A college student from Brooklyn has pleaded not guilty to fatally stabbing a University of Rochester classmate at a Delta Upsilon fraternity party.
Dozens of students and relatives were in court Monday for the arraignment of 20-year-old Daren Venable on a second degree murder charge.
It was said to be an emotional day in court as friends, family and university staff filled the room. Both young men shared mutual friends. WHEC-TV reports that one of Bordeaux's aunts embraced Venable's mother following the court session today.
Police said Jeffrey Bordeaux Jr., a 20-year-old junior from suburban Rochester, was stabbed at the fraternity house early Saturday. They said the men got into an argument that stemmed from a long-running dispute. Venable pleaded not guilty in a self-defense plea, and his face showed evidence of intense injuries including a swollen eye.
Neither belonged to Delta Upsilon. Venable, who's from Brooklyn, is a member of another campus fraternity. Bordeaux was a scholarship-winning political science major who was on the school's track team and was to begin studying in Shanghai next month. A vigil was held on campus in memory of Bordeaux on campus Saturday evening.
The family says the overwhelming support from the campus community is helping them cope. “He always had a smile, he always had a joke, always made you feel you feel better about the circumstances, whatever they might be,” Bordeaux said of his son in an interview with WHEC-TV.
The father says he hopes to attend graduation at the school annually to remember his son.
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“Jeffrey didn't walk across that stage, but when I see somebody else's son -- black, white, Asian, whatever -- or somebody's daughter -- I'm going to assume that's my son,” he said.
