Published January 13, 2015
A man suspected of killing six people in a crime spree stretching from Texas to Pennsylvania had already racked up a string of arrests in his home state of New York, authorities said.
Click here to read Devoe's arrest warrant, from MyFOXAustin.com
Click here for a report on this story at MyFoxAustin.com
During a court appearance Tuesday on New York's Long Island, 43-year-old Paul Devoe III was ordered held without bail on a charge of being a fugitive from justice.
District Attorney Thomas Spota described Devoe as "a felon with a long history of arrests" in Suffolk County, including aggravated harassment, criminal trespassing, petit larceny and drunken driving.
Authorities say that over the weekend in Texas, where he moved several years ago, Devoe committed even more serious crimes. He is charged with two counts of murder in the shooting deaths of a bartender and his own ex-girlfriend. She was one of four people found dead Sunday in a home near Austin.
Devoe then traveled to New York, where he was arrested Monday after a brief standoff, authorities said. He is also suspected of killing an elderly woman in Pennsylvania and stealing her car as he made his way to New York.
Devoe indicated Tuesday that he would fight extradition to Texas, setting up a legal process that prosecutors said could take as long as two months. His court-appointed attorney did not comment to reporters after his brief appearance before the judge.
Investigators are looking into claims that Devoe also shot at someone and attempted two unsuccessful carjackings in Tennessee during the cross-country trip, U.S. Marshal LaFayette Collins said.
Investigators think Devoe went to ex-girlfriend Paula Griffith's home after shooting a bartender Friday night in nearby Marble Falls, witnesses and police said.
Inside the home, detectives found the bodies of Griffith, 46; her daughter, 15; Danielle Hensley, 17; and Griffith's boyfriend, Jay Feltner, 48, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Jonathon Griffith, of San Antonio, identified the 15-year-old victim as his sister, Haylie Marie Faulkner, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Medical examiners said autopsies determined that Hensley suffered three gunshot wounds and that each of the other victims had one gunshot wound.
Additional charges may be filed once the case reaches a grand jury, said Travis County sheriff's Sgt. Stan Roper.
The two teens would have started school Monday in the Leander school district near Austin.
"It's a great tragedy. To have two kids in the same school district, that's very, very sad and very troubling for these students and for the administration," district spokesman Dick Ellis told the Statesman.
In nearby Kingsland, more than 1,100 mourners gathered Tuesday for Michael Allred's funeral, the newspaper reported. Devoe allegedly shot the 41-year-old bartender when Allred tried to stop him from shooting a woman at the bar.
In Pennsylvania, authorities were still deciding what charges to file in the death of Betty Jane Dehart, 81, of Greencastle, Pa., State Trooper Edward S. Asbury said.
Dehart, a retired seamstress and a great-great-grandmother, was described by neighbors as someone with a sweet disposition who would ply workers performing maintenance on her house with snacks.
"Betty was the kindest soul you could imagine," said her son-in-law, Jim Chilcoat. "She never said a bad word about anybody."
Dehart's car was found in the New York driveway where Devoe was arrested Monday. A car registered to Griffith in Texas was found near Dehart's body.
Before his arrest, Devoe is alleged to have called his mother in New York using a cell phone that belonged to Feltner and told her he had killed five people, the affidavit said.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/texas-killing-spree-suspect-had-long-criminal-history