ALBANY — Jason Kutey was expressionless Friday as he slowly walked with a guard through the Albany County courtroom. He looked pale in his orange jumpsuit and his hands and feet were manacled.

He was there to be arraigned on charges of imprisoning and kidnapping his ex-girlfriend.

In court papers, police said that, in May, Kutey had used handcuffs, similar to the ones now on his wrists, when he kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and took her to Lake Placid.
"I was very scared," the ex-girlfriend wrote of the Lake Placid kidnapping in her deposition. "Jason told me that he was going to kill himself and he wanted me to watch because I broke up with him."

An order of protection was issued for the ex-girlfriend after the May 17 incident; Kutey was then arrested for kidnapping and taken to Albany County’s jail.

A month later, as Kutey was out on bail, he committed a similar crime in Guilderland, police say.

On June 16, the very day he was due in court on the May 17 charges, police say Kutey held his ex-girlfriend hostage with an assault rifle in her new boyfriend’s home, on Woodscape Drive in Guilderland.

As Kutey was to be arraigned for this on Friday, no relatives or friends were in the courtroom. His arraignment was adjourned until Monday.
Then, on Monday, the 28-year-old was arraigned on several felony charges. He pleaded "not guilty" to all: two counts of second-degree kidnapping; two counts of first-degree unlawful imprisonment; first-degree criminal contempt; third-degree criminal possession of a weapon; and three counts of first-degree burglary.

Guilderland Police described last week how the hostage situation turned a quiet McKownville neighborhood upside down; over a hundred officers and paramedics swarmed the area.

Albany Police Detective Jack Grogan told The Enterprise last week how, after two hours, he got Kutey to surrender to police and let his ex-girlfriend go.

Grogan didn’t think Kutey was a threat to his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend, he said. Grogan actually had to convince her to leave the house, because she was worried Kutey would kill himself, Grogan said.

Grogan spoke to her on the phone and convinced her to come outside. About 10 minutes later, he convinced Kutey to come out, too.

During the dramatic exchange Kutey had with Grogan, Kutey revealed that he just wanted someone to listen, the detective said.
"They broke up and he couldn’t handle it," Grogan told The Enterprise. Kutey was arrested last month in Colonie for kidnapping the same ex-girlfriend and was due in court last Thursday for charges from that incident.

The Enterprise was able to obtain police documents this week that describe the Colonie incident. The newspaper is withholding the name of the ex-girlfriend because it has a policy of not printing the names of victims.

Kutey could not be reached for comment this week. His attorney, E. Stewart Jones, did not return calls from The Enterprise.

Ex-girlfriend’s story

In her supporting deposition, the ex-girlfriend described the events of May 17 and 18.

She said that, on the morning of May 17, Kutey called her and asked if she would watch his sister’s baby because his sister was in the hospital. The ex-girlfriend agreed, she said, and met Kutey in the parking lot of Latham Farms in Latham.

The ex-girlfriend got into Kutey’s truck, thinking he was taking her to his sister. As they got on the Northway, Kutey asked her for her cell phone, she said; he said he needed it for work. He then took the battery out of the phone and threw it in the back of the truck, the ex-girlfriend said.

Next, she said, Kutey grabbed her left arm with his right hand and, with his left hand, locked one end of a handcuff around her wrist and the other end around his right wrist.
"He then said plans have changed," the ex-girlfriend wrote in her statement.

As the pair continued up the Northway, Kutey instructed his ex-girlfriend to place a sweatshirt over their cuffed hands, so truck drivers wouldn’t see them, she said. She was hysterically crying, she said, and Kutey told her to hide her face.
"He told me not to look out the window as we passed other cars so they would not see me crying hysterically," the ex-girlfriend wrote. "He would tell me to put my hand up to cover my face when a car went by, he said to me if anyone sees me crying, don’t do anything stupid because he’ll have to hurt me."

Kutey later stopped at a gas station, unlocked the handcuff attached to his wrist, and locked it to a chain in the truck, the ex-girlfriend said. While Kutey was in the gas station, the ex-girlfriend tried to roll down the window of the truck, but couldn’t she said. She also tried to move into the driver’s seat, but couldn’t, she said.

Kutey drove through the village of Lake Placid and then down a road, possibly Whiteface Lane, the ex-girlfriend wrote. He took her to an isolated log cabin that he said he rented from a friend, she said.
"Jason took the handcuff off me and he told me if I try to call anyone or run he would hurt me and make me watch him kill himself," she wrote.
It was about 11 p.m., she said. In the cabin, Kutey said to her, "Look what I did for us," the ex-girlfriend reported. Kutey kept hugging her and trying to kiss her, she said.

The two walked around the cabin and Kutey disconnected and hid all of the telephones, she said. After a brief conversation, the ex-girlfriend went upstairs to bed. She wore all of her clothes, but got under the covers, she said.

Kutey spoke to his mother on the phone and then came to bed, the ex-girlfriend said. He took off his clothes and laid next to her, she said.
"I laid there all night but couldn’t sleep," she wrote. "I couldn’t stop picturing Jason killing himself and I didn’t know what I was going to do."

The next day, the ex-girlfriend took a shower and used the bathroom with Kutey standing in the doorway watching, she said. He asked her questions, but she mostly remained silent, she said.

He then asked her if she would give him a second chance, she said.
"I said to him, ‘I don’t know what to think right now. You’re a psycho’," she wrote.

They went to a diner and silently ate breakfast, the ex-girlfriend wrote. Then they went to Rite-Aid, bought a home-pregnancy test, and went back to the cabin, she said.
"Jason thought that I might be pregnant so he wanted to know," the ex-girlfriend wrote. "We went back to the house and I did the test....While we were waiting, he was saying I hope you’re pregnant and how great it would be and we would work everything out. I was praying I wasn’t."

The test was negative, she said, and Kutey was upset.

Kidnapping arrest

After a while, the ex-girlfriend told Kutey she would give him a second chance. He then agreed to take her back to her car in Latham, she said.

Meanwhile, the ex-girlfriend’s roommate, with whom she was living in Delmar, alerted police that she was missing.

In her supporting deposition, the roommate said that, on May 17, the ex-girlfriend told her she was going to baby-sit Kutey’s nephew and bring the child to the roommate’s house. Hours passed and the roommate began to worry, she said.

At 10:20 that night, the roommate wrote, Kutey called the roommate and said that the ex-girlfriend was staying with him for the night. Kutey told the roommate that the ex-girlfriend would call her later, she said.
"I was worried about her and, at that point, it just felt weird," the roommate wrote. "I knew that [name withheld] wasn’t going to get back together with Jason and that she was with a new boyfriend. It didn’t add up to me."

The next day, May 18, the roommate still didn’t hear from the ex-girlfriend. After leaving messages on both the ex-girlfriend’s and Kutey’s cell phones and after visiting Kutey’s empty house, the roommate and her mother decided to call the Bethlehem Police.

As an officer arrived at the roommate’s house, she was able to get Kutey on her speakerphone. The roommate asked to speak to the ex-girlfriend and Kutey said she was sleeping. The roommate said she heard Kutey shouting the ex-girlfriend’s name.

A Bethlehem officer, as well as the roommate’s mother and sister, all wrote similar depositions claiming this. The ex-girlfriend wrote that she stayed silent when Kutey was on the phone with her roommate.

The Bethlehem officer then spoke to Kutey. He was advised to bring the ex-girlfriend back to Latham Farms, statements say.
The ex-girlfriend said that Kutey told her to "hug him like nothing was wrong," when they arrived in the parking lot. Kutey told her to tell the cop that they went to Lake George to work things out and that everything is fine, she wrote.

Colonie Police did not arrive at the parking lot in time, the ex-girlfriend said. She hugged Kutey, as instructed, and then got into her car and drove off, she said.

On her cell phone, she spoke to police who told her to meet them at Target, she said. She did and that day she obtained an order of protection against Kutey.

Meanwhile, Kutey was stopped at Warren Tire, in Latham.
In an oral admission form, Kutey stated to police, "So who’s pressing charges against me anyway, [the roommate] or [the ex-girlfriend]" That [roommate] is a pain in the ass, she needs to leave us alone. The only thing I did to her was lie to her on the phone and told her that we went to Lake George when we went to Lake Placid, and there’s no law against that."
Later, Kutey told a judge, "I can prove that she was able to leave all day today. We were at least four places that have video. We were up in Lake Placid, we ate breakfast at a diner for about an hour, then we went to a Stewart’s and I was inside and she was outside for a little bit."