Stella Porter

HVCC stabbing survivor: ‘I hope that I do get my chance in the courtroom' Video Player is loading. This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color Transparency Background Color Transparency Window Color Transparency Font Size Text Edge Style Font Family End of dialog window. Advertisement She was stabbed seven times and left for dead in the parking lot of their college campus in Troy. The survivor of an attack by her ex-boyfriend at Hudson Valley Community College, Samaria Glasser , said she was tired of sitting behind the scenes. Her ex-boyfriend Zymeir Walton's case was stalled a month after he pled guilty during trial to charges including attempted murder and assault– with Walton's attorney saying the guilty plea did not tell the whole story. The stabbing happened on November 3, 2022. Nearly a year and a half later, Samaria Glasser identified herself to NewsChannel 13, saying she felt she hadn't been taken seriously because she survived. “I wanted to ask [Zymeir] what his plan was. Because there's been multiple stories and he keeps switching his story in court,” Glasser said. “It goes from self-defense, which I've never been physically violent with a weapon to Zymeir, as he was to me. To, you know, I stabbed myself, and how would I do this to myself? I just wanted to break up with you.” She and her mother, Jennifer Kennedo-Rivera, spoke to NewsChannel 13 at their home in Albany County. “I'm getting dragged by everybody, and I don't get a break, and it's not fair… and get called a pretender for stuff that I couldn't make up if I wanted to,” she said. She said Walton waited by her car at Hudson Valley and stabbed her as she was trying to end what she called an abusive relationship. “Torturous, for me to see this flower that I've grown, and it was blooming, it was radiant, and then it was almost snuffed out,” said Kennedo-Rivera. The 20-year-old student and her family were frustrated, saying they felt like she was portrayed as a liar during Walton's defense at trial. His attorney has claimed Glasser was the perpetrator that day. “If my daughter had been guilty of anything that he accused her of, then she would have had to stand up the moment she could stand and say, I did do this. Because that's the kind of kids I'm raising,” she said. Glasser never got to testify before the guilty plea. “That kind of haunts me to this day because I never got the chance to ask him face to face and look him in the eye, and ask him what the point was, and why would you do this to me when I would never do this to you,” Glasser said. She is back in school in a neighboring state, planning to become a physical therapist to help others dealing with physical challenges. Her mother spoke of the financial toll of medical bills and continued care, plus the emotional toll and lack of assistance in navigating this tragedy. Her family has set up a GoFundMe . Kennedo-Rivera said she was still reeling that this happened under her careful watch. “I tried to do it the right way, and then I get this, something I can't physically myself fix. It's life changing, devastating,” she said. Sentencing was postponed with no future date set. “How is my child going to get justice? How do we move forward from here?” asked Kennedo-Rivera. “I just want to hope that I do get my chance in the courtroom and I do get to see him face-to-face and read my victim impact statement and get to ask him, like, what were you going to do had you succeeded in murdering me?” Glasser said. NewsChannel 13 contacted Walton's defense attorney for comment about the interview and the guilty plea. Attorney Jasper Mills told NewsChannel 13, it was not the whole story. Mills spoke to NewsChannel 13, joined by Walton's mother and grandmother. Mills said Walton may have pled guilty to the six-count indictment, but that he did not accept the version of events detailed in the indictment. He asked NewsChannel 13 to share that the relationship was “toxic” both ways. He said because his client pled guilty, the public did not see the full picture of what happened in this case. “You had police officers that testified that he had defensive wounds on his hands, and testified what defensive wounds were. We had DNA evidence that had yet to come in that showed that her DNA was on the handle of the knife,” Mills said. Asked why, then, Walton pled guilty, Mills said, “I don't make decisions for my clients, and at that point Zymeir made a risk versus reward decision.” If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, help is available. The domestic violence hotline is 800-799-7233 – it can connect you with local resources.

Burn ban goes into effect Saturday as officials warn of dry conditions The ingredients for a wildfire were all around us coming out of a dry winter, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Officials said wildfires were once again a concern in New York State after intense smoke threatened the quality of our air last year. DEC is putting in place its annual burn ban from March 16 to May 14. Brush and other surfaces like the Pine Bush Preserve in Albany is usually covered in snow or wet, but this year, it's dry, making the perfect conditions for a backyard fire to get out of hand. “That's where we find ourselves right now, coming out of a relatively mild winter with very little snow cover on the ground,” said DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos. Seggos joined forest rangers at a news conference Thursday to ask people not to burn brush—meaning open fires and burning trash is prohibited. “Open burning, that's the burning of debris, sticks, the kinds of things when you're cleaning out your yard, that is the largest cause of spring wildfires and that always has been,” he said. DEC has been banning brush burning since 2009. Wildfires have decreased 40% in New York State in that time. Still, forest rangers respond to dozens of wildfires each year. Ninety-five percent of them are caused by people, DEC said. “A lot of the fires that we do respond to were somebody's legal fire yesterday, they don't put it out properly, they think it's out, they leave it, and the next afternoon the sun starts shining, the fire's still got a little bit of coals going, and it takes off into a wildfire,” said Fire Management Officer Captain Scott Jackson. In the summer of 2023, smoke from Canadian wildfires filled New Yorkers' lungs and created apocalyptic scenes from New York City to Albany and beyond. DEC said it was an example of the danger fires pose. This season is already showing the potential for fires, they said. “We have seen favorable conditions for fires over the last few weeks,” Seggos said. “There is certainly a misconception that New York and its landscape is not a fire-prone environment. This is not a western states phenomena. Eastern states like New York regularly have fire conditions, especially in the spring.”

Washington County deputies honored for saving woman from dog attack Video Player is loading. This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color Transparency Background Color Transparency Window Color Transparency Font Size Text Edge Style Font Family End of dialog window. Two deputies are honored for saving a woman's life after she was attacked by a dog in Washington County. Two deputies are being recognized for saving a woman's life after she was attacked by a large dog in Washington County in January, using what tools they had to go above and beyond to save her. Friday, the Board of Supervisors, Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy and the community thanked Deputies Todd Riche and Alix Messina, along with 911 dispatcher Lexyss Zovistoski, for their actions and presented them with a proclamation. “It was kind of a surprise when we found out, so it was very nice,” Messina said. On Jan. 17, the incident was the first call of the day, and the deputies said it was one they would not soon forget. When a call for an animal bite came in, they headed toward Lick Springs Road in the Town of Argyle as fast as they could. It became clear the call was not going to be simple. “As we got closer to the scene we, realizing the severity, you know, we're talking about a life-changing attack here, could be fatal,” said Deputy Riche. Deputies were able to find the woman inside a home where a large dog, an animal she was familiar with, was attacking her. It was a bloody scene. They had to tase the dog three times. “Deputy Messina used a taser, I had a ballistic shield with a baton, and it was just tricky,” said Riche. They drove the woman down an icy road to a waiting ambulance and rode with her in the ambulance to Glens Falls Hospital. The sheriff's office said the woman is on the road to recovery. “It really tested our problem-solving skills, and like I said up there, I was thankful for my partner. I don't know if I could have done it by myself, but we work as a team and we did what we needed to do,” Riche said. Deputy Riche has been with the sheriff's office for 25 years, and Deputy Messina has worked there for three years. “I think anyone in our department, the Washington County Sheriff's Office, we're all very well trained and I think any one of us could have done what me and my partner had did,” said Messina.

National Grid says 98% of power restored Monday evening Video Player is loading. This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color Transparency Background Color Transparency Window Color Transparency Font Size Text Edge Style Font Family End of dialog window. Advertisement National Grid says that of the more than 200,000 customers who lost power, 98% of them finally have it back. National Grid said Monday afternoon that crews had restored 98% of power to Eastern New York, including the Capital Region. The area experienced widespread outages Saturday until Monday, when the company said most of the 217,000 customers who lost power had it back. National Grid said half an inch of ice covered power lines and trees and that, compounded by 20 inches of snow in some places, made it difficult for crews to access power lines.

Data behind OASAS commercial highlights new dangers for adolescents and drugs Video Player is loading. This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color Transparency Background Color Transparency Window Color Transparency Font Size Text Edge Style Font Family End of dialog window. Data show more teens than ever are dying from overdoses. By now, many people have seen the commercial airing across New York State, where the Gibbons family of Pittsford shared the story of their daughter Paige's deadly overdose from just one pill. The commercial from the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) first aired during the Super Bowl. 13 investigates dug into the data behind why the state is warning teens about taking just one pill. Data show more teens than ever were dying from overdoses in recent years. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that more powerful drugs, rather than increased drug use, was killing more adolescents than ever. Data showed fewer middle and high school students than ever are using illegal drugs, but that adolescents' risk of dying from an overdose was up because fentanyl is tainting the drug supply and counterfeit pills are more available than ever. The study looked at data from the CDC on overdose deaths of people ages 10 to 19 from 2019 to 2021 in the United States. Among the deaths studied, 83% involved what's called illicitly manufactured fentanyl or IMFs. “The drug supply is more deadly than ever, so the risks are higher,” said OASAS Commissioner Dr. Chinazo Cunningham. OASAS is focused on education on the dangers of experimentation with drugs. “There are real possibilities of overdosing and dying from one pill and somebody who does not have a problem with substances,” Cunningham said. Just 35% of the young people studied who died had a known history of using opioids. Sixty percent of the overdose deaths happened at the young person's home. The report said those data points suggested people around the young person may have had no knowledge they were using. “We certainly hear this of, it's not that kind of kid, it's not that kind of family. But, first, I would say, addiction can happen within any family. But it's not just addiction. It's experimentation without addiction,” Cunningham said. Dr. Cunningham said students could get pills from a friend of a friend, or without knowing the source, and that drugs could be used with good intentions, say, to stay awake and study. But counterfeit pills available through social media combined with the prevalence of fentanyl can make for a deadly cocktail, she said. “Now we have the internet where kids can do things that their parents may not be aware of, and kids can access things that they didn't ordinarily have the ability to access in the past, so it's a new world,” she said. “What we have to tell [parents] is unless they got a pill from a pharmacy they don't know what's in it. We do have tools to check to see if fentanyl is present and then always to have naloxone at home so that if someone overdoses they don't die from it.” Fentanyl test strips and xylazine test strips are available along with naloxone. For more information, visit OASAS.NY.gov

Greater Capital District prepares for possible eclipse traffic, viewers Video Player is loading. This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color Transparency Background Color Transparency Window Color Transparency Font Size Text Edge Style Font Family End of dialog window. Many of us will soon head to northern parts of New York and Vermont to get the best look at Monday's solar eclipse. Travelers are soon headed to northern parts of New York and Vermont to get the best look at Monday's total solar eclipse. Local communities are preparing for what that means for traffic on the ground. Signs on the Northway are already warning drivers to expect delays for Monday's eclipse. “If you're going to be out driving at that time, just understand that you might get stuck,” said Warren County Public Affairs Director Don Lehman. Portions of northern Warren County, including the hamlet of North River, will experience totality during Monday afternoon's eclipse. But potential gridlock is expected to come from travelers north and east who head home directly after, Lehman said. Vermont's Agency of Transportation said it's expecting around 160,000 visitors. Round up, and that's a nearly 30% increase in the state's population. “You're going to swell your population by a third for a couple of days and then all of those people are going to be heading home, ostensibly to southern locales. It's going to create some traffic issues,” he said. Lehman said Warren County Sheriff's Office is preparing additional patrols, following its protocols for large gatherings. Cell phone companies were not planning to boost signal in the county despite possible increased traffic. “We see busy summer weekends all the time, but when you see people, you know, once this eclipse is over, there's probably not a lot to keep them around here on a Monday afternoon, Monday night in early April, so the fear is everyone's going to try to get home at the same time,” he said. Meanwhile, the City of Albany is advertising its public watch party as a traffic-free experience. “We, the Downtown Albany BID, are super excited to be hosting this special eclipse viewing experience on the Albany Skyway, which is one of downtown Albany's most unique public resources. It will truly be such a memorable way to experience this once in a lifetime cosmic event with your friends, family and community without even having to leave the city or sit in traffic,” said Jevan Dollard, Special Events Manager at Downtown Albany BID. “We are not anticipating a huge influx of people, because we're not in the path of totality,” Mayor Kathy Sheehan (D – Albany) said at a press conference Wednesday. The city's watch party begins at noon on Monday, complete with a DJ, food and free eclipse glasses.

Shaker students to receive scholarships in honor of Albany teen killed by gunfire Video Player is loading. This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color Transparency Background Color Transparency Window Color Transparency Font Size Text Edge Style Font Family End of dialog window. Advertisement Three students from Shaker High School in Colonie are set to receive a scholarship in honor of a student killed by gun violence. Three students at Shaker High School in Colonie will receive scholarships in honor of a local teen who was killed by gun violence in Albany. In two weeks, the students will be honored during a fundraiser at Glennpeter Jewelers on Central Avenue in Albany. Each student will receive $500 to help pay for their education. The event is organized by the My Destiny Scholarship Foundation , in honor of Destiny Greene. She was shot in 2021 while she was sitting inside a car. A man, who was 19 years old at the time, is now serving 25 years to life in prison for the shooting. Destiny was a sophomore at Shaker High and an honor roll student with dreams of becoming a doctor. Her mother, Tareen Lynch, wants to keep her daughter's memory alive by helping other students achieve their dreams with an annual scholarship. The event is happening Wednesday, April 24 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and is open to the public.

Three students at Shaker High School in Colonie will receive scholarships in honor of a local teen who was killed by gun violence in Albany.

Off-duty paramedic part of group that helped save girl at Great Escape waterpark Video Player is loading. This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color Transparency Background Color Transparency Window Color Transparency Font Size Text Edge Style Font Family End of dialog window. We're hearing from one of the people who suddenly found themselves saving a life Saturday. An off-duty paramedic was part of a group of responders who jumped in to save a little girl Saturday at Six Flags Great Escape Lodge and Indoor Waterpark. A 5-year-old girl was found unresponsive in the water and taken by helicopter to Albany Medical Center, according to the Warren County Sheriff's Office. Thanks to quick-thinking adults, she was recovering. Stacy Brayton and her 5-year-old son, CJ, from Chestertown were about to start their day at the waterpark. Brayton works for Medcor, a private healthcare company, and her husband is a firefighter with the Chestertown Volunteer Fire Department. Brayton said she and her son were getting into the river area when she saw people pulling a girl from the water. She said her paramedic training took over as she and others could not find a pulse and immediately started CPR. “I just saw her. Like you focus in on what you need to do, and everything else kind of gets blurred. Training kicks in. There's no off switch for sure,” she said. A spokesperson for Great Escape told NewsChannel 13 the park's on-site lifeguard and EMT team also helped rescue the girl. “We did compressions for about five minutes or so and then she started breathing on her own. And then by the time the ambulance got there, she was conscious and crying. So then when everybody came in, I just said to them, ‘She's breathing, she's breathing,' because that's the first thing you want to hear as a first responder,” said Brayton. NewsChannel 13 reached out to the Warren County Sheriff's Office for an update on the girl Monday, and they said there no further update was available.

Records reveal more about claims of racism by Guilderland Library café Video Player is loading. This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color Transparency Background Color Transparency Window Color Transparency Font Size Text Edge Style Font Family End of dialog window. We are digging for answers on a story about a café closing in Guilderland that stirred controversy back in February. 13 Investigates is digging for answers on the café closure in Guilderland that stirred controversy in February. Questions remained after Café con Mel at the Guilderland Public Library abruptly closed, citing racism from customers and library staff. Co-owner Melanie Diaz alleged in a Facebook post that the sudden shutdown after just five months was due in part to “racism, harassment and constant disrespect” from patrons and staff. The library held several public meetings where people voiced concerns, some questioning the real reason it closed. Some speakers even said the post unfairly smeared Guilderland's reputation. People also raised concerns about Diaz's business practices. 13 investigates learned rent for the café was just $200 a month and found Diaz owed more than $6,000 from a previous business. Diaz declined to comment on camera at the time of the closure. A records request by 13Investigates appeared to validate residents' concerns that claims of racism were baseless. 13 Investigates requested all documents related to racism complaints by Café con Mel made directly with the library, including emails. The library says it does not have any documented complaints of racism. Albany County legislator Mark Grimm (R – Guilderland) told 13 investigates that he believed the situation had given the library a black eye. He went on to say that there are “suspicious things that haven't been answered yet” including, he said, why the café's rent was so low. The library hired third-party firm, Guidepost Solutions, to investigate the claims of racism, with results expected in June. The library's interim director, Nate Heyer, was not able to speak over the phone Thursday, but said by email that the library was “moving ahead with training and discussions about the topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion.” “We are particularly excited about our upcoming staff development day in early June, in which all our staff will participate to brush up on skills and learn new perspectives, and to working through the Upper Hudson Library System's “Equity Challenge,” Heyer said.