August 11 – OGDENSBURG – An Ogdensburg teen stabbed to death early Thursday morning on Paterson Street has been identified.
In a press release Friday, St. Lawrence County District Attorney Gary M. Pasqua identified Bryson R. Jenks, 19, as the victim of the fatal stabbing that led to the arrest of Kenneth C. Durham, 44, of 316 Deviller St ., on first-degree murder and a host of other charges Thursday afternoon.
Durham remains in the St. Lawrence County Jail, Canton, where he is being held without bail following his arraignment in City Court. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Judge Marcia L. LeMay on Wednesday at 1 p.m.
Pasqua said Durham is charged with deliberately causing Jenks’ death by stabbing him in the chest with a knife at about 12:30pm Thursday.
City police said patrols received a report of a possible stabbing in the 400 block of Paterson Street and that further investigation revealed that Jenks, who was described as an acquaintance of Durham’s, suffered a knife wound during a verbal dispute that resulted in his death. .
A manhunt ensued after the stabbing, and police found Durham hiding in a moored boat at a marina along the St. Lawrence River in Ogdensburg around 3 a.m.
In addition to the second-degree murder charge, Durham was charged with third-degree possession of a weapon in connection with the stabbing. He was additionally charged by the city police with second-degree unlawful confinement, criminal obstruction of breathing, second-degree aggravated harassment and two counts of second-degree harassment arising from various domestic disputes.
City police additionally charged Durham with fourth-degree criminal mischief for cutting off and damaging his single-GPS surveillance device that belongs to the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and was a condition of his Feb. 16 parole.
Durham was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the St. Lawrence County Court in 2011 for attempted first-degree sexual assault. He was convicted in 2011 of seriously injuring a 2 1/2 month old girl by shaking her at his Terrace Park home in Morristown. The child suffered a skull fracture, brain damage, broken ribs and eye injuries. Relatives said at Durham’s sentencing in May 2011 that the child had been left permanently blind.
According to city court documents, Durham had a GPS monitoring device strapped to him by his parole officer on June 21. At approximately 1:11 a.m. Thursday, records indicate that the device sent out a “master tamper alert.”
Court records show that the GPS unit was located next to a garage near McCarrier Lane in Ogdensburg at 8:40 a.m. Thursday and that the device’s belt had been cut.
Durham is also registered with the state as a Class 3 sex offender, the highest risk rating. He was sentenced to one year in prison by the St. Lawrence County Court in July 2002 on a third-degree rape conviction. He admitted to having sex with a then 16-year-old girl in December 2001 in Fowler.
