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Fugitive Article

August 28, 2007

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U.S. marshals nab murderer after nationwide search

By Michael Frazier and Christine Armario
Newsday

SHIRLEY, N.Y. — A Long Island man was caught yesterday in a nationwide dragnet after he killed six people in a spree spanning two hill country towns in Texas and a Pennsylvania suburb, federal authorities said yesterday.

U.S. marshals tracked Paul G. Devoe III, 43, to a friend's home in Shirley. After a brief standoff, he was arrested on a Texas murder warrant and held for questioning in five other homicides - including the deaths of four people, including his ex-girlfriend, found in a Travis County, Texas, home, authorities said.

Devoe also was held on a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, said Supervisory Deputy Marshal Hector Gomez.

Devoe had a silver .380-caliber handgun with him when authorities found him at a house on River Road around midday yesterday, but he was persuaded to surrender, officials said.

Investigators believe Devoe shot and killed a bartender Friday in Marble Falls, Texas, before fleeing to a nearby town and killing his ex-girlfriend, her teenage daughter and two others two days later. He also shot a woman in the head in Pennsylvania and stole her car, they said.

Devoe was charged yesterday with murder, according to a Travis County court affidavit. More charges are pending.

According to the affidavit, Devoe called his mother in New York using the cell phone of one of his victims and told her he had killed five people.

While closing in on Devoe, federal agents told an ex-girlfriend she needed to leave her Suffolk home, said the woman, who didn't want her name used.

She said Devoe was a Patchogue native who drank too much and had a temper. She cut ties with him in 2001.

"I never dreamed this would happen," she said. She added that she never fathomed he was capable of killing five people, "but you can never put anything past anybody."

Devoe has a lengthy criminal history, said U.S. Marshal Insp. Salvatore Spica. Records show he has a previous conviction in New York for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Devoe was found at a home neighbors say belongs to Gerard Baldoni. Yesterday, marshals knocked on the doors of Baldoni's neighbors, telling them to leave their homes or get in their basements. Neighbors on the usually quiet street described a swarm of cars and agents in tactical gear, search dogs and helicopters overhead.

Agents stopped Stephanie Hancock at a roadblock when she tried to return home to her sons. "They said, 'Get your sons and get out of here,'" she said.

Neighbors said Devoe once worked with Baldoni as a house painter and described Baldoni as an older, reclusive man with health problems. Baldoni did not respond to a message left at his house yesterday.

The search for Devoe began in Texas after bartender Michael Allred, 41, died from a bullet wound to the chest at O'Neil's Bar in Marble Falls. An enraged Devoe actually took aim at ex-girlfriend Glenda Purcell, 44, according to the affidavit.

Devoe fled 30 miles south to Jonestown, Texas, about 28 miles north of Austin, in a blue Dodge pickup he stole from a friend, Sharon Wilson, after she found him taking a credit card from her purse, according to a Travis County affidavit. Wilson told police Devoe shot at her and she fled her home.

The pickup was found Sunday by police outside a home in the 2,100-person town. In the house, the body of the home's owner, Paula Griffith, 46, was found in the living room. Her 15-year-old daughter, identified by her brother as Haylie Marie Faulkner, was slumped against a bar in the living room. Griffith's boyfriend, Jay Feltner, 48, was found dead at a living room table. Danielle Hensley, 17, who lived at the home, was on a sofa. Devoe had dated Paula Griffith, her son, Jonathon Griffith, 29, told the Austin American-Statesman.

Shell casings for a .380-caliber handgun were recovered from the home — the same weapon Devoe had when police arrested him, the affidavit said.

A white 2001 Saturn station wagon belonging to the elder Griffith turned up outside a home in Greencastle, Pa., just off Interstate 81 about 160 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania State Trooper Edward S. Asbury said Betty Jane Dehart, 81, was found dead there.

The woman's car was recovered outside the Shirley home, marshals said.

Devoe is scheduled to be arraigned today in Central Islip on an additional charge of being a fugitive from justice, authorities said.

Staff writer Alfonso A. Castillo and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Copyright 2007 Newsday

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