KRGV.com

BROWNSVILLE - A 63-year-old man charged with two murders committed more than 30 years ago in Oregon lived in Brownsville for nearly a year.

Jeffery Cutlip went before a judge today to face charges on the murders. Portland police traveled to Brownsville to transport the suspect back to Oregon. Police said he called over the weekend and confessed to the crimes.

Now, some of his neighbors at a downtown hotel are speaking out about the alleged murderer.

"He didn't seem to be the kind of person that would do something like that," said Christina Slayton. "He normally spoke to everybody and went straight up to his room. He never bothered anyone."

Slayton said she spoke to Cutlip at the Colonial Hotel everyday. She never knew about his criminal past.

Oregon correction officials said Cutlip spent most of the past three decades in prison.

"He seemed very intelligent when he talked to you," Slayton said. "He was really into music. He told me at one time he was a musician then he sat and read books all the time."

The hotel manager, though, remembers him as a jittery person.

"He was nervous and pacing all the time. He was freaking out and had insomnia. He couldn't sleep," said Maria Galvan, manager at the Colonia Hotel. "He was scared of the police and thinking they would show up for what he did in the past."

Galvan said police showed up on Saturday and picked him up. She didn't know why until she watched television news reports.

"Now I am scared. There is a lot of people staying here at the hotel. We don't know who they are when they check into the hotel," she said.

Cutlip stayed at the hotel for about a month before his arrest.

He remains in the Cameron County jail awaiting extradition to Oregon.