Suffolk woman sues hotel after seeing Marist parent Paul Kutz shot on family weekend

A Suffolk County woman who was sitting next to the man shot and killed at a hotel during the Marist College family weekend in October has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the hotel, saying it failed to protect guests and that she suffered "disabling" psychological harm.

Tina Martirano was sharing a morning coffee with Paul Kutz in the lobby of the Courtyard by Marriott in Poughkeepsie on Oct. 2, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Dutchess County Supreme Court. Both were Long Island parents there for the Marist College family weekend, the lawsuit said.

A man approached them dressed in his underpants, a trenchcoat and a ski mask, shouting obscenities and waving around a gun, the lawsuit said. Martirano said in the suit that she told Kutz to avoid eye contact, but the man started shooting, striking Kutz in the chest and torso. She watched as Kutz fell from the chair and died, she said in the lawsuit.

Kutz, 53, was an East Northport accountant, husband and father of three.

Martirano has been so disturbed by the violence that she "suffers from severe emotional distress, post-traumatic stress disorder, hypervigilance, panic disorder" and other "psychological injuries," the lawsuit said.

"Tina fears for her life and the safety of her family. She is unable to cope, function as a member of society, or return to her place of employment," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit names as defendants Marriott International, Courtyard Management Corp. and Pizzagalli Properties. Pizzagalli Properties was the only defendant that could be reached for comment Saturday. President James Pizzagalli said his company owns the land under the building and leases it to another company but has nothing to do with the operations of the hotel.

The alleged shooter, Roy A. Johnson, 35, was charged with two felonies: second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, charging papers said. A second defendant, Devin. M. Taylor, 26, was charged with felony criminal possession of a weapon. The two men, whom authorities said were homeless, were also named in the lawsuit.

Prosecutors have said a room was rented for Taylor on Oct. 1 by an individual they did not name. A later search of the room uncovered a number of weapons, including a flash-bang grenade, a smoke bomb, rounds of ammunition, parts of rifles, munitions handbooks, potentially explosive materials and an AR-15-style rifle that had no serial number but was stamped "We the People," prosecutors said.

Kutz was attending the family weekend to visit his son at the college. He did not know Taylor and Johnson, and the men did not go to the lobby to target him, said Poughkeepsie Town Police Lt. Jason Burger.

Martirano could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Her 32-page lawsuit said the corporate defendants failed to provide "reasonably adequate" security for the college's family weekend, which draws thousands of parents to the campus. They failed to enforce Marriott's no-weapons policy, did not properly monitor the hotel with security cameras, and had not implemented and executed an active shooter plan, the lawsuit said.

The hotel allowed the two men to check in without requiring either to present a form of identification or any other customary check-in information, the lawsuit said. 

On the morning of Oct. 2, Martirano said in the suit, she woke before the rest of her family and headed downstairs to the lobby, where she got a coffee and saw Kutz sporting a Marist College T-shirt, the lawsuit said. She said she had met Kutz and his wife the day before.

When Johnson appeared in the lobby acting erratically, the Marriott personnel acted as if they knew him and laughed off his behavior, the lawsuit said. 

"Tina believed that defendant Johnson had a gun and was dangerous, yet she was unable to run for fear of being attacked by Johnson if she did," the lawsuit said. 

Johnson used a Glock 17 during the shooting, which was outfitted with a fixed pin that converted it into an automatic weapon, prosecutors said. 

After Martirano saw the killing of Kutz, she saw Johnson firing more shots, which she believed were directed at her, according to the lawsuit. The shots sounded, the suit said, like "fireworks were bursting in the lobby."

By Craig Schneider

craig.schneider@newsday.comScraigo

Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.