VICTIM WAS STABBED ‘MULTIPLE TIMES’
Motive in slaying eludes authorities; town justice orders psychiatric exam of suspect
TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. >> The crime scene tape is gone, but police are still trying to figure out the motive for a slaying Sunday evening tat left a homeless man “stabbed multiple times” near the Thruway roundabout, said town of Ulster Police Chief Kyle Berardi.
“I can confirm that he was stabbed multiple times, but not how many times. We don’t know how many times he was stabbed.” Berardi said. He would not comment on what kind of weapon was used.
As for the motive, “That’s what we’re working on now,” said Berardi. “Trying to figure out the why.”
On Monday, Lance J. Ferguson, 36, was arrested by town of Ulster police and charged with murder in the death of Guy Andradez, 59, a homeless man who had been camping near the roundabout by the Esopus Creek.
Ferguson was charged with second-degree murder, criminal possession of a weapon, concealment of a human corpse and tampering with physical evidence, all felonies, police said.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Michael Kavanagh said Ulster Town Justice Marsha Weiss ordered Ferguson to undergo a psychiatric examination to determine whether he is competent to stand trial, at the request of Ferguson’s attorney, Kevin Prue. Prue raised concerns about Ferguson’s
ability to understand the proceedings against him and his ability to assist in his own defense.
Tom Brener, 62, who has lived in the riverside encampment for the past five years, said he found the body.
“I saw the victim (Andradez) on Friday, about one or two in the afternoon,” said Brener. “We had coffee. I didn’t see him after that.”
Andradez had been camping in the secluded clearing off Washington Avenue, together with a woman, for about six weeks, according to Brener.
Andradez was arrested on a charge of felony assault on July 15.
About a week before the killing, said Brener, the woman and Andradez had an argument and she left. Police confirmed that she had been living there.
On Sunday, the day the body was discovered, Brener said he’d been in his own dwelling, a log and tarp structure, for about four hours. “I got up to stretch my legs and see the sunset. It was about 7. Then I saw something over there.” Brener motioned to a clearing about 100 yards away.
“I was curious. I went to check it out. I saw arms sticking out from under a tent.” The tent was collapsed and drawn over the body like a tarp.
“I lifted the edge of the tent,” said Brener. He uttered an expletive. “It was a body. It was bloated, face down.” Brener said he didn’t know who it was.
Brener said he ran to his bicycle and rode up to the nearby QuickChek. He found a man with a cell phone and got him to call the police, he said.
Berardi confirmed that Ulster Police held Brener for several hours Sunday night. “We were trying to find out what he might have seen,” the chief said.
“The man they arrested, Lance Ferguson, he was transient,” said Brener, who said that to the best of his knowledge, Ferguson had been at the site only three or four times. “Lance and Guy spent a few nights drinking together,” he said.
“Guy went to high school in New Paltz. We knew a lot of people in common. He was articulate,” Brenner said.
Under the tent that contained Andradez’s belongings— a ripped, tattered affair — among the abandoned papers, files and coffee jars, crackers and the wadded clothes, there was a volume of Shakespeare that lay opened to “Taming of the Shrew.”