Raymond Wright Jr.

Introduction

Raymond Wright Jr., an 18-year-old from Schenectady, New York, was convicted of second-degree murder on November 2, 2026, for killing his 14-year-old girlfriend Samantha Humphrey, whose body was pulled from the Mohawk River three months after she vanished in November 2022. Prosecutors said Wright strangled Humphrey during a late-night walk after she told him she might be pregnant with his child, then dumped her body in the river. A Schenectady County Court jury returned the guilty verdict, and Wright faces up to 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on January 20, 2027, with the District Attorney’s office seeking the maximum.

Background Information

Wright and Humphrey, an on-and-off couple, were both 14 when Humphrey was last seen on November 25, 2022, wearing a black-and-pink puffy jacket, bell-bottom jeans and tan Timberland boots; her phone and a jacket matching that description were recovered within the first week of the search. Her body was found in February 2023 in the Mohawk River at Riverside Park, near where she went missing. Wright was questioned early in the investigation but was not arrested until May 2025, when an indictment unsealed in Schenectady County Court charged him with second-degree murder as well as theft. Because of his age he was not named publicly at the time; he pleaded not guilty and was remanded to a juvenile detention facility. Also in May 2025, a medical examiner determined Humphrey had been choked to death.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted.

At trial, the office of Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Christina Tremante-Pelham called 43 witnesses in a week and a half. Wright’s own testimony and the GPS data on both teens’ phones placed them together the night Humphrey disappeared — and most of the jury’s review centered on Wright’s phone in the hours after, along the shore of the Mohawk River and in the woods nearby. Wright admitted there had been a physical fight but claimed he left Humphrey alone by the river, alive. Tremante-Pelham said Wright “could never account for that hour and a half” between Humphrey’s last phone call at 11:36 p.m. and his arrival home after 1 a.m. — “and that’s of course because he was killing her, and disposing of her body.”

The jury also reviewed Wright’s phone searches, which included questions about abortions and whether a body will break apart in water; Humphrey’s phone history showed she had researched pregnancy symptoms, though it was never confirmed she was expecting. Prosecutors pointed to Samantha’s phone’s GPS pin sitting in the Mohawk River and to Wright’s socks, found in the water near the jacket, as key pieces of evidence, and presented a damaged iPad that computer-forensics personnel reconstructed containing an incriminating conversation. The defense argued the case was largely circumstantial and suggested Humphrey — who had been institutionalized at a psychiatric hospital and had reported suicide attempts in her medical records — may have died by suicide; Wright’s mother accused the jury of dismissing evidence involving another person’s DNA found on Humphrey’s sleeve.

The jury deliberated before returning its unanimous verdict on Monday afternoon. Wright, now 18, had a physical reaction as it was read; his mother, Kristi Kenyon, erupted in a foul-mouthed outburst and stormed out of the courtroom. Humphrey’s father, Jeffrey Humphrey, raced to catch the verdict and arrived just as Wright was being escorted out.

Public Reaction and Consequences

District Attorney Robert Carney called it “a very good day for justice in Schenectady County” and thanked the investigators whose reconstruction of the phone and iPad data underpinned the case. Jeffrey Humphrey said the family had gone through “hope, pain, doubt” across four years and finally “got justice for Sam,” and that the verdict stops Wright “from killing the next girl he was going to kill if he got away with this.” He added, “Hopefully, the danger that he poses won’t be ignored in his parole hearings,” claiming his warnings to local agencies about Wright went unheeded more than a year before Humphrey was killed, and asked that his daughter be remembered as someone who “was not afraid” and “did not live in fear.”

Current Status

Wright stands convicted of second-degree murder and awaits sentencing on January 20, 2027, where prosecutors will seek the maximum term of 15 years to life; Carney noted the maximum for an adult would be 25 years to life. Because Wright was 14 at the time of the killing, the New York Post reported, he was convicted as a juvenile, which caps the sentence. The conviction ended a trial that ran roughly a week and a half; no appeal has been reported, and the remaining open question is the sentence itself.

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 18, Wright moves from a juvenile detention facility to a murder conviction carrying up to 15 years to life, with the parole board — not a judge — eventually deciding if he ever walks free. The four-year arc ran from early questioning in 2022, through the May 2025 indictment unsealed only after the medical examiner reclassified the death as a strangulation homicide, to the November 2026 verdict. Humphrey’s killing — a 14-year-old strangled by her boyfriend after telling him she might be pregnant — stands as one of the Capital Region’s most closely followed prosecutions, and her father has made clear her family intends to oppose his release at every parole hearing.

Sources

• NY Post, “‘Monster’ upstate teen convicted of strangling girlfriend, 14, who thought she she was pregnant”, November 3, 2026 — source
• NY Post (Anthony Blair), “Upstate NY teen accused of strangling girlfriend, 14, and dumping body in river after she announced pregnancy”, May 15, 2025 — source
• CBS6 Albany (WRGB), “Guilty: Verdict reached after yearslong investigation in Samantha Humphrey death”, November 3, 2026 — source
• CBS6 Albany (WRGB), “Schenectady County DA praises team after guilty verdict in Samantha Humphrey murder trial”, November 2, 2026 — source
• WAMC (WAMC News), “Schenectady teen convicted in Samantha Humphrey murder trial”, November 2, 2026 — source