James Ray seemed to have it all: a nice home in Montclair, a successful law practice in Manhattan, and a long-standing, live-in relationship with a woman that yielded a young daughter.
Miller outlined how Ray, a Marine Corps veteran, shot Bledsoe four times with a .45 handgun, hitting her in the face and torso. She told the jury that after the shooting, Ray typed out a letter to his brother, Robert, then dropped it in his daughter’s suitcase and brought the girl to him in a steakhouse in Piscataway. Then he drove to Texas, caught a plane to Mexico City and then flew to Cuba, where he was arrested four days later trying to enter the country.
The defense maintains that Bledsoe was the aggressor. Barnett argues that Ray, a Marine Corps veteran, had two guns on the table and was cleaning them when Bledsoe grabbed one during an argument and pointed it him. Bledsoe, who was 44 years old, was described by the prosecutor as an independent woman with a successful career as a financial analyst. She kept a journal and was working with a real estate agent to find a new house when she was killed, Miller said.