Police are investigating a fatal stabbing Saturday, Nov. 18, at Bridgewater Apartments in Ballston Spa. According to investigators, a fight erupted in the early morning hours between Noelle C. Williams, 28, who lived at the apartment complex, and boyfriend Steven J. Smith Jr., 36. An apparent struggle for a large kitchen knife ended with Smith slashed in the chest.
Ballston Spa Community Emergency Corps rushed Smith to Saratoga Hospital 20 minutes away, but he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Saratoga County District Attorney James Murphy said Williams has been charged with second degree murder and is being held without bail at the Saratoga County jail. She will appear in Malta Town Court on Dec. 3.
Members of Smith’s large, close-knit family said they were stunned by the news when contacted by police Saturday.
I didn’t know her, said brother Tyrone Smith, one of Steven Smith’s four siblings. `I would say he only knew her for a few months, and I never heard him say he had problems with her; he said nothing at all.`
In the quiet Chrisler Avenue neighborhood of Schenectady, holiday lights have already been hung, and at the Smith family home, wind chimes blew gently as family members gathered photographs of Smith for his funeral Wednesday at noon at Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church in Albany. Another brother, Dumar, stood on the upstairs porch and looked down at the empty streets.
`We’re all still shocked,` he said.
`My brother was our leader,` said Tyrone Smith. `He was a hard worker and provided for his family.`
Steven Smith, who worked at the Hannaford Warehouse in Wilton, had three sons who live in the area with their mother, and one daughter who lives with her mother in Virginia.
Tyrone Smith said his mother, Nancy Turner, and father, Steven J. Smith Sr., were so upset they couldn’t think beyond planning the funeral.
`They’re taking care of the business,` said Tyrone Smith.
The Bridgewater Apartment complex on Brookline Road in the southern end of the Village of Ballston Spa is a family-oriented housing area where kids ride bikes, swim in the community pool and hang out at playground sites. In the leasing office, one employee who had been ins-tructed not to make comments to the media admitted to being stunned about the crime.
`It’s a one-time thing, it’s unheard of here, but it’s over,` she said. “
