Alleged killer tries escaping to Cuba, but Havana wasn’t havin’ it
Authorities said James Ray attempted to leave the country after killing his girlfriend, but Cuban officials sent him back to the states
A prominent lawyer who was on the run after allegedly murdering his girlfriend was found in Cuba and extradited back to the states, the Miami Herald reports.
James R. Ray III, 55, is charged in the death of Angela Bledsoe, 44, who recently moved with their daughter, Alana, 6, from her home Brooklyn, N.Y., to Ray’s home in Upper Montclair, N.J., a wealthy suburb about 30 minutes outside New York City.
Ray was accused of shooting Bledsoe to death on Oct. 23 in the Montclair home while their daughter was in the house. He fled the house and took their daughter with him then left her with relatives as he headed out of the country, authorities said.
He remained on the lam and entered Cuba on Oct, 28. However, he was taken into custody by the Cuban government, which turned him in to U.S. officials on Tuesday.
“This action is based on Cuba’s full compliance with its international legal obligations” the Cuban government said in a statement. Those obligations include existing bilateral law enforcement agreements between the two governments.
During a press conference, Essex County Prosecutor Theodore Stephens said Mexican officials alerted the FBI that Ray was on his way flying to Cuba.
Bledsoe gave birth to her daughter, fathered by Ray, in 2012. Ray also was in a long-term marriage with a woman named Cheryl, NorthJersey.com report
Neighbors and friends said they knew little about the couple or their relationship, and one neighbor spoke of trying to befriend Bledsoe.
“It seemed as if she deliberately did not want to chat,” the neighbor, Anat Soudry, told NorthJersey.com. “It left a weird impression on me.”
Soudry said local police asked if she thought Bledsoe might have been scared of something. It became clear to Soudry that might have been the case.
“In retrospect, that may have been it,” Soudry said. “I did register it as not being normal.”
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