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He Fatally Shot His Girlfriend. Then He Wrote About It in His Diary. He Fatally Shot His Girlfriend. Then He Wrote About It in His Diary.
(about 11 hours later)
The murder case against James R. Ray III was never short on drama. NEWARK — The murder case against James R. Ray III was never short on drama.
Mr. Ray, a former Marine and entertainment lawyer, fled to Cuba after Angela Bledsoe, the mother of his then 6-year-old daughter, was found shot to death in 2018 in the home they shared in Montclair, N.J. He was arrested after a weeklong international manhunt. Mr. Ray, an entertainment lawyer and former Marine, fled to Cuba after Angela Bledsoe, the mother of his then 6-year-old daughter, was found shot to death in 2018 in the home they shared in Montclair, N.J. He was arrested after a weeklong international manhunt.
Then, nearly a year later, parts of an 18-page diary that Mr. Ray purportedly wrote in the days after the shooting were read in court, suggesting that he had killed Ms. Bledsoe in self-defense but had tried to escape because he did not believe a Black man could get a fair trial in the United States. Then, nearly a year later, parts of an 18-page diary that Mr. Ray wrote in the days after the shooting were read in court, suggesting that he killed Ms. Bledsoe in self-defense but tried to escape because he did not believe a Black man could get a fair trial in the United States.
On Wednesday morning, after years of delays linked to pandemic shutdowns and court backlogs, the trial is expected to begin in Essex County Superior Court in Newark. On Wednesday, after years of delays linked to pandemic shutdowns, his trial began in Essex County Superior Court in Newark. It unfolded theatrically, much like the case itself, with feisty opening statements from Brooke M. Barnett, one of Mr. Ray’s two lawyers, and Michele Miller, an assistant prosecutor who lodged a series of objections before a single witness took the stand.
Mr. Ray’s lawyers will not dispute that he fired the fatal shots, but they will argue that he did so because he felt that his life was in danger. Ms. Barnett told jurors that there was no dispute that her client had fired the fatal shots, but she said he did so in self-defense after Ms. Bledsoe, 44, picked up a gun and pointed it toward him.
“The case rises and falls on self-defense,” said Brooke M. Barnett, one of Mr. Ray’s two lawyers. “There’s no eyewitnesses. It’s just him and her. She picked up the gun. It’s action versus reaction. He was in fear of his life.” “Angela had grown to hate, even despise, have disdain for James,” Ms. Barnett said.
Mr. Ray, now 60, has been in jail in Newark awaiting trial since he was charged with murder and weapons possession in the Oct. 22, 2018, death of Ms. Bledsoe, the youngest of four children, who was known as Angie and was 44 when she died of gunshot wounds. “The evidence will show that she picked up the gun, and she pointed it at him in one of her tirades,” she added.
Ms. Miller told a far different story as she laid out the prosecution’s case to a jury of 11 men and four women.
She presented Mr. Ray as a calculated killer who in the hours after Ms. Bledsoe’s death on Oct. 22, 2018, methodically withdrew cash, wrote checks, printed his will and typed a letter to his brother.
Then, she said, he plotted his getaway to Cuba, a country with no extradition treaty with the United States. It was an odyssey that involved a taxi ride to Philadelphia, a cross-country trek by car to Texas, a bus ride into Mexico and airplane flights to Havana, where Mr. Ray was captured as he attempted to clear customs.
“While Angela lay dead on the kitchen floor and their daughter was in school, the defendant began an elaborate plan to get away and disappear,” Ms. Miller said after detailing the trajectory of the three bullets that struck Ms. Bledsoe in the chest, face and backside.
Mr. Ray, now 60, has been in jail in Newark awaiting trial since he was charged with murder and weapons possession in the death of Ms. Bledsoe, who worked as a financial consultant in New York City. A graduate of Florida A&M University, she had grown up in Maryland, the youngest of four children, and was known as Angie.
“She was our little baby,” Ms. Bledsoe’s mother, Gaynelle Bledsoe, 79, said in an interview on Tuesday.“She was our little baby,” Ms. Bledsoe’s mother, Gaynelle Bledsoe, 79, said in an interview on Tuesday.
“For four years, we have been unable to do much of anything at all,” said Ms. Bledsoe’s father, Ray Bledsoe, 81. “It’s been a toll.” Hours after the shooting, Mr. Ray picked up the couple’s daughter, Alana, from a language immersion school in Sterling, N.J., according to testimony. He arranged to leave her with his brother, Robert Ray, who met the two of them in a restaurant in New Jersey.
After the shooting, Mr. Ray left the couple’s daughter, Alana, with his brother, who discovered a note and Mr. Ray’s cellphone in his niece’s suitcase, according to a police report. Mr. Ray’s brother called the police in Montclair, who discovered Ms. Bledsoe’s body in the six-bedroom home in Upper Montclair, an affluent section of the township of 41,000 about 20 miles west of Midtown Manhattan. That night, while getting Alana ready for bed, Robert Ray testified that he found his brother’s cellphone and the typed note in his niece’s suitcase. He said he cried upon reading it and called the police in Montclair.
Soon after, Mr. Ray’s BMW was found in a parking lot at Newark Liberty International Airport. The search for Mr. Ray was the stuff of movies, with leaders from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Homeland Security Department joining the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office in celebrating his arrest after an Interpol alert led to his capture by officials in Cuba as he tried to enter that country, which has no extradition treaty with the United States. “I told them it sounded like, what seemed like, there might have been a murder at his home,” Robert Ray testified Wednesday afternoon.
“If you commit a crime in the state of New Jersey, we will not forget, we will not forgive, and we will find you,” Gregory W. Ehrie, then the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Newark office, said at the time. “The world has become a very small place.” Officers found Ms. Bledsoe’s body in the kitchen of the six-bedroom home in Upper Montclair, an affluent section of the township of 41,000 about 20 miles west of Midtown Manhattan.
Mr. Ray, who spent two years as a New York City police officer before getting his M.B.A. and going to law school, faces life in prison if convicted of killing Ms. Bledsoe. She worked as a financial consultant and spent much of her time after graduating from Florida A&M University living in New York City, where Mr. Ray had a law office. Soon after, Mr. Ray’s BMW was discovered in a parking lot at Newark Liberty International Airport. The search for him was the stuff of movies, with officials from the F.B.I. and the Homeland Security Department celebrating his arrest after an Interpol alert led to his capture in Cuba as he tried to enter that country.
A large contingent of Ms. Bledsoe’s relatives from Maryland and Florida, classmates from college and members of her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, are expected to fill the courtroom during the trial. Her sister, Lisa LaBoo, who with her husband is raising Alana in Florida, had buttons made bearing her younger sister’s photo. “If you commit a crime in the state of New Jersey, we will not forget, we will not forgive and we will find you,” Gregory W. Ehrie, then the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Newark office, said at the time. “The world has become a very small place.”
A doting aunt, Ms. Bledsoe once flew to London to watch her niece compete in a competition for cheerleading — a sport Ms. LaBoo said Alana, 10, now also enjoys. Mr. Ray, who was raised in Brooklyn and spent two years as a New York City police officer before getting his M.B.A. and going to law school, faces life in prison if convicted of killing Ms. Bledsoe.
Ms. LaBoo said she had admired her sister’s ability to find God in everyday moments. They met while he was married, Ms. Barnett said, when he hired her to work at an insurance agency he operated. The two began an affair, and Ms. Bledsoe, at 38, became pregnant with Alana, who now lives with Ms. Bledsoe’s sister, Lisa LaBoo, in Florida.
“When good things would happen during the day she’d say, ‘God winked at me today,’” Ms. LaBoo recalled. A large contingent of Ms. Bledsoe’s relatives, classmates from college and Delta Sigma Theta sorority sisters filled the courtroom Wednesday morning. Many wore buttons bearing Ms. Bledsoe’s photo and silently wept as grisly details of her death were recited in the wood-paneled courtroom.
“She was beautiful on the inside and out,” she added through tears. “We’re praying for justice.” At one point, Mr. Ray also appeared to be crying, prompting a court officer to hand him a tissue.
Before the trial, Ms. LaBoo described Ms. Bledsoe as a doting aunt who once flew to London to watch her niece compete in a competition for cheerleading — a sport that Alana, 10, now also enjoys.
She said she had admired her sister’s ability to find God in everyday moments. “When good things would happen during the day she’d say, ‘God winked at me today,’” Ms. LaBoo recalled.
“She was beautiful on the inside and out,” she added. “We’re praying for justice.”
Ms. Barnett, however, began crafting a far more complex portrait of Ms. Bledsoe.
At the time of her death, Ms. Bledsoe was involved in a sexual relationship with a married man in Florida, lawyers for Mr. Ray and for the state told the jurors. Her goal, they said, was to join him in Florida.
Prosecutors suggested that this relationship had angered Mr. Ray, whom they depicted as a controlling partner who demeaned Ms. Bledsoe.
But Ms. Barnett instead framed Ms. Bledsoe’s two affairs as revealing flaws in her character. Ms. Bledsoe, she said, was an opportunist drawn to Mr. Ray because of his access to a “who’s who of the upper echelons of Black society.”
And, Ms. Barnett said of Ms. Bledsoe’s desire to move to Florida, “she wanted to latch herself to another man.” A 9-millimeter gun was found next to Ms. Bledsoe in the kitchen, Ms. Barnett said. The .45-caliber weapon that Ms. Miller said Mr. Ray used to kill Ms. Bledsoe was never found.
While on the witness stand, Robert Ray, Mr. Ray’s brother, was asked by Ms. Miller to read from the letter he found in Alana’s bag.
In the letter, the defendant wrote that he was about to clean his guns when Ms. Bledsoe picked one up and pointed it at him.
“I reacted in the heat of the moment,” James Ray wrote. “I am scared and don’t want the long burden of a trial to prove my point.”
He encouraged his brother to continue teaching Alana to play golf.
“Let her know that I truly loved her,” the letter read.