LITTLE ROCK — A Little Rock man faces first-degree murder charges in connection with the stabbing of a man at a west Little Rock hotel Tuesday night.
Steven Witzke, 34, was arrested early Wednesday morning and charged in the stabbing death of George Johnson of Little Rock after Witzke called police to respond to the Extended Stay America hotel at 600 Hardin Road, where he was living with his girlfriend.
When police arrived at the hotel, they were met by Witzke and his girlfriend, Heather Juiliano, who were both listed as residents of room 335, according to police reports.
Witzke told police that Johnson, who he said was a friend, had been stabbed in room 329, where he was listed as a resident, reports said.
Before entering the room, police could see “a person’s legs and socked feet” from the window, the report said. When a hotel employee opened the door, officers found Johnson’s body lying facedown, according to Little Rock Police Department spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings.
When police first arrived, Hastings said, both Witzke and Juiliano gave “not truthful” accounts to detectives.
Lt. Glenn King, the department’s chief homicide detective, said Witzke told officers that “two black guys” and then “one black guy” had stabbed Johnson in an attempted home invasion.
But accounts from others at the hotel differed from Witzke’s, King said.
But once detectives took Witzke to the department’s interview room, Hastings said, Witzke admitted to getting into an argument with Johnson and then stabbing him multiple times in the chest with a knife.
Hastings didn’t know what the two men were arguing over, but he said it had something to do with their relationship.
When asked what role Juiliano, 39, played in Tuesday night’s stabbing, Hastings said she was three doors down in her room.
“I’ve not heard anything about the girlfriend [being involved],” Hastings said. “[The stabbing] was over the relationship between the two guys.”
Hastings said detectives found the murder weapon in Johnson’s room. He also said drugs or alcohol were not involved in the stabbing.
Earlier Tuesday, police reports said Johnson, 48, had “attempted to start something” with Ronald Fontenot, 29, who was staying in room 327 with his wife, Amanda Matz.
Matz told police that Witzke intervened, and took Johnson back to his room next door.
Hastings didn’t know what Johnson and Fontenot were arguing over, but he said it had nothing to do with the homicide.
By Wednesday morning, Johnson’s room had been cleaned and the covers of the bed removed.
The only signs that a homicide had occurred there just 10 hours before were bloody boot marks outside the hotel room and a wad of crime scene tape stuffed in a nearby garbage bin.
Officials from the hotel hung up when reached by phone. Neither Juiliano nor Fontenot was reachable for comment, and Matz declined to comment when reached by an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter.
Johnson’s death marks the fourth homicide in Little Rock in the past nine days. Police have made arrests in two of the other three 2012 homicides.
Witzke is to appear in court today, according to court officials.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 01/12/2012