POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — An 18-year-old has been indicted for second-degree murder for the fatal stabbing of an Arlington High School student during a fight following a football game at the school in September, the Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.
Nestor Ortiz-Ocampo, a Poughkeepsie resident, also was charged with manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in the indictment handed up Nov. 5 by a Dutchess County grand jury, the DA’s office said. Second-degree murder and manslaughter are felonies; the weapons charge is a misdemeanor.
When he was arrested shortly after the fatal stabbing, Ortiz-Ocampo was charged with manslaughter but not murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Ortiz-Ocampo was arraigned in Dutchess County Court on Nov. 19 and sent to the Dutchess County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.
According to the indictment, Ortiz-Ocampo intentionally stabbed 16-year-old Arlington High School junior Quraan Smith in the chest with a knife on Sept. 17 in the parking lot of Arlington High School on Route 55 in LaGrangeville. The knife penetrated Smith’s heart, the indictment stated.
Smith was pronounced dead at the MidHudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie a short time after the stabbing.
The stabbing happened immediately after a football game between Arlington and Scarsdale high schools.
Authorities have said Ortiz-Ocampo is a former Arlington High School student but have not said if there was any history between him Smith or what led to the fight.
