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.
But on the morning of Oct. 22, 2018, the woman, Angela Bledsoe, was about to move out and take the couple’s daughter with her. And the pending breakup is what drove Ray to shoot and kill Bledsoe inside their home on North Mountain Avenue, then flee to Cuba, the prosecutor told the jury as Ray’s murder trial opened in Essex County Superior Court on Wednesday.
“They had a difficult relationship,” Assistant Prosecutor Michelle Miller told the jury of 11 men and four women that will hear the case. “She was moving out and taking their child with her.”
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.
But the defense countered that there were two guns on the table at the North Mountain Avenue home that morning, and Bledsoe was holding one of them. It was a .9mm pistol, and she pointed it at Ray, defense attorney Brooke M. Barnett told the jury.
“On Oct. 22, 2018, Angela Bledsoe made the decision to pick up a handgun and point it at James Ray,” Barnett said. “James Ray had a right to defend himself. He had no other choice.”
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.
“This was a case of self-defense. Nothing more and nothing less,” Barnett told the jury of 15. At the end of the trial, 12 jurors will be selected to deliberate, with three standing by as alternates.
Ray maintains that it was Bledsoe who was the aggressor. During pre-trial motions, his attorneys have said that Ray had the two guns on the table when
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.
Barnett countered that Bledsoe was an unhappy woman who was having an affair, and angry that the couple was splitting up.
Ray also kept a journal, in parts of which he uses a fictitious name, Jack. The journal also uses fictitious names for his girlfriend and daughter and describes an argument and a shooting.
The contents of Ray’s journal were the focus of pre-trial motions, and it remains to be seen how much of the content will be allowed as evidence during the trial.
Members of Bledsoe’s family sat quietly in the front of the courtroom, which was jammed with media and attorneys who had come to hear opening arguments. Miller issued numerous objections as Barnett alluded to the contents of journal entries and text messages between the couple. Judge Verna G. Leath sustained almost every objection.
Ray, 60, took notes and occasionally conferred with Barnett and his co-counsel, Thomas Ashley. There were no witnesses to the shooting, so it appears likely that Ray will take the witness stand to claim self-defense.
Ray has been locked up in the Essex County Correction Center since November of 2018, when U.S Marshalls brought him back from Cuba. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of murder. He is also charged with unlawful weapons possession.
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Richard Cowen may be reached at rcowen@njadvancemedia.com.