DENVER — A 36-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in the Christmas morning killing of another man at a downtown Denver hotel, the district attorney's office said.
Tonnell Love also faces a charge of first-degree assault in the stabbing death of Paul Norwood, 36. Love has a preliminary hearing scheduled for March 5.
Police had responded early on Dec. 25 to the Hyatt Place hotel on 14th Street, where Norwood was found inside a room on the 6th floor.
An employee of the hotel told police she received a call from a hallway phone on the 6th floor from an unknown male who said she needed to send someone to room 606 because there was an injured person inside that room.
The affidavit states another employee went to room 606 where he found Norwood curled up in a fetal position against a wall near the front door. He told police Norwood was bleeding profusely and noticed blood on the floor and a wall near the front entry way. The employee then called the front desk, who called 911.
An employee of the hotel would later tell a detective he noticed a suspicious man loitering in the lobby of the hotel, and said the man asked someone at the front desk if anyone had found a brown or tan bag, according to the probable cause statement. The receptionist told the man someone had just turned in a bag and she handed it to the man after he identified it as his own.
The man was later identified as Love, the suspect in the homicide.
Later that day, at around 1 p.m., police noted that surveillance video from the hotel showed Love – who also goes by Mustafa Love - in the lobby, according to the arrest affidavit. Another detective who was at the hotel during the investigation said he investigated a criminal mischief on Broadway from a day prior where Love was identified as the suspect in that case, the probable cause statement shows.
Officers would later find that Love had a felony warrant for aggravated assault-domestic violence out of Denver. He was taken into custody for his warrant and taken to the Denver Police Administration Building.
