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Mom of teen charged in fatal stabbing hopes cellphone recordings will exonerate him

Hunter Welch with his mother, Tammy Welch. Tammy has said can’t believe her son would have stabbed his sister’s boyfriend, Michael Zindler, unless it was in self-defense. (Photo provided)

PLATTSBURGH — Hunter Welch’s mother, Tammy, feels sure her son didn’t murder Michael Zindler.

“Somebody’s not telling the truth,” she said Monday, the strain of the past five days plain on her face.

Hunter, 14, is incarcerated at Albany Juvenile Detention Center, where he was taken after arraignment on a charge of second-degree murder on Thursday night.

Zindler, 29, died that morning of a “stabbing to the left side of the chest,” State Police said in a press release.

Dr. Eric Gorman performed an autopsy on the West Chazy man on Friday at University of Vermont Health Network, Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital.

Tammy Welch tries to control her emotions as she talks about her 14-year-old son, Hunter, who is accused of stabbing and killing Michael Zindler in Welch’s Black Brook home last Thursday. Zindler was boyfriend of Savannah Welch, Hunter’s sister. (Photo —  Suzanne Moore, Press Republican)

The pathologist ruled the manner of death a homicide.

‘Misses his mom’

Police haven’t released any details of the stabbing, which took place at 15 O’Hara Road in the town of Black Brook. The eighth-grader was taken into custody there without incident, State Police Troop B Public Information Officer Trooper Jennifer Fleishman said earlier.

The boy didn’t know that Zindler — his sister Savannah’s boyfriend — had died, attorney Matthew Favro said, until he, himself, told Hunter on Thursday night.

“He was very upset,” said Favro, who is representing Hunter.

“He lost it,” Tammy said. “He broke down.”

Hunter has not yet completely told Favro his side of the story; the distance to the Detention Center poses a communication issue, the attorney said. But he will be meeting with the boy soon.

“He’s scared,” Favro said. “He’s afraid of where he is (the Detention Center).

“He misses his mom; he misses his family.”

‘Huge struggle’

Tammy and her boyfriend, Ricky Holmes, who owns the home where the stabbing occurred, don’t know exactly what happened that day.

But they’ve drawn some conclusions, based on two bedroom doors torn from their hinges, a third one damaged, blinds and the screen torn from a window in Savanna’s bedroom, holes in walls …

“There was a huge struggle in the house,” Tammy said, showing photos of the damage.

And her daughter had bruising on her neck, back and lower lip that hadn’t been there the last time she saw her, she said.

Zindler and Savannah, 21, had been dating off and on for awhile, Tammy said. The relationship was a rocky one.

“All they did was argue and fight,” she said.

Tammy tapped her cellphone and played a recording of a man she identified as Zindler shouting obscenities.

They were directed at Savannah, Tammy said.

Text messages

Hunter had texted his mother that recording on Oct. 5.

“Omg they’re fighting again,” Tammy had texted back.

“Yes,” Hunter answered. “They just left m (Mom).”

“Where is jj,” Tammy wrote back, referring to Savannah’s 2-month-old infant, Jerry.

“I really dont feel safe with him here,” Hunter wrote, then, referring to the baby, “And he’s with them.”

Kitchen knife

Last Thursday, Hunter stayed had home from school.

“He had a bellyache,” Tammy said. “He gets those.”

Holmes looked in on the boy before leaving for work at 7:45 a.m. or so.

“He was sleeping,” he said.

Just a few hours later, Zindler was stabbed in the dining room with a knife, Tammy said, taken from the block of knives in her kitchen.

Hunter, she said, made the 911 call.

It was Savannah, Tammy said, who told police that Hunter had stabbed Zindler.

On her Facebook page Sunday, Savannah posted a photo of Zindler bottle-feeding her infant son, Jerry; an image of a tombstone, engraved with “R.I.P.,” is superimposed on the picture.

Loves sister

Tammy believes her son would have defended his sister if Zindler had been hurting her.

Or that he would have taken the blame for her.

“He loves her. He keeps asking me, ‘How’s Savannah doing?'” Tammy said.

“If my son did this it was to protect his life.

“I can’t wrap my head around it,” she agonized. “I can’t hold him; I can’t hug him.”

‘Asked him to leave’

Zindler had a history of domestic violence, though relatives have said he was working hard to turn his life around.

He was a generous, caring man who’d loved children, they said.

He served prison time from July 23, 2013, to June 19, 2015, on a felony conviction of aggravated criminal contempt – he violated an order of protection.

Zindler had been also been charged after that March 2013 arrest with third-degree assault, third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and assault with intent to cause injury with a weapon after he allegedly struck his wife with a blunt object.

“Yes, that did happen,” Krista Lynn Zindler told the Press-Republican on Friday. “(But) he has changed from what he used to be. He (was) taking steps to fix his anger and how to control it.”

Michael had stayed at the home in Black Brook maybe eight nights, Tammy said.

“I asked Michael several times to leave,” she said.

“He wanted to rent a room,” Holmes said. “I said, ‘No.'”

“I’m sorry he’s dead,” Tammy said. “Nobody deserves to die.

“My heart goes out to the family.”

‘Never hurt anyone’

But Hunter is not a violent boy, his mother said.

“He has never hurt anyone. He’s quiet; he’s a mama’s boy.”

She paused, thinking.

“He loves his cats. He’s 14 years old – he’ll still cuddle on the couch with me and watch movies.

“‘Mommy, will you rub my feet?'” she said he’ll ask.

“All the time,” Holmes said, chuckling.

Tammy dropped her face into cupped hands, sitting silently for a time.

Took cellphones

Police had not yet questioned Hunter, Tammy said, when she got to the barracks Thursday.

“Because he’s 14, a parent had to be present,” she said.

And when an officer read Hunter his Miranda rights, the teen looked at his mother.

“Yes, you want an attorney,” she said she told him.

Tammy said State Police took Hunter and Savannah’s cellphones, and they copied what they wanted from hers.

Because her son made a habit of recording the discord that went on between the couple, as did Savannah, she hopes there will be information that tells the full story of the stabbing — and that police drop the charge against her son.

“I’m sure law enforcement will continue to do their due diligence and go through whatever evidence they have collected,” Favro said.

Not-guilty plea

Favro entered a not-guilty plea on Hunter’s behalf in Clinton County Court — Youth Part. He is due back in court Friday, Oct. 19.

As befits his age, he was charged as a juvenile offender.

Calling hours for Zindler, followed by a funeral service, took place Sunday at Brown Funeral Home in Plattsburgh.

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