Paul Devoe sentenced to death

Slain teens will be 'haunting you,' family member tells him

By Steven Kreytak - Statesman.com

October 9, 2009

After a jury sentenced Paul Devoe to death Thursday, the mother of one of his victims — 17-year-old Danielle Hensley — took the witness stand in a Travis County courtroom and told Devoe it would be nice to know if he cared what she and other victims' family members had to say.

"Do you care?" Christina Gribble asked Devoe. Devoe did not react. It could have been the anti-psychotic medication he is taking. Or perhaps Devoe was revealing himself as the cold, callous killer painted earlier in the day by prosecutors, who say he has shown no remorse during and after a six-person, two-state murderous rampage in 2007.

Gribble told Devoe that her daughter and another of his victims, Danielle's friend Haylie Faulkner, 15, will be visiting him in his cell.

"They'll be haunting you," Gribble said. "I have nightmares every night, and I wake up to a nightmare, and Danielle and Haylie will see that yours are worse.

"You have ruined my life, and I don't even know you."

Earlier, the jury that took just 20 minutes last week to convict Devoe of capital murder for killing Haylie and Danielle took less than 3½ hours to send him to Texas' death row. He will probably be there for years before being executed. District Judge Brenda Kennedy appointed lawyers to represent him during his appeal, which is automatic.

According to published reports, prosecutors in Franklin County, Pa., where Devoe is accused of killing an 81-year-old woman for her car, said they plan to try Devoe. Sam Oatman, district attorney for Burnet County, said he has not made a decision on whether to take Devoe to trial there, where he is charged with murder in the death of bartender Michael Allred, 41.

In Travis County, the comments by Gribble and other family members capped the four-day punishment phase of Devoe's trial.

When Kennedy adjourned court, the raw emotions of the trial gave way to a calm and quiet exhale by the family and friends of Devoe's victims. They hugged each other, hugged prosecutors and even went to the bench to thank Kennedy and into the jury room to thank jurors.

"It's been a long time coming," said Robert Faulkner, Haylie's grandfather. "Maybe we can start working to put this behind us."

Haylie's father, Larry Faulkner, said: "I do take comfort knowing he's not going where our angel went. He's going to hell."

Devoe, 46, grew up in Long Island, N.Y. His family said that he started drinking heavily when he was in his early teens, dropped out of school in about the ninth grade and was prone to violent outbursts from a young age. He dated and then abused a string of women in Long Island. When he was in his 20s, he fired a shotgun at a crowd of teens drinking beer and wrapped a phone cord around the neck of his mother, who promptly took out a protective order against him, according to testimony.

He was in and out of jail and prison in New York from 1980 to 2002, according to his lawyers. While free during that time, he wooed a string of women and fathered four children. But those relationships would inevitably end with Devoe inflicting abuse on the women in fits of drunken rage, according to some of those women and records introduced during the trial.

He moved to the Texas Hill Country in about 2005 and continued a pattern — meeting women, moving in with them, living off them while drinking heavily and then abusing them when they tried to end it, several of those women testified.

In August 2007, he was living with Sharon Wilson at her house in Llano after another relationship went bad. Wilson agreed to let him stay with her in exchange for Devoe doing some construction work on her house, Wilson testified.

But one day when she found him with a gun — something she prohibited — and then suspected Devoe of stealing from her purse and emptying a gas can she had just filled, Wilson told him to leave, she said.

That request sent Devoe into a rage. He shot a gun at the couch, walls and floor of Wilson's house before jumping in her truck and heading for Marble Falls, where he found an ex, Glenda Purcell, at O'Neill's Sports Tavern on Main Street, according to testimony.

He put the gun to Purcell's head and pulled the trigger but it did not go off, Purcell testified. Moments later, he shot bartender Allred in the back of the bar and fled in the truck, witnesses said.

He drove to the house of another ex who lived in Jonestown — Paula Griffith, 46. There he fatally shot Griffith, her daughter Haylie, Danielle, and Griffith's boyfriend, Jay Feltner, 48, prosecutors said.

In a statement read in court by police, Devoe said he then drove to Long Island, stopping along the way to fatally shoot Betty DeHart in Greencastle, Pa.

During closing arguments, defense lawyer Tom Weber said, "He knows he did heinous crimes," but noted that in the approximately 14 years that Devoe has spent behind bars in his life, he has not been disciplined for committing violent acts. A sentence of life in prison would protect society, he said.

Prosecutor Gary Cobb called for justice for Devoe's victims: "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."

The jury was convinced, deciding with its verdict that Devoe is a continuing threat to society and that there were no mitigating factors to warrant a sentence of life without parole — the combination needed for a death sentence.

Juror Cynthia Monroe said on her way from the courthouse that she chose death based on "his past behavior and past evidence.

"There was no way he was going to stop."

Devoe declared competent to stand trial

Man accused in six killings returning to Travis County to face capital murder charges.

By Claire Osborn - American-Statesman Staff

Friday, March 06, 2009

After spending several weeks at a psychiatric hospital, murder suspect Paul Devoe has been declared competent to stand trial.

Devoe, 45, 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 before being arrested in New York.

Two doctors, one hired by the prosecution and another by the defense, declared Devoe incompetent to stand trial in December. Judge Brenda Kennedy signed an order Dec. 22 sending Devoe to Vernon State Hospital, a maximum-security psychiatric facility in North Texas.

A staff psychiatrist at the hospital ruled Devoe competent on Feb. 24 and requested that he be returned to Travis County, according to a document filed Monday at the Sweatt Travis County Courthouse. Devoe was admitted to the Vernon facility on Jan. 22, the document said.

Devoe was not yet in custody in Travis County, said Roger Wade, a spokesman for the sheriff's office.

Under Texas law, defendants must be able to understand the proceedings against them and to participate in their defense to proceed to trial. It is not uncommon for defendants once found incompetent to later be found competent.

Travis County Assistant District Attorney Dayna Blazey said in January that the state's psychiatric report stated that Devoe was unable to communicate with his lawyers. She added that doctors expected him to recover with care and medication and that he eventually would stand trial.

Blazey said Thursday that she does not know when Devoe's next hearing will be set.

One of Devoe's attorneys, Tom Weber, did not return a call Thursday for comment.

Devoe has been indicted on capital murder charges in Travis County in the Jonestown deaths of an ex-girlfriend's daughter, Haylie Faulkner, 15, and Haylie's friend Danielle Hensley, 17.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Police say Devoe fatally shot bartender Michael Allred, 41, at O'Neill's Sports Tavern in Marble Falls on Aug. 24, 2007, and then drove to the Jonestown house of his ex-girlfriend Paula Marie Griffith, 46.

He is accused of killing Griffith, her boyfriend Jay Feltner, 48, Faulkner and Hensley. Authorities say Devoe then drove to his native Long Island, N.Y., where he was arrested Aug. 27 at the house of a former co-worker.

On the way, 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.

Authorities Believe Paul Devoe, 43, May Be Behind 5 Weekend Homicides Near Austin, Texas

By David Schoetz

Aug. 27, 2007

A man suspected of killing five people in Texas since Friday was arrested today, more than 1,800 miles away in Long Island, N.Y., law enforcement sources have confirmed to ABC News.

Paul G. Devoe III, 43, was caught in Shirley, N.Y., by members of the U.S. Marshals New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force. His arrest a manhunt that began Thursday near Austin, Texas, after he was accused of holding a gun to a woman's head. The search continued through a bloody weekend that left five people dead, including four discovered by police in the same house Sunday.

Investigators believe Devoe walked into a bar Friday night in Marble Falls, Texas, and shot and killed a bartender.

Witnesses at the scene told police that the gunman fled in a blue pickup truck later tied to Devoe.

Investigators then responded to a Jonestown, Texas, home after police received a call from a family member requesting that police check on loved ones inside the house, Travis County Sheriff's Office spokesman Roger Wade told ABC News.

Authorities found four people dead inside the home. They also found the same truck that the gunman had been seen driving from the scene of Friday night's killing, Wade said. Missing from the parking lot was a white 2001 Saturn that belonged to one of the people found dead inside the Jonestown house.

The identities and causes of death for the four people killed inside the home have not yet been released.

"The medical examiner's office is finishing up their examination of the bodies," Wade said.

The initial incident took place on Thursday night in neighboring Llano County, where, according to the sheriff's office there, Devoe is accused of holding a gun to a woman's head and firing several shots inside her home. The woman reportedly escaped.

Devoe previously has lived at various addresses on Long Island, including Mastic Beach and Brookhaven, according to public records.

A Gun At A Bar Fight

On August 24, 2007, something got into Paul Devoe.  Cops say he walked into O'Neill's Bar in Marble Falls, Texas with the intent to kill. Cops say he was searching for a particular female and when he found her, he pulled the trigger. Luckily for her, the gun jammed.  A second woman came to intervene, another trigger pull and another jammed gun.  It seemed that Devoe's plan was not going well.

Witnesses say Devoe retreated the privacy of the bathroom. When he emerged with the .380, 41-year-old bartender Michael Allred stepped in front of Devoe to quell the situation. Sadly, the gun worked this time.  Michael was shot and killed.

A Man On The Run

After the shooting, the chase was on. But for Devoe, his weekend was just getting started.  Cops say he made the 30 mile trek east to Jonestown, Texas. 

On Sunday, August 26, 2007, Jonestown, Texas got a report of a shooting. When they got to a house on Hobby Lane, they got more than a simple shooting. A common-law husband and wife team were both dead, along with their daughter and their daughter's friend.  Cops believe they had been killed early Saturday morning. Cops believe Devoe is the shooter. Deputies believe Devoe took the family station wagon, a white 2001 Saturn with Texas plate Y43-ZWV. Latest word is Devoe has left Texas and is headed east.