City police detectives had been looking for Cory Fallen since shortly after the June 20 Craig Street stabbing that left a man dead.
On Tuesday morning, two Schenectady detectives found him in Florida and arrested him on one count of second-degree murder.
“The two Schenectady detectives did an incredible job,” Deputy U.S. Marshal Neil Sullivan said Tuesday. The marshals assisted in the search. “[The detectives] really did 90 percent of the work. They did a great job,” Sullivan said.
Arresting Fallen were detectives John Diguesualdo and Mike Brown. They located him at the home of an acquaintance in Port St. Lucie.
Sullivan said he was told Fallen was arrested as he was walking away from the house. He did not resist.
Fallen, 32, of 779 Albany St., is accused of stabbing Christopher L. Clayton Sr., 43, multiple times the morning of June 20 at about 8:30 a.m. Fallen’s first name has also been spelled “Corey.”
Police department spokesman Det. Eric Clifford said Tuesday that police believe the stabbing was the result of an argument, but he declined to say what it might have been about. The stabbing happened near the Schenectady Traffic Bureau station on Albany Street but the station is closed on weekends. Police received a call saying a man was stabbing another man, and when police arrived on the scene the assailant was gone and Clayton lay dying on the ground.
Police surveillance cameras were near the scene and police said they were reviewing the footage; it was unclear if anything was caught on video.
But Fallen became a suspect early on, Sullivan said. Detectives first checked Albany with assistance from the marshals. Fallen had a number of family and friends in the city.
State records show he was sentenced in 2006 to 18 months in prison following a drug conviction in Albany County.
In Schenectady County in March, Fallen was also sentenced to 45 days in jail after pleading guilty to attempted evidence tampering. In that case, he was also initially charged with possessing an imitation controlled substance, records show.
He was accused of selling what appeared to be crack cocaine to an undercover officer Feb. 26 at Albany and Hulett streets, then destroying the $20 bill as he was being arrested. The substance tested negative for cocaine.
When the Albany search didn’t pan out, the detectives finally got information that directed them to Florida.
“The second they found out he was down in Florida, they got a plan together and went down there,” Sullivan said. There, Diguesualdo and Brown met up with the U.S. Marshals’ Fugitive Task Force and the Martin County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Department and made the arrest at about 8:30 a.m.
Fallen was being held Tuesday at the Martin County Jail pending extradition.
Clayton’s killing was the city’s sixth of 2009, it is now the fourth to be closed through either an arrest or death of the suspect.
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