Montclair murderer James Ray III found dead in jail

Julia Martin, NorthJersey.com
Updated ·2 min read
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James Ray III, the attorney who was convicted in May of murdering his girlfriend Angela Bledsoe in their Upper Montclair home in 2018, died Sunday after being found unconscious in his cell at the Essex County Correctional Facility, said Robert Florida, a spokesman for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

Ray was pronounced dead at University Hospital in Newark after a "medical emergency," said a statement from Essex County Chief of Staff Philip B. Alagia.

"A cause of death will be determined by the Medical Examiner’s Office,” Alagia said, noting that an investigation is underway.

Ray, 60 at the time of the murder, had admitted to killing Bledsoe, who lived with him and their 6-year-old daughter on North Mountain Avenue, but said it was in self-defense when she picked up a gun he had been cleaning and pointed it at him. Leaving her on the floor in a pool of blood, he drove to pick up their daughter from school, dropped her off in the care of his brother, hitchhiked his way to Mexico and then flew to Cuba, where he was arrested on Oct. 30, 2018.

More: Days before her killing by James Ray III in Montclair, family urged victim to 'Get out'

James Ray III takes notes on the first day of his murder trial in Judge Verna Leath's courtroom in Newark on Wednesday, March 29, 2023.
James Ray III takes notes on the first day of his murder trial in Judge Verna Leath's courtroom in Newark on Wednesday, March 29, 2023.

During the trial, the jury heard portions of a confession note he had written to his brother, and a journal he wrote during his flight to Cuba detailing the killing. Bledsoe, 40, had been shot four times, once in the back.

Ultimately, the jury took only a few hours to convict him of murder and weapons charges. His sentencing, which was expected to be life in prison, had been scheduled for Thursday.

The Essex County Correctional Facility has been under review since a man was killed in 2021 in a stabbing by a fellow detainee, and a 22-year-old with schizophrenia, Jayshawn Boyd, was beaten so badly that he was left in a coma for months.

Last week, two of Boyd’s attackers were convicted of attempted murder. The September 2021 beating lasted at least two minutes and 11 seconds, The New York Times reported.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: James Ray III, convicted of Montclair murder, found dead in jail