ELMIRA, NY

A 35-year-old Elmira man has confessed to fatally stabbing his pregnant 19-year-old girlfriend Monday morning. Arteamus R. Wells, originally from Georgia with an Elmira address of 384 Norton St., was arraigned Monday night in Elmira City Court in front of Judge Thomas Ramich on a second-degree murder charge. He was sent to Chemung County Jail without bail. He is scheduled to reappear in court this morning.

Police responded to Hathorn Court after the Chemung County 911 Center received a call shortly before 10:30 a.m. from a person who reported concerns for Smith's welfare. Elmira Police officers responded and found Wells attempting to enter the residence, according to a news release. Police found Smith inside and said it was clear her death was a result of a homicide.

Wells told officers at the scene he was responsible for killing Smith, and later, he confessed again to investigators, police said in a news release.

According to court documents, Wells reportedly choked Smith with his arm, stabbed her with a pair of scissors, wrapped an electrical cord around her neck and strangled her.

Wells has an extensive criminal history and has a case pending in Domestic Violence Court that involves a different woman. He missed a Sept. 30 appearance in that case and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Terri Bush, of Hathorn Court, was home Monday morning and said she heard screams coming from the direction of the victim's apartment at about 10 a.m., the time police said Smith was killed.

Bush said she looked out her back door toward the area where the screams were coming from and saw a woman standing outside shouting "He murdered her!"

Bush, who has lived at Hathorn Court for almost five years, said Smith was about five months pregnant, had lived in the apartment for less than a month, and was eager to learn her baby's gender.

Smith has family members living in a nearby apartment building, but they declined to talk to reporters about the incident.

The victim's brother, Aaron Smith, however, reportedly told Bush's relatives -- who were friends of the victim -- she was killed by her "on-again, off-again" boyfriend, who was apprehended by police shortly after the killing.

"The baby was his and he didn't want her to be pregnant. After he killed her, he called her sister and said 'I just murdered your sister,' " Bush said. "There were hundreds of people outside after it happened. It was a pretty emotional scene."

When neighbors Walter and Helena Pound left their apartment for an early Monday morning appointment at the Chemung County Department of Aging and Long Term Care, all was quiet in their section of Hathorn Court, where the elderly couple has lived for the past three years.

In addition to the many onlookers and a New York State Police cruiser stationed at the scene, several marked and unmarked Elmira City Police Department vehicles were parked on either side of the apartment building. Yellow crime scene tape blocked the homicide scene and the apartment where the Pounds lived.

"This area is generally really quiet and not like the section of the Court where we used to live," Helena Pound said. "When we returned from the Office of the Aging, it was still quiet. But all of a sudden, there were cops all over and people were everywhere."

The Pounds learned what happened after Walter, a former Hathorn Court security officer, was told by his former co-workers that a stabbing had taken place. The incident, the couple said, increased their resolve to keep to themselves and ensure their doors are locked at all times.

"She was a good neighbor. The only noise we heard her make was when she was putting up her curtain rods," Helena Pound said. "It's too bad something like that had to happen to her. There aren't enough good people around."

Like the Pounds, Bush said having someone killed so close to her apartment was unnerving. Her daughter Jennifer White, who lives on the other side of Hathorn Court near Woodlawn Avenue but was at her mother's apartment after the stabbing, had a similar reaction.

"It makes me not want to live here," White said. 'There was another stabbing up here a few days ago and I live near the apartment where (Maurice Davis was killed in 2008 by a stray bullet as he slept in his bed). But this part of Hathorn Court was quiet and that's what was so shocking. The poor girl was so young."