A lawyer and former officer with the NYPD was convicted of killing the mother of his 6-year-old daughter at their suburban New Jersey home five years ago before fleeing the country for Cuba.
The Essex County Prosecutor's Office said a jury sat for a six-week trial and deliberated just three hours before finding James Ray III guilty for the murder of Angela Bledsoe in 2018.
The Montclair man fled the state after shooting Bledsoe to death on Oct. 23 inside the home they shared together. Authorities say the 44-year-old mother had returned home from dropping off their daughter at school when he shot her multiple times.
Police responded to the home for a wellness check and found Bledsoe dead, and Ray already in the wind. Prosecutors say the man dropped off their 6-year-old with a brother before fleeing southwest and crossing into Mexico. He then boarded a flight to Cuba.
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Within two weeks Ray was captured by authorities and extradited to Essex County where he's been held since.
Bledsoe, prosecutors say, had been planning to move out of the couple's shared home before she was murdered. She had even scheduled a meeting with a realtor.
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore Stephens thanked Bledsoe's family.
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“I’ve never seen a family as engaged with a trial as they were, and having them in the courtroom every day encouraged us to carry out our mission, which is to serve justice,” he said. “And on this day, justice was served.”
Ray, now 60, has a sentencing hearing in June where he faces the possibility of life in prison.
