After an international manhunt, a NJ man never received a sentence for killing girlfriend

In October 2018, Angela Bledsoe dropped her daughter at school not knowing it was the last time they would see each other.

Hours later, in the evening, Bledsoe, 44, was found dead on the kitchen floor of her house in Montclair.

Her boyfriend and her daughter’s father, James Ray III, gunned her down before he left the country and prompted an international manhunt. The story of Bledsoe's death, Ray's capture and their tumultuous relationship will air on ABC Dec. 8.

He claimed it was self-defense, that he was about to clean his guns when Bledsoe picked up one of them and pointed it at him.

"I was about to clean my guns, and Angela picked up one as she was going to shoot me. I reacted in the heat of the moment, eased down and couldn't stop firing," Ray wrote in a letter to his brother.

Ray first escaped to Mexico City, and then flew over to Cuba, a country with which the U.S. has no extradition agreement.

After the FBI got involved, a bureau agent arrived in Cuba and managed to get local law enforcement to turn Ray over to him. Ray was flown back to New Jersey, where he was kept in custody at the Essex County Correctional Facility.

How did James Ray and Angela Bledsoe meet?

Raised in Brooklyn, Ray served as a Marine and then spent two years as a New York City police officer before earning an M.B.A. and going to law school.

He later launched his insurance brokerage firm and hired Bledsoe, an accomplished financial adviser.

At that time, Ray was a married man, but that didn’t stop him from having feelings toward Bledsoe nor from dating her. At some point, she realized that he was married.

"I do not recall how she found out, but she was not pleased, as you can imagine," Bledsoe's friend Jamila McCoy told ABC News.

"It's not in her character to date a married man, and it would never have been her first choice to become involved with a married man," she said.

But their relationship continued.

"When she got pregnant with their daughter, I think that locked her in," a cousin of Bledsoe said.

Those who knew Ray and Bledsoe recall they had a lot in common. Still, since early on, Bledsoe’s family alleges there were problems in their relationship.

Through more than seven years of a relationship, things continued to get worse. Just like Ray used to cheat on his wife with Bledsoe, he thought that Bledsoe was doing the same to him.

Tension intensified until Bledsoe decided she no longer wanted to be with him.

It was on the day that she was meeting a realtor, looking at a new home, that Ray killed Bledsoe.

What happened with the prosecution?

The trial was long and loaded with harsh allegations.

Ray’s defense attorney, Brooke Barnett, said, “Angela had grown to hate, even despise, have disdain for James.”  “The evidence will show that she picked up the gun, and she pointed it at him in one of her tirades,” she added.

In turn, prosecutor Michele Miller told the jury of 11 men and four women that Ray was a calculated killer able to methodically withdraw cash, write checks, print his will and write a letter to his brother.

The jury, though, deliberated in just a few hours. In June 2023, Ray was found guilty of murder, and his sentence was expected to be life in prison. But four days before Ray’s sentencing, he was found unconscious in his cell at the Essex County Correctional Facility.

A sergeant administered him Narcan, a drug that treats overdoses, but that didn’t save Ray from dying.

The Essex County Correctional Facility has been under review given security issues that have jeopardized the safety of inmates. A man was stabbed to death in 2021, and a 22-year-old detainee with schizophrenia was beaten until he was left in a coma for months.

After all the time, effort and money invested in Ray’s prosecution and international manhunt, a sentence never landed on him.

Manhunting Ray involved efforts from local authorities, FBI, Interpol, and the Homeland Security Department.

“If you commit a crime in the state of New Jersey, we will not forget, we will not forgive and we will find you,” said FBI agent Gregory W. Ehriee at the time of Ray’s capture.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: James Ray III never served a sentence for the murder of Angela Bledsoe