Devoe in jail with bond at $2 million

By CHRIS PORTER • Daily Tribune Staff

AUSTIN - A Travis County judge has set the bond for suspected mass murderer Paul G. Devoe III at $2 million, officials said Friday.

Devoe, 44, remains behind bars in Austin, one day after he was extradited to Texas following a month-long legal procedure in his native New York.

He was booked into the Travis County Jail Thursday evening and charged with one count of murder, according to Travis County Sheriff’s spokesman Roger Wade.

“There is also a hold on him from Burnet County for murder, and a hold on him from Franklin County, Pa., for criminal homicide, burglary and robbery,” Wade said.

The former Burnet County carpenter and remodeler was arrested near his childhood home on Long Island Aug. 27 after being named as a suspect in a multi-state killing spree that left six people dead.

The deaths began at O’Neill’s Sports Tavern in Marble Falls, where a gunman shot and killed 41-year-old bartender Mike Allred Aug. 24.

Later that night, police say Devoe drove a stolen pickup to the Jonestown home of his 46-year-old ex-girlfriend Paula Griffith.

Jonestown police later found the bodies of Griffith, her boyfriend Jay Feltner, 15-year-old daughter Haley Marie Faulkner and friend Danielle Hensley during a search of the house Aug. 26. All four were killed by gunshots to the head, according to the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Police in Pennsylvania later found Griffith’s station wagon outside the Greencastle, Pa., home of 81-year-old Betty Jane Dehart. Dehart was found shot to death inside her home, and her car was found outside the Shirley, N.Y. home where Devoe was arrested Aug. 27.

Though court records say Devoe initially confessed to shooting Dehart and stealing her car, he later told a Long Island newspaper he didn’t remember any of the deaths, except for what he called the accidental shooting of Allred at O’Neill’s Tavern.

Devoe also claimed he was bitten by a rattlesnake, which caused him to go on a drinking binge that may have fueled the violence.

“I never meant to hurt anybody in any shape or form,” he said. “I don’t know what happened.”

Devoe remains charged in the murders of Allred, Dehart and Griffith. Additional charges are likely as the investigations continue, Wade said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

chris@thepicayune.com

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Devoe in jail with bond at $2 million