Barbara Phillips, who was at the bar that day, later testified that Allred told Devoe: “You don’t want to do this. Please put the gun down. Please put the gun down.”
Then Devoe shot him in the chest and walked out the door, Phillips said, and “got in the truck right in front of the police station and drove off.”
“He killed an innocent man,” Phillips said. “ He murdered an innocent man.”
After Phillips testified, state District Judge Brenda Kennedy adjourned court until 9 a.m. Tuesday.
UPDATE 3:15 PM
Sharon Wilson said she wanted Paul Devoe out of her Llano County house. She had agreed to let him live with her in 2007 after meeting Devoe through her daughter. He was going to do some construction work in return.
But on Aug. 24, 2007, Wilson told a Travis County jury Monday, she returned home to find Devoe with a handgun. Later Wilson saw him going through her purse and suspected Devoe of emptying a gas can she had just filled because she planned to cut the grass, Wilson said.
Wilson approached Devoe while he was sleeping, tapped him on the shoulder and said: “Paul you need to get up. You need to leave.”
That confrontation apparently set Devoe off on a criminal rampage that left six people dead in Texas and Pennsylvania, according to prosecutors. His trial on a capital murder charge in two of those deaths began Monday in state District Judge Brenda Kennedy’s court in Travis County.
If convicted, Devoe could receive the death penalty.
Wilson said that Devoe went from the bed to an adjacent living room, where he retrieved a gun from underneath a sofa cushion.
“He held the gun to my head and he said ‘if you want to play (expletive) games, we’ll play (expletive) games,” Wilson testified.
Wilson said she pushed the gun away and said: “Paul you don’t want to do that.”
He then put the gun to Wilson’s chest and Wilson again pushed it away, she testified.
“Then he just started firing shots,” Wilson said. He fired into the sofa, the walls and the floor, Wilson said.
Devoe eventually sat on the sofa and asked Wilson to call his mother. Before she could, Devoe said he was going to a utility trailer he kept on Wilson’s land to get more guns, Wilson testified.
When he did, she ran into the brush near her house toward a neighbor’s house. When she heard him coming, she hid in a cactus patch.
She told prosecutor Dayna Blazey that she suspected Devoe knew she was there because he drove her pickup nearby, revved the engine and then threw a cell phone in her direction.
Then Devoe left and Wilson scaled a razor wire fence and hid in a neighbor’s goat barn before going for help, she said.
“What was it like being in that cactus patch,” Blazey asked.
“I had thorns this long in my head,” she said. “I had tried to burrow up under” the cactus to hide.
EARLIER TODAY
Prosecutor Gary Cobb told a Travis County jury Monday that the case against accused spree killer Paul Devoe begins and ends with a gun.
“A Jennings .380, serial number 1268250,” Cobb said during his opening statement.
Cobb said Devoe stole the gun from his friend, Bill Brinlee of Burnet, in August 2007. On Aug. 24 of that that year, Devoe fired the gun several times at Sharon Wilson’s house in Llano, where Devoe had been living at the time, Cobb said.
Devoe then drove to O’Neill’s Sports Tavern in Marble Falls and found an old girlfriend, Glenda Purcell, put the gun to her head and pulled the trigger, Cobb said. When the gun didn’t fire, Purcell went to the back of the bar looking for help, Cobb said.
“In the meantime Paul Devoe gets that gun to work, he gets the gun to chamber and he follows her to the back,” Cobb said. “Michael Allred, a much beloved bartender, steps in the middle and says ‘Hey you don’t want to do this.’
“Defendant later tells somebody, ‘I had to shoot him he was acting like Superman.’ ”
After Devoe fatally shot Allred, Devoe left in a blue pickup truck that he had earlier taken from Wilson, Cobb said.
He went to the Jonestown home of Paula Griffith, 46, another ex-girlfriend, and shot everyone inside, Cobb said.
Griffith, her boyfriend Jay Feltner, 48, her daughter Haylie and Haylie’s friend Danielle Hensley were shot to death.
“You are going to see the scene,” Cobb said. “Once you get through the blood … you will see it was a fairly domestic scene. People getting prepared to eat meat that was going to be cooked on the grill, chips and beer there.”
The same gun used at Wilson’s house, the Jennings .380, was also used to kill Griffith, Feltner, Haylie and Danielle, Cobb said.
Devoe took Griffith’s station wagon and headed to Long Island, New York, Cobb said.
On his way to Long Island, where Devoe grew up, Devoe had car problems and killed Betty Jane DeHart, 81, after seeing her car at her house in Greencastle, Pa., according to a criminal complaint.
“When he’s found in New York on that Sunday he’s found still with Jay Feltner’s phone,” Cobb said. “He’s found with blood on him of the victim. Found … with the gun.”
Cobb said that when authorities walked in on him at a friend’s house, Devoe put the gun to his head.
“After killing so many,” Cobb said, Devoe was “unable to pull the trigger on himself.”
“It began with the gun and it ended with that same gun. There won’t be any doubt,” Cobb said, that Devoe is guilty.
Devoe is on trial only in the deaths of Haylie and Danielle. The trial in state District Judge Brenda Kennedy’s court is expected to last a month.
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September 21, 2009
Jury seated in Devoe case; opening statements next week
Lawyers in Paul Gilbert Devoe’s Travis County capital murder case finished picking a jury this afternoon and opening statements are now firmly scheduled for next week in state District Judge Brenda Kennedy’s court.
Prosecutor Gary Cobb said a jury of nine men and three women will hear the case. Two additional women also will listen to the evidence as alternate jurors.
Devoe, a 46-year-old carpenter and painter, is accused of killing six people in August 2007 but only faces trial in Travis County in the deaths of two teenagers fatally shot in a Jonestown house.
Because of the extensive publicity in the case, Kennedy ordered 300 people summoned for jury selection on Aug. 28. That panel was trimmed about in half after jurors were dismissed for having already formed an opinion in the case and for other reasons.
On Sept. 8, lawyers and Kennedy began to daily question jurors individually on their views regarding the death penalty. More jurors were eliminated from consideration after those sessions, which continued until this morning. Some were let go because they said they could not impose the death penalty. Others were eliminated because they thought someone convicted of killing two people should receive nothing but the death penalty.
Today, after the number of prospective jurors who were not eliminated after being individually questioned reached 46, the sessions ceased. Each side — prosecution and defense — then had the ability to strike up to 16 potential jurors from the list. People who were not struck became part of the jury.
Devoe is accused of launching a killing spree in August 2007 by shooting Marble Falls bartender Michael Allred, 41. Then, according to authorities, he drove to the Jonestown house of his ex-girlfriend, 46-year-old Paula Marie Griffith. There, he is accused of killing Griffith, her boyfriend, Jay Feltner, 48, her daughter, Haylie Faulkner, 15, and a friend of Haylie’s, 17-year-old Danielle Hensley.
Devoe then drove to Long Island, N.Y. On his way had car problems and killed 81-year-old Betty Jane DeHart after seeing her car at her house in Greencastle, Pa., according to a criminal complaint.
Opening statements are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 28. The evidence portion of the trial is expected to take about a month.
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August 28, 2009
Publicity about Devoe case leads to jurors' dismissals
Jury selection is under way in the capital murder trial of Paul Devoe, who could receive the death penalty if convicted in the 2007 killings of two teenage girls in Jonestown.
Out of about 140 Travis County residents who packed a downtown courtroom this morning to be considered as jurors, 41 were excused by state District Judge Brenda Kennedy because they said they had heard about the case in the media and had already reached a conclusion that would affect their verdict.
About another 30 were excused for other reasons.
Devoe, a 45-year-old carpenter and painter, is accused of killing six people during a cross-country spree but only faces trial in Travis County in two of the deaths.
Because of the extensive publicity in the case, Kennedy asked that about 300 people be summoned for jury selection. The second half of that panel has now filled the courtroom in the Heman Sweatt Travis County Courthouse for a session similar to this morning’s. Among the potential jurors in the afternoon session is Karen Hughes, the former adviser to President George W. Bush.
Jurors not excused today will be given a date and time to return for questioning by lawyers in the case on their views about the death penalty. That questioning will begin on Sept. 8, with opening statements expected in late September.
At this morning’s jury selection, jurors only spoke when called to the bench. Mostly, it involved them holding up their juror numbers when asked questions by Kennedy, such as whether any jurors knew any potential witnesses, were members of law enforcement or victim’s rights organizations, or whether they would consider the indictment in the case proof of Devoe’s guilt.
Out of the approximately 140 potential jurors at the morning session, 20 said they wanted to serve on the jury while 83 considered it, as Kennedy put it, “just as bad as going to the dentist.”
Forty-five members of the panel said they had heard nothing about the case while 49 said they had established a conclusion about Devoe’s guilt. Queried further about whether that conclusion would affect their verdict, 41 raised their juror numbers to indicate “yes.”
Devoe is accused of launching a killing spree in August 2007 by shooting Marble Falls bartender Michael Allred, 41. Then, according to authorities, he drove to the Jonestown house of his ex-girlfriend, 46-year-old Paula Marie Griffith. There, he is accused of killing Griffith, her boyfriend, Jay Feltner, 48, her daughter, Haylie Faulkner, 15, and a friend of Haylie’s, 17-year-old Danielle Hensley.
Devoe then drove to Long Island, N.Y. On his way he had car problems and killed 81-year-old Betty Jane DeHart after seeing her car at her house in Greencastle, Pa., according to a criminal complaint.
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Potential jurors trickle into courthouse for Devoe case
Potential jurors are trickling into a downtown courtroom for the start of jury selection in Paul Devoe’s capital murder case. Just under 150 Travis County residents are expected to be seated to be quizzed by state District Judge Brenda Kennedy about their ability to serve in the case.
Deborah Cannon AMERICAN-STATESMAN
The session is scheduled to start at 9 a.m., although at 9:45 a long line of jurors were still waiting to check in with court officials; another session with 150 potential jurors is scheduled for 1:30. The general session will be used to cull some jurors from the panel. It will be followed by the individual questioning of jurors about their feelings on the death penalty, which Devoe could receive if convicted. Individual questioning of jurors begins Sept. 8.
Devoe, accused of killing six people in 2007, was transferred from the Travis County jail downtown to the Heman Sweatt Travis County Courthouse, which has not been used for a criminal case in years. No courtroom in the adjacent Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center was big enough to handle the large panel of potential jurors, which Kennedy wanted because of the extensive pretrial publicity in the case.
It was unclear whether jury selection would be open to the public and members of the media. Court officials said they needed to wait to see how many of the potential jurors summoned actually showed up before determining if there was enough room inside the courtroom for onlookers.
On Monday, state District Judge Brenda Kennedy said in an interview that it was unlikely that any members of the public, including the media, would be able to attend the start of jury selection because there would not be enough room in the courtroom.
On Wednesday, Court Administrator Debra Hale said that officials would try to squeeze in anyone who wishes to attend.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution guarantees that jury selection is open to the public, unless a trial judge has a compelling reason to close it.
Devoe, 45, is accused of launching a killing spree in August 2007 by shooting Marble Falls bartender Michael Allred, 41. Then, according to authorities, he drove to the Jonestown house of his ex-girlfriend, 46-year-old Paula Marie Griffith. There, he is accused of killing Griffith, her boyfriend, Jay Feltner, 48, her daughter, Haylie Faulkner, 15, and a friend of Haylie’s, 17-year-old Danielle Hensley.
Devoe then drove to Long Island, N.Y. On his way had car problems and killed 81-year-old Betty Jane DeHart after seeing her car at her house in Greencastle, Pa., according to a criminal complaint.
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August 26, 2009
Public may be allowed to view Devoe jury selection
Travis County officials said they would attempt to allow some members of the public to attend the start of jury selection in Paul Devoe’s capital murder case Friday.
Devoe is accused of killing six people in August 2007 and faces the death penalty if convicted of capital murder in Travis County.
On Monday, state District Judge Brenda Kennedy said in an interview that it was likely that no members of the public, including the media, would be able to attend the proceedings because there would not be enough room in the courtroom. She said that 150 people had been summoned as potential jurors to each of two sessions scheduled for Friday.
The large group is necessary, Kennedy has said previously, because of the extensive publicity in the case.
Court Administrator Debra Hale said Wednesday that officials would try to squeeze in anyone who wishes to attend. Hale said that Kennedy had always intended on trying to find room for onlookers, including the media, after the potential jurors had been seated. Hale said Kennedy is adamant that she never intended to “close” the courtroom to the public.
Attempts to reach Kennedy for comment were unsuccessful.
In an order issued this week, Kennedy revised the previous schedule in the case and set guidelines for the trial.
She wrote that at Friday’s jury selection, she will quiz the jurors on issues such as pretrial publicity. Some jurors will be struck from the panel after each session.
The individual questioning of potential jurors, which happens only in cases where the death penalty is possible, will begin on Sept. 8. Ten jurors will be questioned a day. At the end of the questioning of each potential juror, if lawyers do not choose to use a peremptory strike and the juror is not struck by Kennedy, that juror will become part of the jury. When 12 jurors and two alternates are chosen, the jury selection process will be complete.
Opening statements will begin within a week and a half of the end of jury selection.
Kennedy wrote that each side will get 30 minutes for opening statements and one hour for closing arguments.
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After slip of the tongue, Devoe pleads 'not guilty'
Accused killer Paul Devoe, whose capital murder trial starts Friday with the first day of jury selection, pleaded not guilty today before state District Judge Brenda Kennedy.
After Devoe, who faces the death penalty if convicted, waived the reading of the indictment against him, which accuses Devoe of killing two teenage girls in August 2007, Kennedy asked him “How do you plea?”
“Guilty, your honor,” Devoe said. Quickly one of his lawyers whispered in his ear and Devoe announced: “Not guilty, your honor.”
A short hearing followed in which lawyers discussed a few pending motions and then Kennedy adjourned court. Devoe said nothing more during the hearing.
About 300 Travis County jurors have been summoned to the courthouse to be questioned Friday as potential jurors in the case. On Sept. 8, the individual questioning of jurors begins. Opening statements will be sometime in September, after a jury of 12 and two alternates have been chosen.
Devoe, 45, is a former handyman who has a decades-long criminal history in his native Long Island, N.Y. In 2005, he moved to the Texas Hill Country, where authorities say he began a murderous spree in August 2007 by shooting Marble Falls bartender Michael Allred, 41. Then, according to authorities, he drove to the Jonestown house of his ex-girlfriend, 46-year-old Paula Marie Griffith. There, he is accused of killing Griffith, her boyfriend, Jay Feltner, 48, Griffith’s daughter, Haylie Faulkner, 15, and Haylie’s friend, 17-year-old Danielle Hensley.
Devoe then drove to his native Long Island, and on his way there killed 81-year-old Betty Jane DeHart at her house in Greencastle, Pa., according to a criminal complaint.
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August 24, 2009
Start of Paul Devoe jury selection to be closed to public
This story has been updated from the original version with comments from state District Judge Brenda Kennedy.
The Friday start of jury selection in accused spree killer Paul Devoe’s capital murder trial will no longer take place at a county-owned former furniture warehouse and will be closed to the public, including to members of the media, according to the bailiff for state District Judge Brenda Kennedy.
Devoe, at right, is facing the death penalty in the August 2007 killings of two teenage girls in Jonestown. He is also accused of killing four others.
More than 300 Travis County residents were summoned as potential jurors in the case. To accommodate the large crowd, Kennedy initially planned to hold the start of jury selection at the former Chair King store on Airport Boulevard, which the county now owns.
But Shelby Werner, a Travis County sheriff’s deputy who serves as Kennedy’s bailiff, said the plan to hold jury selection at the warehouse was nixed because of security concerns.
Werner said that half of the panel will report to a large courtroom in the Heman Sweatt Travis County Courthouse, at 1000 Guadalupe Street, early in the day and half will report later in the day.
She said space is expected to be so tight there would be no room for spectators, including media members.
Jury selection has long been considered part of a criminal trial and therefore open to the public under the Sixth Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that judges may close criminal trials under certain circumstances, such as to preserve the defendant’s right to a fair trial or to protect sensitive information, but the closure must be narrowly tailored.
In an interview in her courtroom Monday, Kennedy said there simply would not be enough chairs for members of the public to be in the courtroom. She said allowing anyone to stand against the wall or sit in the aisles would be a security problem.
“I have no intention of hiding anything about this case,” she said.
The courtroom is designed to fit 120 spectators, Kennedy said, room that will be used by the panel of potential jurors. The jury box will also be used and additional chairs will be brought into the courtroom, she said.
While there has not been a motion filed asking Kennedy to move the case out of Travis County, Kennedy also said in the interview that she is concerned that the pretrial publicity may make it impossible to find jurors to hear the case. She said that she became more concerned after reading questionnaires the potential jurors have submitted.
Tom Weber, one of Devoe’s lawyers, declined to comment Monday.
In May, Kennedy said that at the first day of jury selection she would pare the panel down by asking about pretrial publicity, scheduling conflicts and other issues.
On September 8, lawyers will be able to ask the jurors general questions about the case, after which the group will be further diminished, Kennedy said in May.
On September 10, the individual questioning of prospective jurors will commence. This occurs in cases where the state is seeking the death penalty.
Opening statements are scheduled for Sept. 28.
Devoe, a former handyman, is accused of fatally shooting bartender Michael Allred, 41, at a Marble Falls bar on Aug. 24, 2007, before driving to the Jonestown house of his ex-girlfriend, 46-year-old Paula Marie Griffith. He is accused of killing Griffith, her boyfriend Jay Feltner, along Griffith’s daughter Haylie Faulkner, 15, and Haylie’s friend Danielle Hensley, 17.
He then drove to his native Long Island, N.Y., and on his way there, killed 81-year-old Betty Jane DeHart at her house in Greencastle, Pa., according to a criminal complaint.
Devoe has been indicted for capital murder in Travis County in the Jonestown deaths of Haylie and Danielle.
For more on this case see statesman.com/devoe.
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May 27, 2009
300 to be summoned as potential Devoe jurors
More than 300 Travis County residents will be summoned in August for the beginning of jury selection in accused spree killer Paul Devoe’s capital murder trial. It’s a panel so large that two days of court will be held at a former furniture store, state District Judge Brenda Kennedy said today.
Kennedy last month tentatively scheduled jury selection to begin on Sept. 10. At a pretrial hearing today, she said that the potential jurors will report to the former Chair King store, at 5335 Airport Blvd., on Aug. 28. The county owns the vacant building, she said.
During the first day of jury selection, Kennedy will pare the panel down by asking about pretrial publicity, scheduling conflicts and other issues. On September 8, lawyers will be able to ask the jurors general questions about the case, after which the group will be further diminished.
Court will return to the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center on Sept. 10 for individual questioning of prospective jurors, which occurs in cases where the state is seeking the death penalty.
Opening statements are tentatively scheduled for Sept. 28.
Devoe, a former handyman, is accused of fatally shooting bartender Michael Allred, 41, at a Marble Falls bar on Aug. 24, 2007, before driving to the Jonestown house of his ex-girlfriend, 46-year-old Paula Marie Griffith, where he is accused of killing Griffith, her boyfriend Jay Feltner, along Griffith’s daughter Haylie Faulkner, 15, and Haylie’s friend Danielle Hensley, 17.
Devoe (pictured in an April court appearance) then drove to his native Long Island, N.Y., killing 81-year-old Betty Jane DeHart on the way at her house in Greencastle, Pa., according to a criminal complaint. Devoe’s car had trouble, and he killed DeHart for her car, the complaint said.
Devoe has been indicted for capital murder in Travis County in the Jonestown deaths of Haylie and Danielle.
He was in court for a short hearing today but said nothing, glancing without expression towards the audience on his way in and out. Family members of those killed were in the courtroom.
After court, Kennedy said that the building on Airport Boulevard, which property records list as being about 24,000 square feet, will be secured by the sheriff’s department for the hearings. She said such a large group of potential jurors was necessary because of the extensive pretrial publicity in the case.
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April 14, 2009
Devoe formally found competent, trial set for September
State District Judge Brenda Kennedy said she would formally find Paul Devoe competent to stand trial and set jury selection for Sept. 10.
Because Devoe faces a possible death sentence if convicted of capital murder, jury selection will include individual questioning of potential jurors. Kennedy tentatively set aside two weeks for that portion of the trial and another month for the evidence part of the case.
She said she chose September because securing jurors to hear such a long case during the summer has proven difficult in the past.
Devoe is accused of shooting to death a man at a Marble Falls bar, four people in a Jonestown house and a woman in Pennsylvania in August 2007.
In December, two doctors—one hired by the prosecution and another by the defense — declared him incompetent to stand trial and Kennedy ordered Devoe committed to North Texas State Hospital at Vernon for a term not to exceed 120 days.
At the time she ordered his psychiatric files, which detail Devoe’s history of drug use and mental illness, sealed to protect Devoe’s right to a fair trial.
Kennedy said that on Feb. 24 staff at the hospital informed her that Devoe had been found competent to stand trial, she said. He was returned to the Travis County Jail.
After neither defense lawyers nor prosecutors objected to her formally finding Devoe competent, she said she would enter such an order. She did not discuss in detail the findings of the staff at Vernon.
Devoe is a former handyman with a history of violence when under the influence of alcohol, according to court files and interviews with his exes.
He is accused of fatally shooting bartender Michael Allred, 41, at O’Neill’s Sports Tavern in Marble Falls on Aug. 24, 2007, court documents show. The documents say he then drove to the Jonestown house of his ex-girlfriend, 46-year-old Paula Marie Griffith, where he is accused of killing Griffith, her boyfriend Jay Feltner, along Griffith’s daughter Haylie Faulkner, 15, and Haylie’s friend Danielle Hensley, 17.
On the way to his native Long Island, N.Y., Devoe had car problems and police say he killed 81-year-old Betty Jane DeHart after seeing her car at her house in Greencastle, Pa., according to a criminal complaint.
Devoe has been indicted for capital murder in Travis County only in the Jonestown deaths of Haylie and Danielle. Prosecutors have said that charging him only with those deaths would allow them a second chance at convicting Devoe if their prosecution is unsuccessful.
The jury will hear evidence of all of the killings, though, as Kennedy ruled that they were all part of the same course of criminal conduct.
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March 2, 2009
Paul Devoe to return to Travis County
State District Judge Brenda Kennedy has ordered spree murder suspect Paul Devoe returned to Travis County from a North Texas secure psychiatric hospital.
Kennedy sent Devoe to the hospital after she declared him incompetent to stand trial in December.
A bench warrant issued by Kennedy on Friday said only that Devoe is needed in Travis County for a “designation hearing” on March 5. Prosecutors declined to comment on the reason for Devoe’s pending return to the Travis County jail.
Neither Kennedy nor Devoe’s lawyers could be reached late Monday for comment.
Under Texas law, defendants must be able to understand the proceedings against them and able to participate in their own defense to proceed to trial. It is not uncommon for defendants once found incompetent to later be found competent after their time in a state psychiatric facility, sometimes because their medication has been correctly adjusted.
After two doctors, one hired by the prosecution and another by the defense, in December declared Devoe incompetent to stand trial, Kennedy entered an order to have Devoe committed to North Texas State Hospital at Vernon for a term not to exceed 120 days.
Devoe’s psychiatric records were placed in the public court file for a time, but Kennedy ordered them sealed in January.
Devoe has been indicted for capital murder in Travis County in the Jonestown deaths. He is charged with killing an ex-girlfriend’s daughter, Haylie Faulkner, 15, and Haylie’s friend Danielle Hensley, 17.
Devoe also is accused of fatally shooting bartender Michael Allred, 41, at O’Neill’s Sports Tavern in Marble Falls. Court documents say he then drove to the Jonestown house of his ex-girlfriend, 46-year-old Paula Marie Griffith. He is accused of killing Griffith and her boyfriend, Jay Feltner, along with Haylie and Danielle.
On the way to his native Long Island, N.Y., Devoe had car problems and killed 81-year-old Betty Jane DeHart after seeing her car at her house in Greencastle, Pa., according to a criminal complaint.
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October 2, 2008
Devoe's lawyers want psychological testing
At a meeting today with the lawyers and the judge in the Travis County capital murder case of accused spree killer Paul Devoe, defense lawyers said they needed time to consider conducting independent forensic testing before agreeing to a trial date, according to prosecutor Gary Cobb.
The defense lawyers also said they wanted psychological testing conducted on Devoe, Cobb said.
The lawyers met in a session closed to the public in state District Judge Brenda Kennedy’s chambers to discuss scheduling in the case. Prosecutors have turned over the results of ballistics and DNA testing and next defense lawyers are expected to tell Kennedy what, if any, independent testing they want to order before trial, Cobb said. Another meeting in Kennedy’s chambers is set for the first week of November and at that point, Kennedy could set a trial date, Cobb said.
Devoe, whose lawyers could not be reached for comment, is accused of killing six people in an August 2007 cross-country killing spree that police say started when he shot bartender Michael Allred, 41, at a Marble Falls bar. He is accused of going to the Jonestown home of his ex-girlfriend, Paula Marie Griffith, 46, later that day and killing Griffith, her boyfriend Jay Feltner, 48, Griffith’s daughter, Haylie Faulkner, 15, and Haylie’s friend Danielle Hensley, 17.
Authorities have said that on his way to his native Long Island, N.Y., where he was arrested Aug. 27, 2007, Devoe killed 81-year-old Betty Jane DeHart in Greencastle, Penn., for her car.
He will be tried first on the capital murder charge in Travis County that accuses him of killing Haylie and Danielle. He faces either life in prison without parole or the death penalty if convicted.
Devoe’s lawyers, both court-appointed, have asked Kennedy for funding to conduct psychological testing on their client, said Cobb, who does not believe that Devoe’s mental state will be used as a defense.
“It is fairly normal to have it done any time you are dealing with a death penalty case,” he said.
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June 10, 2008
Devoe prosecutors win early victory over his statements
Prosecutors today won an initial victory in their bid to use at Paul Devoe’s trial potentially incriminating statements the accused killer made about the allegations he killed six people in August.
State District Judge Brenda Kennedy today ruled that most of Devoe’s statements offered by prosecutors— including testimony that he told a cellmate “I killed six people” and told his sister he shot people — were lawfully obtained.
But Kennedy’s ruling is only preliminary because she hasn’t ruled on whether the statements are relevant to the charges against Devoe in Travis County or if they should be excluded from the jury because they include information about crimes the jury won’t be asked to consider. Kennedy scheduled another pretrial hearing on that question for July 25.
Devoe is charged with capital murder in Travis County in the killings of his ex-girlfriend’s daughter, Haylie Faulkner, 15, and Haylie’s friend Danielle Hensley, 17, in Jonestown on Aug. 24. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
He also is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend Paula Marie Griffith, 46, and her boyfriend, Jay Feltner, 48, in Jonestown, and bartender Michael Allred, 41, at a Marble Falls bar on the same day. Authorities have said that on his way to his native Long Island, N.Y., where he was arrested Aug. 27, he killed 81-year-old Betty Jane DeHart in Greencastle, Penn., for her car.
Devoe’s defense lawyers argued to Kennedy that only evidence surrounding the killings of Haylie and Danielle should be allowed at trial. The rest of the crimes, they said, pertain to “extraneous offenses” not allowed under Texas law.
Prosecutors argued that evidence of all six killings came during one continuous course of conduct and therefore should be allowed.
At the July 25 hearing, Kennedy will rule on whether prosecutors can present evidence of all six killings, she said.
In a small victory for the defense, Kennedy ruled that certain statements Devoe made to Sharon Wilson, with whom Devoe lived in Llano before the killing spree, were unlawfully obtained and may not be heard by a jury.
Devoe called Wilson from jail in Suffolk County, N.Y., four days after his arrest there, according to testimony at a hearing last month.
At the time, Wilson was speaking to investigators, who recorded the conversation and at least one point, fed Devoe questions.
One of those questions was about Haylie and Danielle. She said the mother of one of the girls had been calling her and she asked Devoe what she should answer.
“Tell her … I don’t know what to say,” Devoe said. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to do what I did. I snapped.”
Kennedy ruled that the jury can’t hear about that statement and any others that were prompted by authorities, saying it violated his rights to have a lawyer present when he was questioned by law enforcement.
Before he went to the Marble Falls bar, Wilson had asked Devoe to leave that house because she suspected that he had been taking money; he exploded in rage, grabbed a handgun and pointed it at Wilson, she said last year.
“Maybe it was just too much to handle,” Devoe said on a recording of the conversation with Wilson that was played in court.
Later, he said, “I just became tired of everything.”
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