Murder trial to open in stabbing at U of R

A college student from New York City has agreed to a bench trial on charges of fatally stabbing a University of Rochester classmate at a fraternity party.

Testimony before a Monroe County judge is set to begin Monday for 20-year-old Daren Venable, who pleaded not guilty to murder in the slaying of Jeffrey Bordeaux Jr.

The 20-year-old Bordeaux, a junior from suburban Rochester, was stabbed early on Jan. 15 at the Delta Upsilon fraternity house, a large brick colonial that sits on the university’s quadrangle. Police said the friends got into a quarrel over Venable’s girlfriend, whom the victim had dated.

Neither belonged to Delta Upsilon. Venable is a member of another campus fraternity. Bordeaux was a scholarship-winning political science major who was on the school’s track team.