Bride Lived in Fear
kkramer
If I'm gone, it's his fault, she said
By CHRISENA COLEMAN, APARNA NARAYANAN
and CORKY SIEMASZKO
Daily News Writers
he New Jersey bride gunned down in her wedding gown told co-workers she
lived in fear of the ex-boyfriend now accused of taking her life. "God
forbid if one day I don't come to work in the morning, you should know it's
him," the doomed bride, Gladys Ricart, told one colleague at a Manhattan
travel agency.
Gladys Ricart poses for a picture with her son moments before she was gunned
down Sunday.
It was a startling foreshadowing of the horror that enveloped Ricart on
Sunday, on what should have been the happiest day of her life.
Hours before she was to marry James Preston Jr., Ricart was fatally shot at
her Ridgefield, N.J., home by former lover Agustin Garcia, police said.
On what was supposed to be the first day of his honeymoon, Preston, 40, of
Brooklyn, watched, stone-faced, in a New Jersey courtroom as Garcia was
charged with the fatal shooting.
"He shot the bride, cold-blooded, in her wedding dress," said Bergen County
Assistant Prosecutor James Santulli. "He was not invited to the house and he
should not have been there."
A smirk briefly flittered across Garcia's face, but otherwise he showed no
emotion. His hands and feet shackled, he didn't once look at Preston, who
sported a fresh haircut and stared straight ahead throughout the arraignment
before he was led out a side door.
Agustin Garcia is taken from court in Hackensack, N.J. yesterday.
A Dominican immigrant, Ricart was an American success story, working her way
off welfare and about to cross the threshold into happiness.
"Gladys came from nothing and worked her way up," said Wolf Mertel,
president of Consortium Tours in Manhattan, where Ricart worked for nine
years. "This was supposed to be her big break."
Referred to the agency by America Works, which tries to mainstream welfare
recipients into jobs, "she started as the lowest of the low in the company
and became the accounts manager," Mertel said.
Scrimping and saving, Ricart bought a house in the suburbs and flew her mom
in from the Dominican Republic. She was putting her 20-year-old son, Davis,
through college.
But Ricart's bright new life also had a dark cloud — a fellow Dominican who
scared her co-workers.
"We knew about the boyfriend, that he was not a very pleasant human being
... and that he was seeing other women," Mertel said. "There had been
threats, we knew that. I gave her the name of an attorney, but I don't know
whether she used it."
The co-workers said Ricart dumped Garcia because he had been cheating on
her.
Santulli confirmed "there was a prior incident involving Garcia where police
were called to the house." He did not elaborate, and police in Ridgefield
would not release any information about the alleged incident.
Ricart and Garcia had been together for several years and broke up two
months ago, police said. She met Preston, on the rebound, in July.
The invitation to the wedding of Gladys Ricart and James Preston Jr. is all
that's left of their fairy-tale romance.
A churchgoing accountant from Trinidad, Preston proposed after a whirlwind
romance. Ricart, who had been married before, was planning the nuptials with
the gusto of a first-time bride.
"She wanted everything to be perfect," said Queens florist Betty Cruz, as
she laid the lilies and roses that were supposed to grace a Queens church on
the steps of the slain bride's home. "She said she'd waited 20 years for
this wedding."
There was a flip side to Ricart's joy: Garcia learned of the impending
marriage at the last minute and was stunned.
"It was a shock to him that she was getting married," said Garcia's lawyer,
Fernando Oliver.
On Sunday, Garcia walked to Ricart's house from his North Bergen, N.J.,
home. Dressed in a suit, carrying a briefcase, he told guests he was there
to wish the bride good luck.
But he pulled a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson from the briefcase and shot the
bride three times, Santulli said.
He kept firing as Ricart's brother, Juan, jumped him. "As they struggled, he
shot into a room that was filled with women and children," Santulli said.
"And he had more ammunition to reload."
Oliver added a note of mystery when he said Garcia and Ricart saw each other
recently.
"This is not your typical case," Oliver said. "We don't know if he was
invited to the house yesterday or not invited, but they had been together
recently."
Garcia saw Ricart the previous weekend, Oliver said, and his relatives said,
"romance was implied."
Santulli declined to comment on Oliver's assertion. Garcia, 47, who pleaded
not guilty and was ordered held on $5 million bond, was on suicide watch.
Still Singin
invited to the house yesterday or not invited, but they had been together
recently."
Garcia saw Ricart the previous weekend, Oliver said, and his relatives said,
"romance was implied."
>>
Ok...Slimy Defense Attorney...time to kick the murdered woman's reputation in
the face, after all a man's life is at stake.. why not???
How do these people sleep at night?
Blue
The Keeper of Da-Lovely but Dumb: *Hugh Grant* & Po,The *RED* TELETUBBY
*I don't know what the question is but the answer is Chocolate*
syvyn11
defense. But I guess they will find a way.
--
__________________________________
Syvyn11 aka the horse you rode in on spice
Munch 3:16 says don't dip your wick in the company ink!
Still Singin <blue...@aol.comnospam> wrote in message
news:19990928155342...@ng-fa1.aol.com...
kkramer
Kramer
Still Singin wrote in message
<19990928155342...@ng-fa1.aol.com>...
mslinda
>
> It's cut and clear. He walks up and shoots her, no way for a slimy
> defense. But I guess they will find a way.
> --
There's always the old reliable "insanity."
Linda C.
ty...@yahoo.com
"kkramer" <Nobody's life, liberty, or property is safe while Congress
is in session...> wrote:
> They have the killer on VIDEO. Show that to the jury in SLOW MOTION.
They had video tape of the cops beating Rodney King and
that didn't help.
Yohner
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.