SCHENECTADY, NY (WRGB) — It has been two years since the body of 14-year-old Samantha Humphrey was pulled from the Mohawk River after months of searching for the missing teen.
Samantha’s then-boyfriend, now 17, has been charged with second-degree murder. Police say he killed her by strangulation, after she reportedly told him she was pregnant and wanted to keep the baby. He did not.
The teen boy arrested and charged with second-degree murder pleaded not guilty in Schenectady County court and was remanded to a juvenile detention center.
According to DA Carney, the teen has been charged as an adult, despite that he is a juvenile.
CBS6 asked Matthew Winchell, who is an associate attorney with Tully Rinckey what is next for the Ex- Boyfriend.
“Next is just they’re going to go back into court.,” Winchell said. “You know, usually it’s 30 days, sometimes sooner, depending on what the situation is. I’m sure defense counsel has been in talks with whoever’s prosecuting the case, be it the county attorney or somebody else, trying to figure out what the next steps are going to be. If they’re going to try to put this up in the county court.”
The biggest question on people’s minds is, if he is being charged with 2nd degree murder, why is he still being tried as a minor?
“When somebody commits a crime and they are a minor, if it goes a couple of years or how many years it is for them to be charged with the crime, they’re still technically considered to be a juvenile because when the crime took place or allegedly took place, they were a minor.”
Winchell followed it up with an example if the ex-boyfriend was 25 now and committed it when he was 14, he still would have initially been charged as a juvenile.
This situation runs the possibility that the DA’s office can charge him as an adult.
“It really just depends, you know, if they if they move it up to county court and they try and they try to charge him as an adult, then, you know, they’ll obviously release his name because at that point he’ll be charged as an adult.”
