DENVER – A homicide suspect has been arrested in connection to the stabbing death of a man inside a downtown Denver hotel on Christmas Day.
Tonell Love, 36, is facing first-degree murder charges for the death of 36-year-old Paul Norwood. Norwood was inside a room on the 6th floor of the Hyatt Place Denver/Downtown when he was stabbed to death by Love in the early hours of Dec. 25, according to a probable cause statement.
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.
By about 5 p.m. on Christmas Day, police said Norwood had sustained a possible sharp force injury to his neck and possibly one to this stomach, according to the affidavit.
A detective at the scene found a black handled knife in the kitchen area of the room and a pair of dark-colored socks in a microwave.
The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner said in a news release Norwood’s cause of death was from sharp force injuries. The manner of death was homicide.