Jaiden Ildefonso, 19, got 15 years to life after pleading guilty to the murder of Simon Brault, the Saratoga County District Attorney’s office said.
Ildefonso was 18 years old when he killed Brault, 20, in a confrontation outside the Brault family home in Ballston Lake on May 31, 2025, investigators said. The confrontation was sparked by Brault’s younger brother, Paul, and a then-17-year-old boy fighting over a girl, according to authorities.
The 17-year-old showed up at the Brault home on Prom day looking for a fight and asked to see Paul, prosecutors said.
“The first thing he says to Paul is, ‘I don’t know you, but I’m gonna punch you in the face,” Bernard Brault, the boys’ father, told Daily Voice.
As the two boys scuffled, Simon Brault stepped in to defend his younger brother, according to investigators. Security footage provided by the Brault family to Daily Voice shows the scuffle spilling onto the family’s front lawn.
Then Ildefonso, who was sitting in a car on the street, gets out of the vehicle wearing a mask and carrying a knife and stabs Simon Brault twice, according to the video. Brault collapsed in the yard while Ildefonso, the teen, and a girl who accompanied them fled the scene, authorities said. The entire scene lasted 30 seconds.
The girl was the 17-year-old’s sister and Ildefonso’s girlfriend, Bernard Brault told Daily Voice. Cops tracked their vehicle 50 miles away to Schoharie County and charged Ildefonso and the 17-year-old.
Brault was rushed to Albany Medical Center, but he had been stabbed in the aorta and died from his wounds, according to authorities. The young man had just graduated from Hudson Valley Community College, and his family and friends launched the Simon Brault Second Chance Scholarship in his honor.
“Simon was kind-hearted and a truly good person,” Bernard Brault wrote in a Facebook post thanking the community for its outpouring of support. “Your words and thoughts mean a lot to us. They are like little stars in a very dark sky.”
Click here to follow Daily Voice and receive free news updates.
