What to Know
- A lawyer wanted in the shooting death of his girlfriend inside their northern NJ home last month has been captured after weeks on the run
- James Ray III was being held in the Essex County Jail; details on his capture weren't immediately released
- The body of his girlfriend, Angela Bledsoe, was found in their Montclair home on Oct. 23; the child the two had was there but not hurt
A lawyer wanted in the shooting death of his girlfriend inside their suburban New Jersey home last month has been captured in Cuba after weeks on the run, officials said Wednesday.
James Ray III was captured in Cuba as he was set to go through customs, according to prosecutors. He was brought back to New Jersey Tuesday night and is being held in the Essex County Jail. It wasn't clear if he had an attorney.
The 55-year-old Montclair man faces murder charges in the death of 44-year-old Angela Bledsoe. She was found shot to death Oct. 23 inside the home where they lived with their young child.
Authorities say police responding to a wellness check found Bledsoe suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Ray wasn't at the home when police arrived.
Authorities said Wednesday that after Ray allegedly killed Bledsoe, he dropped off their 6-year-old daughter with relatives in Pennsylvania, then fled southwest, crossing the border into Mexico. He then boarded a flight to Cuba.
Local
FBI and local law enforcement credited their relationship with Interpol that helped them capture Ray.
"That cooperation with Cuba was not a first but defnitely an easing of relations at least in law enforcement," said FBI Special Agent Gregory Ehrie.
Prosecutors say they plan to ask that Ray be held without bail when he faces a judge next week "because of the heinous nature of the crime and his propensity to flee."
Neighbor Dave Kaplan says the family was very private, but he never would have expected anything nefarious. He says he last saw Ray taking out the garbage the morning before Bledsoe was found dead.
Homicides in Montclair are relatively rare. There was a high-profile case there in 2016 -- that of Sarah Butler, a 20-year-old college student whose body was found in a state reservation eight days after she went missing. The man charged in that case has also been accused in the deaths of two other women.
