An Upstate New York teenager has been charged with murdering his 14-year-old girlfriend because she told him she was pregnant and he “wanted nothing to do with her baby,” according to prosecutors.
The teen, now 17, was charged with second-degree murder more than two years after his then-girlfriend, Samantha Humphrey, was pulled from the Mohawk River, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday.
Humphrey, from Schenectady, had been missing for three months when she was found dumped in the river, having first been strangled.
The charged teen — who was not otherwise identified because of his age — had admitted being with her that night and having an argument, Humphrey’s mother Jaclyn told CBS6 at the time.
“We believe that Samantha thought she was pregnant and that this sometime boyfriend was the father,” Schenectady County District Attorney Robert M. Carney told a news conference Wednesday.
“He wanted nothing to do with her baby and insisted she got rid of it,” the DA said.
The teen was charged with theft as well as the second-degree murder of Humphrey, the indictment shows.
Because the suspect is a juvenile, he faces a maximum sentence of 15 years to life, less than the 25 years to life he’d face as an adult.
He pleaded not guilty in Schenectady County Court on Wednesday and was remanded to a juvenile detention center. The trial is unlikely to start until next year, the DA’s office said.
Humphrey was last seen alive on November 25, 2022, wearing a black and pink puffy jacket, bell-bottom jeans and tan Timberland boots.
Her cellphone and a jacket matching the description of the one she was wearing on the night she disappeared were discovered within the first week she went missing.
