The trial stemming from the 2022 killing of Schenectady teenager Samantha Humphrey moved forward in Schenectady County Court Wednesday with the delivery of opening statements.
Raymond Wright Jr., 18, is accused of killing his then-girlfriend when the pair were both 14. Humphrey was originally reported missing in November 2022 — last seen in Riverside Park in Schenectady's Stockade neighborhood. Her body was eventually found in the Mohawk River in February 2023 — not far from the park.
WAMC's Sajina Shrestha was in the courtroom for opening statements Wednesday, and caught up with Northeast Notebook host Sam Dingman. He and co-host Aaron Shellow-Lavine broke down the latest on Northeast Notebook Live.
INTERVIEW REQUEST
Editor's note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Shellow-Lavine: Yeah, so Sajina gave us a description of the case laid out by prosecutor [Schenectady County Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney] Christina Tremante[-Pelham] in her opening statements from this morning.
Shrestha: She alleges that it was this tumultuous relationship that could have ended in pregnancy that led to Mr. Wright killing Samantha, allegedly. In her eyes, she [Samantha] had been in talks with him, and then he had asked her to meet him, and they went down to the Union [College] Boathouse, which is where she says, you know, after a couple of hours, Wright left alone.
Dingman: Sajina also told us a little bit about the counterargument from defense attorney Peter Lynch.
Shrestha: He told them that he [Wright] had gone to meet her, and they had gotten through an argument, and that she had bit his index finger, and some blood had come out. And so he pushed her, and then he walked away, and she threatened to kill herself. And as he turned around, she was on her phone contacting Dylan, and then he walked away. And granted, Raymond Wright has been very open about where he was and what had happened, and his lawyer also touches on the fact that the forensic pathologist in this case, he thinks that the autopsy is nothing more than pure speculation, in his words.
Dingman: Alright, and just some context there, Aaron. The Dylan Sajina mentioned is a friend of Samantha Humphreys who she called on the night of her alleged murder.
Shellow-Lavine: And you know, we also asked Sajina to give us, you know, a sense of the mood in the courtroom. She said it was pretty somber, no major outbursts. That there were some folks in the gallery with tissues on hand, crying during the proceedings. There were one or two individuals wearing sweatshirts or shirts with Humphrey's name and/or face on them, which is not allowed in this kind of trial, so they were asked to remove them before the trial proceeded.
Dingman: Again, the trial just getting underway, so we'll have lots more on that going forward.
