Nay was originally arrested for creating a disturbance inside the Main Street bus station. Twelve hours later, he was also charged with murder.
This is an update of a story that was first posted at 12:12 p.m.
SPRINGFIELD - A 36-year-old West Springfield man was charged Tuesday morning with the March 13 stabbing death of Craig Fish, the most recent of the city’s six homicides since Jan. 1.
Roger L. Nay, of 27 East School St., was charged with murder just before 8 a.m. while he was being held in the Springfield police lockup, said Sgt. John M. Delaney, aide to Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet.
Nay had been arrested about 12 hours earlier after causing a disturbance Monday night in the Peter Pan Bus Terminal, 1776 Main St., Delaney said; during his arrest he shouted that he had a bomb, which caused the terminal to empty out. No bomb was found.
Delaney said when police approached him in the terminal, Nay shouted, “I am crazy and want to get locked up.”
He was initially charged with making a bomb threat, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and threatening to commit murder in connection with the disturbance at the bus terminal.
Those charges were amended Tuesday morning to include murder in connection with Fish’s slaying on March 13.
“He has always been a suspect right along,” Delaney said.
Police did not release a mugshot of Nay.
At his district court arraignment, Nay denied the charges. He was ordered held without the right to bail by Judge William J. Boyle and is due back in court on May 12.
Fish died of a laceration to his abdomen after he was found behind 96 Maple St. around 8:15 p.m. on March 13.
He died a short time later at Baystate Medical Center.
His death came hours after 16-year-old Kevin Gomez was shot to death on Belmont Avenue. The two cases are unrelated. There have been no homicides in Springfield since.
On April 1, state police detectives assigned to Hampden District Attorney Mark Mastroianni became the lead agency for investigating new homicides in Springfield.
The switch, which lasts only until May 1, was intended by Mastroianni to give Springfield detectives a break from new cases to focus on outstanding ones.
With Nay’s arrest, Springfield police have made arrests in four of the six homicides this year.
Police did not disclose a possible motive for the homicide, but a woman who knew both Fish and Nay told The Republican Tuesday the two men knew each other but were not friendly.
“They didn’t like each other,” said the woman, who requested anonymity.
The woman said the two were likable, but their personalities changed, sometimes dramatically, when they drank alcohol or used drugs.
She said she was unaware Nay, whom she has known for more than six months, had been arrested until contacted by a Republican reporter.
Her comments about Fish echoed those made by some of his grief-stricken family members days after his death. They recalled him as a nice man who had a great sense of humor, but who also spent his adult life wrestling with substance abuse and alcohol problems.
Nay impressed her as a nice guy, sweet and gentle, and even quite generous. She said she did know what could have happened between the two that would have caused Nay to stab Fish.
“I can’t believe he would do it,” she said.
Staff writers George Graham and Buffy Spencer contributed to this report.