Milton man admits to strangling tenant to death over loud music

PHOTOGRAPHER: Marc Schultz

Kayadeross Acres, on Middle Line Road in Ballston Spa.

BALLSTON SPA — A former Milton landlord admitted Tuesday to choking a trailer park tenant to death, unintentionally, last spring.

Harold L. Wolcott, 41, pleaded guilty in Saratoga County court to criminally negligent homicide, a felony, District Attorney Karen Heggen said. He was previously charged with second-degree manslaughter.

Sheriff’s deputies said he strangled Scott A. Montie, 51, at around 1 a.m. on Friday, April 29, after going to his residence at Creek and Pines Mobile Home Park on Middle Line Road — since renamed as Kayadeross Acres — to confront him about playing music too loudly.

Responding deputies found Montie not breathing. He was taken to Saratoga Hospital but died from his injuries on May 1, deputies said.

Montie grew up in Valatie and graduated from Ichabod Crane High School before serving from 1982–1984 in the Army, according to his obituary. He was an avid gardener and outdoorsman.

The trailer park’s new name came with an ownership change in November, when the community’s 33-acres was purchased by a cooperative-style association of residents. They are planning infrastructure improvements and also hired a new manager, Tom Peyton of SG Property Management.

Wolcott is due to be sentenced by Judge James Murphy III on March 24.