Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

By Andy Gardner.

CANTON – An indictment against Adam W. Smith handed up by a grand jury on Thursday sheds a little more light on the circumstances behind the murders of Ronald E. “Huck” Durham and William M. Freeman.

Smith, 46, Lake Placid, is charged in a single indictment with 13 felony counts stemming from both killings, including two counts of first-degree murder.

For the Feb. 11 murder of Durham, the indictment charges Smith with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, first-degree robbery and first-degree assault.

For the March 1 murder of Freeman, the indictment charges Smith with first-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, first-degree burglary, first-degree assault, third-degree grand larceny and three counts of fourth-degree grand larceny.

St. Lawrence County District Attorney Gary Pasqua said he didn’t want to get into too many specifics about the charges beyond what’s contained in the indictment. He did say the first-degree murder charges mean that Smith allegedly killed the two victims in the course of committing “a designated felony.”

“First-degree burglary and first-degree robbery are designated felonies,” Pasqua said.

In Durham’s case, Smith is accused of intentionally killing him while robbing him in East Riverside Cemetery in Gouverneur. Pasqua declined to say what Smith may have stolen or attempted to steal. Durham died of a single stab wound to the neck, police have said previously.

In Freeman’s case, Smith is accused of intentionally killing him while committing a home invasion burglary. Police have said Freeman was stabbed multiple times at his home on County Route 10 in Rossie.

The third-degree grand larceny charge stemming from Freeman’s death is for stealing property valued at more than $3,000. The grand larceny counts are for stealing firearms, a credit card and debit card, the indictment says. Smith also stole Freeman’s truck, which he was driving at the time of his arrest the following day.

Announcing Smith’s arrest on March 7, Sheriff Brooks Bigwarfe told members of the press that there is “some association” between Durham, Freeman and Smith. He declined to comment further.

Smith has been incarcerated at the St. Lawrence County Correctional Facility in Canton since March 2. That’s when he was arrested driving Freeman’s stolen 2018 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. He was apprehended near the Bradley Street exit on Interstate 81 heading north near Watertown. Police charged him with felony fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and booked him into jail.

At the time Smith is accused of killing Durham and Freeman, he was on probationary supervision following an attempted burglary conviction.

Prior to Smith’s arrest, state police wrongfully charged a 22-year-old Gouverneur resident Frederick A. Wing Jr. with Durham’s murder hours after he was killed. Wing was arraigned that day and remanded to the county jail without bail. While he was incarcerated, Freeman was murdered, and Wing was released from jail the following day. Pasqua has since said Wing is innocent.

Wing still has a pending second-degree murder count, but the district attorney’s office and Wing’s lawyer, Ed Narrow, are working through the legal process to get the charge tossed.

On Thursday afternoon, Smith’s indictment brings dismissal of Wing’s murder charge a step closer.

“Now that this indictment has been filed, the next step is to have Wing’s charges returned to Gouverneur Town Court and they will be dealt with there. I hope within the next two to three weeks, they are resolved,” Pasqua said, adding that he can’t legally charge two people with the same crime when there are no allegations of them working together while committing it.

The DA said there’s no court date yet. He will have to file an application with St. Lawrence County Court to reduce the murder charge and return it to local court, which must be signed by a judge.

“Now that there’s an indictment, I expect the district attorney to move quickly in reducing the pending felony complaint to a misdemeanor so it can be dismissed in the interest of justice,” Narrow said. “I anticipate my client’s charges will be dismissed shortly.”

A local clergyman who ministered to Durham says he recalls seeing him at a church food pantry with the man who is now accused of murdering him.

Bob F. LaVeck is the pastor at Christian Life Fellowship, which operates the Grace Food Pantry. He also knows Wing and the man now accused of that murder, Smith.

LaVeck said Durham, who was well known around town, would often come to the Grace Food Pantry just to socialize.

“He had a bad back, so he used to come to the food pantry and just sit and talk with everybody, basically,” LaVeck said. “A lot of time I have to go out and pick up big loads of food. He couldn’t lift things, but he knew these different guys, down-and-outers, honestly, and he’d try to get them to do different jobs and sometimes would get them to unload our trailers when we got food ... [one] of these guys was Freddy.”

“Huck had these kind of, in my way of looking at it, kind of odd relationships with numerous guys down on their luck who may have some skills ... Huck was always trying to get people to work for him,” the pastor said. “The people he brought into the food pantry doesn’t take in the whole picture. I know he had guys working for him [who] didn’t come to the food pantry.”

LaVeck recalls a close relationship between Durham and Wing.

“He really knew Freddy. Huck was like Freddy’s dad,” LaVeck said. “I’ve known Freddy for almost 30 years and I can honestly say there’s not a violent bone in that kid’s body. He never loses his temper, not with me at least.”

That description mirrors in a prior interview how Wing’s relatives described his and Durham’s relationship.

Wing has autism and is intellectually disabled. During those prior interviews with the Times, his relatives said he has trouble with comprehension and short-term memory. LaVeck said he noticed Wing “didn’t have a good grasp of things like money.”

When he heard Wing had been accused of murdering Durham, “I knew something was off.”

The pastor said he had also seen Durham with Smith at the food pantry, and he was put off by Smith’s overall vibe.

“I think [Smith] was only here once or twice. I’d say within a year to two,” LaVeck said. Smith made a strong enough impression, that “the moment I heard Huck got murdered, honestly, I swear, this guy was the first thing that came to mind.”

“Adam, he made me feel ... I could tell he felt uncomfortable being in a church, the one or two times he came. I think I heard that he was a meth head. The way he acted, it really felt that way. I’ve been around meth heads before,” he said.

LaVeck said he recognizes drug-induced behavior. He worked in faith-based drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs in the Bronx and Philadelpia, Pa. Prior to that, LaVeck said he had a drug addiction himself 55 years ago, and said he was able to overcome the affliction through his faith.

“[Smith] kind of looked burned out, you know? Kind of overly nervous, like he really didn’t want to be where he was. That nervousness, that shiftiness,” he said.

LaVeck said from what he knew of Durham, “Huck had a pattern he rigidly lived to every day. He’d go to sleep around 5 or 6 o’clock. He’d wake up about 3:30 [a.m.] and that was the start of his day. I’ve heard the first thing he did was go to Stewart’s to get coffee.”

“Pretty early on [in the day], he’d go to the cemetery to be with his wife’s grave,” LaVeck said.

Durham’s wife, Sharon T. Durham, died Jan. 9, 2020 and is buried in East Riverside Cemetery, where Durham was killed three years later and is also now buried.

He said Durham was being treated for cancer and believes if he hadn’t been murdered, he wouldn’t have lived much longer.

LaVeck said Durham was a heavy smoker, “like a chimney, very addicted,” and kept smoking through his cancer treatments. The pastor recalled Durham would get up partway through church services and go outside to smoke.

“With older people, they get really set in their ways. You can talk logic and common sense ’til you’re blue in the face,” LaVeck said.

About a month before Durham was murdered, LaVeck said, “something happened to him. He was having some kind of medical treatment and he lost his ability to climb stairs. He had that giant truck. He had to get help to get into it. The last few weeks, my understanding was he’d have someone go into Stewart’s and get the coffee.”

LaVeck recalled Durham had a close relationship with his late wife.

“From what I understand, Huck doesn’t know how to read, or doesn’t read well, so his wife took care of a lot of bills and the money stuff, reading and writing kind of stuff,” the pastor said. “According to Huck, she was next to Peter himself, just the most spiritual person you could ever imagine. She was his spiritual kind of crutch ... I really believed he leaned on his wife in that department.”

He said Mrs. Durham’s death devastated Mr. Durham.

“I’ve been to a lot of funerals. When a loved one dies, there’s a time of mourning, but you’ve got to let them go. Huck never let go. He depended on his wife so much when she was alive, he just couldn’t handle it when she passed away. It was like she was still there,” LaVeck said.

LaVeck said he visited Mr. Durham’s family on Feb. 11, shortly after they’d been informed he was murdered.

“When the whole family was meeting at Huck’s house right after it happened, we went and I was Huck’s pastor and Freddy’s pastor. There was very heavy, strange vibes going on in that meeting there. There were all kinds of suspicion going around,” he said. “The first day or two of this thing, there was a lot of ignorance ... that includes the troopers.”

LaVeck said after meeting with t Durham’s family, he had to go to Watertown. He came back to Durham’s house later in the day, but they were all gone. The only person he noticed there was a state police investigator.

“He came out to me and said who are you, what are you doing here. I told him I was Huck’s pastor. He asked if I knew he’d been murdered. I said yes, I did. He was doing some investigation in the house and had everybody leave,” LaVeck said.

On Feb. 18, he officiated Mr. Durham’s funeral.

“The funeral, or the day before the funeral, the wake ... the place was packed. I’m telling you, I’ve never seen so many people in a funeral,” LaVeck said. During the ceremonies, he said he noticed state troopers and Gouverneur village police officers were mixing in with the crowd.

“There were these two guys sitting there, looked about the same age and wearing the same kind of clothes,” he said. “I walked up to them and said who are you guys ... they said we’re troopers here at the request of Huck’s son, and I think Huck’s son was worried something might happen, like a fight breaking out.”

LaVeck said he’s still shocked by Durham’s murder, and also Freeman’s.

“This murder thing, it’s kind of a rare thing for backcountry up here,” he said. “It just is a terrible thing.”

Officials haven’t gone into details about the evidence that led police to believe Wing killed Durham. State police underwater recovery investigators were searching the Oswegatchie River in Gouverneur for evidence in February. Police declined to say whether they found anything.

“At the time that law enforcement began investigating that crime, we were provided information from Mr. Wing indicating he had intimate knowledge of what happened. They did not arrest Mr. Wing on some whim,” and based on the available evidence, “they had probable cause to believe Mr. Wing committed that crime,” Pasqua said March 7.

Narrow has declined to comment on the evidence that led police to develop that probable cause “only because it’s an ongoing homicide investigation and my client has information that’s helpful,” and he could end up being a witness.

“Hopefully we can close this chapter on him being a defendant and focus on him helping the state with the homicide (case) of Mr. Durham,” Narrow said.

Pasqua on March 7 added that Wing has “been truthful with law enforcement at this point.”

Following a March 6 court appearance where Wing was officially placed under probationary supervision, he said little after having been advised by Narrow to not make comments to the press. He did, however, thank the St. Lawrence County jail corrections officers for treating him well during his 19 days incarcerated there.

“I want to say thank you to the correctional facility over in Canton … they were very kind to me,” Wing said right after the hearing.

Wing’s intellectual disabilities made it difficult for him to understand what was happening after he’d been interviewed by state police on Feb. 11, according to his cousin, Jessica Bice.

She has said she doesn’t believe Wing was able to understand the situation in which he found himself after being arrested. She visited her cousin in jail the Sunday after he was arrested and asked him if he understood that he was being charged with a felony and what his Miranda rights are.

“When I asked him about what Miranda rights were, he thought it had something to do with drinking. He thought he was in trouble for something with drinking,” she said following the March 6 court appearance.

She says he also didn’t know what a felony means.

“He thought it was something he had to pay for. He said he didn’t have any money for it,” because Wing’s only income is from Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Bice said.

Following Wing’s release, Bice said he is happy to be home on a comfortable bed and spending time with his family and friends.

“He was happy to look at tractors all weekend on the computer, and be in a comfy bed,” she said March 6.

Wing’s family has believed in his innocence from the beginning. They said he and Durham were close friends, having almost a father-and-son relationship.

“He wants to grieve his good friend … and see the Durham family to properly say he’s sorry for their loss and hug them,” Bice said.

“(Mr. Durham’s relatives) wanted to reach out and speak with Freddy after Huck’s death. He wasn’t able to, because one, he was incarcerated, and two there was an order of protection in place,” Narrow said. “Huck and Freddy were good friends. Now Freddy can mourn with Huck’s family.”

Bice credits a community effort for getting her cousin exonerated and represented by Narrow.