ALBANY — Jason D. Kutey was sent to prison Tuesday for kidnapping and threatening his ex-girlfriend.

Kutey held the ex-girlfriend hostage in her new boyfriend’s Guilderland home in June; he was sentenced to 16-and-a-half years in prison.

Kutey’s attorney, E. Stewart Jones, told The Enterprise Wednesday that the sentence is "harsh and excessive."
He says Kutey is a man who never meant to harm anyone. Kutey has psychological problems and was troubled by "obsessive love," Jones said.
The ex-girlfriend said at the sentencing that she never felt threatened by Kutey, Jones said. "She said that Jason needs help," he said.
"He needs psychological help, counseling, treatment," Jones said. "The prison system is not good at providing that."

Kutey, of Latham, pleaded guilty in October to the Guilderland charges. His sentence was handed down this week by Judge Thomas A. Breslin in Albany County Court.

Kutey was arrested for kidnapping the same ex-girlfriend the month before the Guilderland incident. In court papers, police said that, in May, Kutey had used handcuffs to kidnap his ex-girlfriend and take 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.

The following week, the 28-year-old pleaded not guilty to the Guilderland charges: 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.

In October, however, Kutey pleaded guilty to breaking into a building with a deadly weapon and kidnapping, using the threat of deadly force. At the time of the plea, according to the Albany County District Attorney’s Office, Kutey faced a sentence of no more than 17 years and no less than 15 years.

Although Kutey originally pleaded not guilty to the charges, Jones said Wednesday, he accepted a plea bargain: he received one sentence for both the Guilderland and Colonie charges.

Kutey pleaded guilty because he had no defense, Jones said.
"He did have the gun. He entered a place he didn’t belong with a loaded weapon. He held her hostage," Jones said.

Still, Jones said, Kutey should have received a substantially-lesser sentence. He has a history of psychological problems, but he never intended to hurt anyone, Jones said.

Kutey plans on appealing, his attorney said. Jones is requesting that Kutey receive counseling while in prison, he said.

"No intention to harm"

In June, 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 after the incident 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.
"There’s no question the events that occurred were not normal circumstances," Jones said Wednesday. "But, it was not a true hostage situation. He was not someone acting out of intention to harm. It was obsessive love. He had the misguided belief that the could win her back, that taking these steps showed he cared for her."

Kutey has psychological problems, Jones said, so his conduct was abnormal.
"Using a semi-automatic weapon put everyone in grave peril, but that was not his intention," Jones said.

Ex-girlfriend’s account

In court papers, the ex-girlfriend described how, in May, Kutey handcuffed her to his truck and drove up the Northway.

The Enterprise is withholding the ex-girlfriend’s name because the newspaper has a policy of not printing the names of kidnapping victims.

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, 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.

Kutey disconnected and hid the phones in the cabin and the two stayed there all night, the ex-girlfriend wrote.

The next day, 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.

At 10:20 the night before, 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, a nearby store, 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."