Nov. 4, 2026
NY Teen Who Murdered 14-Year-Old Girlfriend Over Suspected Pregnancy Could Serve Less Than A Decade
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RSS Feed 14-year-old Samantha Humphrey was missing for more than three months before her strangled body turned up in upstate New York’s icy Mohawk River in February of 2022. Her then 14-year-old boyfriend was ultimately charged with her murder, and this week, a jury found now 18-year-old Raymond Wright Jr. guilty of second degree murder. Wright testified in his own defense at trial, admitting to pushing Humphrey in the river, but stopping short of admitting to her murder. Wright will be sentenced in January, but because he was convicted as a juvenile, his minimum sentence could be as little as 7 1/2 years, something that is not sitting well with Humphrey’s father.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Wednesday, November 4th, and he was just convicted of murdering a 14-year-old girl. But he's now facing a possible sentence for as little as seven and a half years in prison. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. A lot to unpack, as they say with this story, but we're talking about a 14-year-old murderer who is an 18-year-old convict. This takes some explaining. Yes.
00:00:39
Speaker 2: This is a story that is going to require a lot of explanation, and there are still some really important questions that need to be asked. We're talking about Raymond Wright Jr. He is now 18, as you pointed out, but he was just convicted of killing his then-girlfriend, Samantha Humphrey, when they were both 14 years old. But the circumstances surrounding this murder are so... I mean, look, there's never... I don't think there's such a thing as a good murder or an understandable murder. This one is just heinous and cruel and awful and scary to think about someone who was capable of this type of violence being free not that long from now.
00:01:25
Speaker 1: Well, capable at that age, too. We were talking about children. Anytime a story like this, something comes up, you always say, Sabine is 13. Right. You put it into some kind of a context like that. And this makes, I don't even understand how anybody that age thinks this way, Robes. And I don't know. And yes, what we mentioned there is yes, because he is, yes, he's convicted. He's 18 now, but he was, Robes, charged, tried as a minor.
00:01:55
Speaker 2: Correct. So because he was convicted, charged and convicted as a juvenile, even though the jury only took five hours to find him guilty of second degree murder, his sentencing is going to be taking place next year. And yes, he is facing as little as 15 years. The maximum is life, but the minimum is 15 years. And he's already served some of that time behind bars, although it took two years for police to actually arrest him and charge him with his girlfriend's murder.
00:02:29
Speaker 1: And that had a lot to do with the story he was telling. She was missing for a long time, Robes. And she was missing and she was in a river. And I don't know what kind of shape, have any indication of how difficult it was for this conviction because, Robes, after three months, a lot of evidence is gone. From this young woman. And I'm not sure what he was telling them, but there was never another strong suspect in this case. No, no, the defense.
00:02:57
Speaker 2: And look, this was a two week trial. We should mention the prosecution put up 43 witnesses to testify. The defense put up one witness and that was the defendant himself. He testified in his own defense. We'll get into that. But the defense's argument was they had two possible scenarios. One, there was DNA on this young woman's sleeve that was not right. Okay. I mean, who knows? Someone could have touched her, could have sneezed on their hands and touched her earlier in the day.
00:03:30
Speaker 1: Who knows?
00:03:31
Speaker 2: And the other theory that the defense was putting out there was that she died by suicide, that this was a young woman at 14 who was troubled, had a history of mental health issues. and that she likely died by suicide. But let's get into the details of the crime itself, and you can see why that really wasn't that great of a defense when you consider the evidence. Yes, a lot of it was circumstantial, but it was substantial. This took place in upstate New York in Schenectady. I never can say this. Schenectady County?
00:04:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know why I know Schenectady. Schenectady. Actually, some movie or something I'm familiar with, I think I even saw before I even moved to New York, And Schenectady rolls off the tongue for me for some reason. Isn't that weird?
00:04:14
Speaker 2: You should just say it from here on out because I was like, ooh, I have to say Schenectady. But I'm with you. It's not an unfamiliar name.
00:04:20
Speaker 1: I've heard of it.
00:04:20
Speaker 2: We'll have to Google why we know it because it must be some horror movie was set there or something. But this was in Schenectady County, upstate New York. Yes, as you pointed out, Samantha Humphrey was missing. Her picture, there were signs everywhere for three months. She went missing on November 25th. 2022. So almost exactly four years ago from now, her body was found three months later in the Mohawk river. That was in February of 2023. Think about that upstate New York, uh, icy cold river. Uh, they find her body and she was Missing from that area because she had taken a late night walk. Prosecutors knew this, police knew this, with her then boyfriend, 14-year-old Raymond Wright Jr. And that is this walk where she told him she thought she was pregnant.
00:05:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, we didn't mention that at the top. They do think they have a very good, this wasn't, this was sparked by something. And Roe, that's a, look, that's a difficult detail as an adult, as a parent. to think of two 14-year-old kids finding themselves in that position.
00:05:34
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:05:35
Speaker 1: And for whatever reason, they don't feel like, and I guess anybody would be, you'd be so scared that you don't have an adult to go talk to about this or share this with. You're going to be in trouble. To have this meeting of the minds, if you will, to discuss this, and they're not mature enough to discuss this. And the thought there is that this is the thing that triggered this incident.
00:05:55
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. And so prosecutors painted the picture of right strangling her, throwing her body in the Mohawk River. And look, you mentioned the difficulty in trying to figure out how she died. The medical examiner took until May. So they found her body in February. It took the medical examiner until May to determine that Humphrey had been choked to death, strangled to death. But by the way, her pregnancy was never confirmed just because of the deterioration of the body. They were never able to actually determine whether or not she was even pregnant to begin with.
00:06:26
Speaker 1: So it's possible she wasn't. It's possible.
00:06:29
Speaker 2: She just thought she did. Yes, and in the trial, we learned a lot. So when Wright took the stand, by the way, he admitted to the jury, to the court, that he and Sam, is how they call her, he and Sam had a physical fight. He admitted to punching her in the nose. He admitted to pushing her in the river. He says that She pushed him in the river first. They found his socks, by the way, in the river. And that's how he explained it. He said, oh, well, she pushed me in the river first. So I had these wet socks. So I got rid of them. That's why my socks were in the river. And then I pushed her in the river. But he claimed she was very much alive when he pushed her in the river. Now, he testified that Sam cheated on him. So now it's weird because he just gave more of a motive. So Now she thinks she might be pregnant and he thinks she cheated on him. So he doesn't know whether the baby, whether or not it even exists, whether or not it was his. He claims she said it was his, but this was a quote from him. It created a moment of hate in me.
00:07:36
Speaker 1: I tried.
00:07:37
Speaker 2: I really tried. That's why he was explaining why he punched her and pushed her in the river.
00:07:52
Speaker 1: That's a hell of a defense strategy they had. I punched her and pushed her in the river, this woman who was pregnant and possibly cheating on me. This is how you explain that you're not guilty? Exactly.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: Exactly. It's bizarre. So here's the other problem for him. If that wasn't a problem enough, his own words, but look, he could not account for about 90 minutes of what happened because look, this was a big, we've seen this so often in, in all these trials where you have a digital like forensics team is basically the difference between guilty and not guilty. And so they were able to take both of their phones. And Sam Humphrey's last phone call was at 1136 PM to a friend who saying she wanted to come get picked up. But Wright's phone showed that he didn't get home until after 1 a.m. So what happened in that hour and a half? And prosecutors said, quote, that's of course because he was killing her and disposing of her body.
00:08:56
Speaker 1: Did they ever have a way to explain that time that you saw?
00:08:59
Speaker 2: No.
00:08:59
Speaker 1: I didn't see that.
00:09:00
Speaker 2: No, and there's more. So Humphrey's phone history, Sam's phone history, showed that she was searching that day for pregnancy symptoms, okay? So she clearly thought She might be pregnant. Wright's history showed within an hour, I guess within hours of her going missing, how bodies decompose in water. The actual search was, how long does it take the body to come apart in the water?
00:09:26
Speaker 1: I thought the language, I thought the way that was phrased.
00:09:30
Speaker 2: He's 14.
00:09:30
Speaker 1: Might have been 14, yeah. That might have been what that was. It didn't make much sense. Google searches afterwards, they always get you, don't they?
00:09:38
Speaker 2: It seems like every single, and by the way, that search, all of that was deleted. But again, it's amazing. That makes it even look worse. So you've got all of these digital forensics teams are now like the biggest, most important part of any police division, it appears, or at least it seems that way from every court case we've been following in the last couple of years. Because yes, you've got these digital folks getting up on the stand and testifying. Here's what they searched. Here's what they texted. Here's what they deleted. And so all of that together made it a pretty quick decision by the jury. In fact, look, I actually was surprised it took five hours, but the verdict happened quicker than it was expected because Humphrey's dad didn't make it back in time to hear the conviction, to hear the jury read the conviction. He said he was upset because he wanted to see Wright's face. His quote was, so I didn't get to see the look on that monster's face, but I got to see the look on the face of the monster that made the monster. Sam's dad was talking about Wright's mom, who apparently left the courtroom in dramatic fashion.
00:10:49
Speaker 1: I mean, I never saw the video or the quotes, but as is described, she was lashing out for the lack of justice for her son.
00:10:59
Speaker 2: Yes, I believe the quote was Wright's mom, Christy Kenyon is her name, quote, stormed out of the courtroom after a foul-mouthed outburst. That is how court reporters describe what they saw in that courtroom.
00:11:14
Speaker 1: A foul-mouthed outburst.
00:11:17
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:11:19
Speaker 1: I probably would have written that differently.
00:11:21
Speaker 2: What would you have written?
00:11:22
Speaker 1: She was cussing everybody out, no way. Out of that courtroom. Yes, yes.
00:11:26
Speaker 2: So you had, obviously, look, something like this is so devastating to the community, to the families, and certainly to the people who loved Sam Humphrey. This was, I mean, you look at their pictures. We were talking about this in front of Sabine, and Sabine said, how old? And when I said 14, her face just dropped. You know, just to imagine people who she goes to school with, her aged kids. She's about to turn 14.
00:11:48
Speaker 1: Killing each other.
00:11:49
Speaker 2: To imagine, A, pregnancies. murders. This is just not something you think about when you think about eighth graders, ninth graders. This is just so scary. So when we come back, we're going to talk about what's next. Yes, he may have been convicted for murder at the age of 14, but is it too soon for him to be out before he's 30? Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ, a child murdering a child. I mean, that is what we're talking about in upstate New York. Now 18, but then 14-year-old Raymond Wright Jr. convicted of second-degree murder for strangling his then-girlfriend, 14-year-old Samantha Humphrey, who feared she might be pregnant, throwing her body in a cold river. And two years later, being arrested, and now finally four years later, almost, well, certainly to the month of the murder, he has been convicted. However, he could face as little as seven and a half years behind bars?
00:13:03
Speaker 1: Well, the different standards when you talk about juveniles, right? And I wonder, I mean, is mercy or justice, is it going to look different? Because I'm sure he's a different looking person. kid or person you're convicting as an 18-year-old man than a 14-year-old child. Will that make a difference? Is it supposed to make a difference in this at all? But he looked, I mean, he's kind of a big kid now, is he not?
00:13:27
Speaker 2: He is a big kid and he looks like a man. I mean, he's 18, yes. And to your point, he probably obviously didn't look that way when he was just 14 at the time of this murder. But you said this at the beginning of the episode, if you're capable of that kind of violence... And even like that kind of coverup, when you're that young, how do you feel about after someone with that propensity for violence, now serving time behind bars, getting out as still a relatively young man, does that feel safe or appropriate? I mean, I worry about the community, but I also just think about what justice is.
00:14:09
Speaker 1: But Robes, I mean, you need to talk to a child psychologist. Talk to somebody, I mean, because I don't understand that, what rehabilitation is supposed to look like. Are we supposed to hold a 14-year-old to a different standard and not this 18-year-old man now to that standard? I mean, gross. 14 years old. If you're 14, I mean, what's the right amount of time to spend in prison if you have committed a heinous murder? If he strangled a 14-year-old and threw a body in the river, how long should a 14-year-old give for that versus an 18-year-old who committed that crime give for that?
00:14:52
Speaker 2: Or what if he was 16? I mean, there's all of these nuances about at what point. should you be held to a different standard? Look, the sentencing right now is scheduled for January 20th of next year. And look, this judge is going to have to take all of that into consideration. And I don't envy being in that position, but I thought Samantha Humphrey's dad said it best. He said the most important thing that just happened, more important then the justice we got and Samantha got is that this abusive psychopath or sociopath or whatever amateur diagnosis we want to give likely won't have the opportunity to do this again for at least another 15 years. Hopefully the danger that he poses won't be ignored in his parole hearings as it unfortunately was when he went to certain local agencies and told them about the danger he posed more than a year before he killed Sam. So when we went, so they're claiming that they saw a dangerous situation tendencies in this young man when he was dating their daughter what was he 13 and were actually taking their concerns to authorities about how dangerous or how violent this young man was and now he ends up being convicted of their daughter's murder i also have to believe that the judge is going to take into consideration the fact that he has not admitted guilt.
00:16:18
Speaker 1: Are they setting up his defense team? I haven't seen and read that they are possibly looking at an appeal or how they're going to go about doing this, but that's a big part of the sentencing. Is someone showing contrition? Is someone showing remorse? Are they apologizing? If you're still standing up there, bold-faced and saying, I ain't do this, and our system just said that you did, You're right to keep shouting, I'm not guilty, but it's not going to help you at sentencing. Yes. At all. Babe, I mean, you're right. He's never, I punched her, I pushed her in the water, but I'm not guilty. But I would never kill her.
00:17:01
Speaker 2: She must have killed herself in the river. I mean, that just doesn't even make any sense.
00:17:06
Speaker 1: He punched her and pushed her in a river. Both of those are violent acts that could lead to one's death, but Don't trust me, y'all. I didn't do anything. I understand the mission of the punching. I don't know what's going on with this. But yeah, babe, this I don't know how you handle that, because looking at him now, you tell me that dude killed a 14 year old girl. And you tell me he's getting seven and a half years. I'll say what's wrong with our system. Yeah.
00:17:35
Speaker 2: Seven and a half years. What if he gets 15 years? I mean, that's, you know, you know. Is that enough?
00:17:40
Speaker 1: I mean, what is enough?
00:17:42
Speaker 2: I actually think there's two things at play here. Yes, it's about justice for Samantha Humphrey, but it's also about the protection of our community. And I just, I guess he'll have to, the judge will have to listen to, I don't know if there's going to be any sort of psychiatric examination or anything like that. But look, when this sentencing hearing takes place in January, You better believe Samantha Humphrey's father, her family, they are going to be up there pleading for the judge to throw the book at this young kid. And we will see what the judge decides. But this judge has a tremendous amount of leniency in terms of what he gives this now 18-year-old convicted murderer. We will stay on top of the story. As always, we appreciate you listening to us, everyone. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Wednesday, November 4th, and he was just convicted of murdering a 14-year-old girl. But he's now facing a possible sentence for as little as seven and a half years in prison. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. A lot to unpack, as they say with this story, but we're talking about a 14-year-old murderer who is an 18-year-old convict. This takes some explaining. Yes.
00:00:39
Speaker 2: This is a story that is going to require a lot of explanation, and there are still some really important questions that need to be asked. We're talking about Raymond Wright Jr. He is now 18, as you pointed out, but he was just convicted of killing his then-girlfriend, Samantha Humphrey, when they were both 14 years old. But the circumstances surrounding this murder are so... I mean, look, there's never... I don't think there's such a thing as a good murder or an understandable murder. This one is just heinous and cruel and awful and scary to think about someone who was capable of this type of violence being free not that long from now.
00:01:25
Speaker 1: Well, capable at that age, too. We were talking about children. Anytime a story like this, something comes up, you always say, Sabine is 13. Right. You put it into some kind of a context like that. And this makes, I don't even understand how anybody that age thinks this way, Robes. And I don't know. And yes, what we mentioned there is yes, because he is, yes, he's convicted. He's 18 now, but he was, Robes, charged, tried as a minor.
00:01:55
Speaker 2: Correct. So because he was convicted, charged and convicted as a juvenile, even though the jury only took five hours to find him guilty of second degree murder, his sentencing is going to be taking place next year. And yes, he is facing as little as 15 years. The maximum is life, but the minimum is 15 years. And he's already served some of that time behind bars, although it took two years for police to actually arrest him and charge him with his girlfriend's murder.
00:02:29
Speaker 1: And that had a lot to do with the story he was telling. She was missing for a long time, Robes. And she was missing and she was in a river. And I don't know what kind of shape, have any indication of how difficult it was for this conviction because, Robes, after three months, a lot of evidence is gone. From this young woman. And I'm not sure what he was telling them, but there was never another strong suspect in this case. No, no, the defense.
00:02:57
Speaker 2: And look, this was a two week trial. We should mention the prosecution put up 43 witnesses to testify. The defense put up one witness and that was the defendant himself. He testified in his own defense. We'll get into that. But the defense's argument was they had two possible scenarios. One, there was DNA on this young woman's sleeve that was not right. Okay. I mean, who knows? Someone could have touched her, could have sneezed on their hands and touched her earlier in the day.
00:03:30
Speaker 1: Who knows?
00:03:31
Speaker 2: And the other theory that the defense was putting out there was that she died by suicide, that this was a young woman at 14 who was troubled, had a history of mental health issues. and that she likely died by suicide. But let's get into the details of the crime itself, and you can see why that really wasn't that great of a defense when you consider the evidence. Yes, a lot of it was circumstantial, but it was substantial. This took place in upstate New York in Schenectady. I never can say this. Schenectady County?
00:04:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know why I know Schenectady. Schenectady. Actually, some movie or something I'm familiar with, I think I even saw before I even moved to New York, And Schenectady rolls off the tongue for me for some reason. Isn't that weird?
00:04:14
Speaker 2: You should just say it from here on out because I was like, ooh, I have to say Schenectady. But I'm with you. It's not an unfamiliar name.
00:04:20
Speaker 1: I've heard of it.
00:04:20
Speaker 2: We'll have to Google why we know it because it must be some horror movie was set there or something. But this was in Schenectady County, upstate New York. Yes, as you pointed out, Samantha Humphrey was missing. Her picture, there were signs everywhere for three months. She went missing on November 25th. 2022. So almost exactly four years ago from now, her body was found three months later in the Mohawk river. That was in February of 2023. Think about that upstate New York, uh, icy cold river. Uh, they find her body and she was Missing from that area because she had taken a late night walk. Prosecutors knew this, police knew this, with her then boyfriend, 14-year-old Raymond Wright Jr. And that is this walk where she told him she thought she was pregnant.
00:05:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, we didn't mention that at the top. They do think they have a very good, this wasn't, this was sparked by something. And Roe, that's a, look, that's a difficult detail as an adult, as a parent. to think of two 14-year-old kids finding themselves in that position.
00:05:34
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:05:35
Speaker 1: And for whatever reason, they don't feel like, and I guess anybody would be, you'd be so scared that you don't have an adult to go talk to about this or share this with. You're going to be in trouble. To have this meeting of the minds, if you will, to discuss this, and they're not mature enough to discuss this. And the thought there is that this is the thing that triggered this incident.
00:05:55
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. And so prosecutors painted the picture of right strangling her, throwing her body in the Mohawk River. And look, you mentioned the difficulty in trying to figure out how she died. The medical examiner took until May. So they found her body in February. It took the medical examiner until May to determine that Humphrey had been choked to death, strangled to death. But by the way, her pregnancy was never confirmed just because of the deterioration of the body. They were never able to actually determine whether or not she was even pregnant to begin with.
00:06:26
Speaker 1: So it's possible she wasn't. It's possible.
00:06:29
Speaker 2: She just thought she did. Yes, and in the trial, we learned a lot. So when Wright took the stand, by the way, he admitted to the jury, to the court, that he and Sam, is how they call her, he and Sam had a physical fight. He admitted to punching her in the nose. He admitted to pushing her in the river. He says that She pushed him in the river first. They found his socks, by the way, in the river. And that's how he explained it. He said, oh, well, she pushed me in the river first. So I had these wet socks. So I got rid of them. That's why my socks were in the river. And then I pushed her in the river. But he claimed she was very much alive when he pushed her in the river. Now, he testified that Sam cheated on him. So now it's weird because he just gave more of a motive. So Now she thinks she might be pregnant and he thinks she cheated on him. So he doesn't know whether the baby, whether or not it even exists, whether or not it was his. He claims she said it was his, but this was a quote from him. It created a moment of hate in me.
00:07:36
Speaker 1: I tried.
00:07:37
Speaker 2: I really tried. That's why he was explaining why he punched her and pushed her in the river.
00:07:52
Speaker 1: That's a hell of a defense strategy they had. I punched her and pushed her in the river, this woman who was pregnant and possibly cheating on me. This is how you explain that you're not guilty? Exactly.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: Exactly. It's bizarre. So here's the other problem for him. If that wasn't a problem enough, his own words, but look, he could not account for about 90 minutes of what happened because look, this was a big, we've seen this so often in, in all these trials where you have a digital like forensics team is basically the difference between guilty and not guilty. And so they were able to take both of their phones. And Sam Humphrey's last phone call was at 1136 PM to a friend who saying she wanted to come get picked up. But Wright's phone showed that he didn't get home until after 1 a.m. So what happened in that hour and a half? And prosecutors said, quote, that's of course because he was killing her and disposing of her body.
00:08:56
Speaker 1: Did they ever have a way to explain that time that you saw?
00:08:59
Speaker 2: No.
00:08:59
Speaker 1: I didn't see that.
00:09:00
Speaker 2: No, and there's more. So Humphrey's phone history, Sam's phone history, showed that she was searching that day for pregnancy symptoms, okay? So she clearly thought She might be pregnant. Wright's history showed within an hour, I guess within hours of her going missing, how bodies decompose in water. The actual search was, how long does it take the body to come apart in the water?
00:09:26
Speaker 1: I thought the language, I thought the way that was phrased.
00:09:30
Speaker 2: He's 14.
00:09:30
Speaker 1: Might have been 14, yeah. That might have been what that was. It didn't make much sense. Google searches afterwards, they always get you, don't they?
00:09:38
Speaker 2: It seems like every single, and by the way, that search, all of that was deleted. But again, it's amazing. That makes it even look worse. So you've got all of these digital forensics teams are now like the biggest, most important part of any police division, it appears, or at least it seems that way from every court case we've been following in the last couple of years. Because yes, you've got these digital folks getting up on the stand and testifying. Here's what they searched. Here's what they texted. Here's what they deleted. And so all of that together made it a pretty quick decision by the jury. In fact, look, I actually was surprised it took five hours, but the verdict happened quicker than it was expected because Humphrey's dad didn't make it back in time to hear the conviction, to hear the jury read the conviction. He said he was upset because he wanted to see Wright's face. His quote was, so I didn't get to see the look on that monster's face, but I got to see the look on the face of the monster that made the monster. Sam's dad was talking about Wright's mom, who apparently left the courtroom in dramatic fashion.
00:10:49
Speaker 1: I mean, I never saw the video or the quotes, but as is described, she was lashing out for the lack of justice for her son.
00:10:59
Speaker 2: Yes, I believe the quote was Wright's mom, Christy Kenyon is her name, quote, stormed out of the courtroom after a foul-mouthed outburst. That is how court reporters describe what they saw in that courtroom.
00:11:14
Speaker 1: A foul-mouthed outburst.
00:11:17
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:11:19
Speaker 1: I probably would have written that differently.
00:11:21
Speaker 2: What would you have written?
00:11:22
Speaker 1: She was cussing everybody out, no way. Out of that courtroom. Yes, yes.
00:11:26
Speaker 2: So you had, obviously, look, something like this is so devastating to the community, to the families, and certainly to the people who loved Sam Humphrey. This was, I mean, you look at their pictures. We were talking about this in front of Sabine, and Sabine said, how old? And when I said 14, her face just dropped. You know, just to imagine people who she goes to school with, her aged kids. She's about to turn 14.
00:11:48
Speaker 1: Killing each other.
00:11:49
Speaker 2: To imagine, A, pregnancies. murders. This is just not something you think about when you think about eighth graders, ninth graders. This is just so scary. So when we come back, we're going to talk about what's next. Yes, he may have been convicted for murder at the age of 14, but is it too soon for him to be out before he's 30? Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ, a child murdering a child. I mean, that is what we're talking about in upstate New York. Now 18, but then 14-year-old Raymond Wright Jr. convicted of second-degree murder for strangling his then-girlfriend, 14-year-old Samantha Humphrey, who feared she might be pregnant, throwing her body in a cold river. And two years later, being arrested, and now finally four years later, almost, well, certainly to the month of the murder, he has been convicted. However, he could face as little as seven and a half years behind bars?
00:13:03
Speaker 1: Well, the different standards when you talk about juveniles, right? And I wonder, I mean, is mercy or justice, is it going to look different? Because I'm sure he's a different looking person. kid or person you're convicting as an 18-year-old man than a 14-year-old child. Will that make a difference? Is it supposed to make a difference in this at all? But he looked, I mean, he's kind of a big kid now, is he not?
00:13:27
Speaker 2: He is a big kid and he looks like a man. I mean, he's 18, yes. And to your point, he probably obviously didn't look that way when he was just 14 at the time of this murder. But you said this at the beginning of the episode, if you're capable of that kind of violence... And even like that kind of coverup, when you're that young, how do you feel about after someone with that propensity for violence, now serving time behind bars, getting out as still a relatively young man, does that feel safe or appropriate? I mean, I worry about the community, but I also just think about what justice is.
00:14:09
Speaker 1: But Robes, I mean, you need to talk to a child psychologist. Talk to somebody, I mean, because I don't understand that, what rehabilitation is supposed to look like. Are we supposed to hold a 14-year-old to a different standard and not this 18-year-old man now to that standard? I mean, gross. 14 years old. If you're 14, I mean, what's the right amount of time to spend in prison if you have committed a heinous murder? If he strangled a 14-year-old and threw a body in the river, how long should a 14-year-old give for that versus an 18-year-old who committed that crime give for that?
00:14:52
Speaker 2: Or what if he was 16? I mean, there's all of these nuances about at what point. should you be held to a different standard? Look, the sentencing right now is scheduled for January 20th of next year. And look, this judge is going to have to take all of that into consideration. And I don't envy being in that position, but I thought Samantha Humphrey's dad said it best. He said the most important thing that just happened, more important then the justice we got and Samantha got is that this abusive psychopath or sociopath or whatever amateur diagnosis we want to give likely won't have the opportunity to do this again for at least another 15 years. Hopefully the danger that he poses won't be ignored in his parole hearings as it unfortunately was when he went to certain local agencies and told them about the danger he posed more than a year before he killed Sam. So when we went, so they're claiming that they saw a dangerous situation tendencies in this young man when he was dating their daughter what was he 13 and were actually taking their concerns to authorities about how dangerous or how violent this young man was and now he ends up being convicted of their daughter's murder i also have to believe that the judge is going to take into consideration the fact that he has not admitted guilt.
00:16:18
Speaker 1: Are they setting up his defense team? I haven't seen and read that they are possibly looking at an appeal or how they're going to go about doing this, but that's a big part of the sentencing. Is someone showing contrition? Is someone showing remorse? Are they apologizing? If you're still standing up there, bold-faced and saying, I ain't do this, and our system just said that you did, You're right to keep shouting, I'm not guilty, but it's not going to help you at sentencing. Yes. At all. Babe, I mean, you're right. He's never, I punched her, I pushed her in the water, but I'm not guilty. But I would never kill her.
00:17:01
Speaker 2: She must have killed herself in the river. I mean, that just doesn't even make any sense.
00:17:06
Speaker 1: He punched her and pushed her in a river. Both of those are violent acts that could lead to one's death, but Don't trust me, y'all. I didn't do anything. I understand the mission of the punching. I don't know what's going on with this. But yeah, babe, this I don't know how you handle that, because looking at him now, you tell me that dude killed a 14 year old girl. And you tell me he's getting seven and a half years. I'll say what's wrong with our system. Yeah.
00:17:35
Speaker 2: Seven and a half years. What if he gets 15 years? I mean, that's, you know, you know. Is that enough?
00:17:40
Speaker 1: I mean, what is enough?
00:17:42
Speaker 2: I actually think there's two things at play here. Yes, it's about justice for Samantha Humphrey, but it's also about the protection of our community. And I just, I guess he'll have to, the judge will have to listen to, I don't know if there's going to be any sort of psychiatric examination or anything like that. But look, when this sentencing hearing takes place in January, You better believe Samantha Humphrey's father, her family, they are going to be up there pleading for the judge to throw the book at this young kid. And we will see what the judge decides. But this judge has a tremendous amount of leniency in terms of what he gives this now 18-year-old convicted murderer. We will stay on top of the story. As always, we appreciate you listening to us, everyone. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.