New York Man, 18, Convicted of Second-Degree Murder for Strangling His 14-Year-Old Girlfriend in 2022 and Dumping Her Body in the Mohawk River
Schenectady, New York — A New York jury on November 2 convicted Raymond Wright Jr., now 18, of second-degree murder. Prosecutors said that in November 2022, when both were 14, Wright strangled his girlfriend Samantha Humphrey after an argument over her possible pregnancy and dumped her body in the Mohawk River.
Humphrey was last seen on the night of November 25, 2022, near Riverside Park in Schenectady's Stockade neighborhood. Her body was found in the Mohawk River about three months later. A medical examiner did not determine until May 2025 that she had died by strangulation, and Wright was arrested and charged shortly afterward.
During the roughly two-week trial in Schenectady County Court, prosecutors presented DNA evidence, GPS data and phone records, and said Wright had searched online the day after Humphrey disappeared for how long a body takes to come apart in water. Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Christina Tremante-Pelham told jurors that Wright was never able to account for a gap of about an hour and a half on the night Humphrey died. Wright testified that he had punched Humphrey in the nose and pushed her into the river but left her alive. Evidence showed Humphrey had searched for pregnancy symptoms on her phone, though it was never confirmed whether she was pregnant.
The jury deliberated for about five hours before returning the guilty verdict. Because Wright was 14 at the time of the killing, he was convicted as a juvenile offender and faces 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on January 20, 2027. Humphrey's father, Jeff Humphrey, told reporters after the verdict that the family had been through hope, pain and doubt over four years, and that he wants people to remember his daughter as someone who did not live in fear.
Source: Schenectady County Court
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：纽约州 Schenectady 市政厅资料图。CC BY-SA，摄影 Daniel Case，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Schenectady City Hall, New York, file photo. CC BY-SA, by Daniel Case, via Wikimedia Commons.
