O/T Bride in gown gunned down by ex-lover
PUSSSYKATT
Staff Writers
RIDGEFIELD -- Moments before a white Rolls-Royce was to deliver her to the
altar Sunday afternoon, a 39-year-old bride-to-be was shot to death by a man
identified by authorities as a former beau.
The victim, Gladys Ricart -- wearing an elegant gown and a glittering tiara --
was pronounced dead in the living room of the two-family home she shared with
her 20-year-old son, Davis, and mother, Anna Rosario, on Elizabeth Street.
A wedding guest tackled the suspect, Augustine Garcia, 47, of Newkirk Avenue,
North Bergen, said Bergen County Prosecutor William H. Schmidt.
"He appeared as if he were going to the wedding," Schmidt said.
The prosecutor said the gunman had a briefcase, opened it, pulled out a
.38-caliber Smith & Wesson, and opened fire, shooting the victim several times.
Garcia was being questioned by county investigators late Sunday.
"The charges will be determined once we've completed taking statements from the
witnesses," Schmidt said.
By all accounts, it was a terrifying scene. As soon as shots were fired, guests
ran for cover.
"People were running," the prosecutor said. "They were scattering, looking for
hiding places."
One wedding guest, believed to be the brother of the victim, tackled Garcia and
held him until police arrived, authorities said.
Early Sunday evening, instead of toasting the newlyweds, friends and family
were bused to the borough's ambulance corps building on Shaler Boulevard, where
detectives asked them to describe what happened. Some guests lingered outside
the corps building.
"My sister! My sister!" one woman cried in Spanish. Another Spanish-speaking
woman, wearing an elegant cream evening gown, rested against a police car.
"She's dead," she moaned.
Investigators on Sunday night were preparing to interview the victim's fiance,
identified as James Preston Jr., 36, of Brooklyn. They also were wrapping up
interviews with 35 to 40 well-wishers who had gathered at the victim's home to
see her off to Church on the Hill in Flushing, Queens.
Authorities had recovered the murder weapon, Schmidt said.
He declined to say where the victim was struck. An autopsy has been scheduled
for this morning, he said.
It was not clear whether Ricart was the sole intended target, but Schmidt noted
that no other injuries were reported.
From interviews, authorities learned that the victim and Garcia had dated for
seven or eight years.
"They broke it off several months ago," Schmidt said.
Ricart and Preston met about four months ago, Schmidt said. It was to be the
first marriage for Ricart.
The victim's son, Davis Ricart, is a student whose father is neither the
alleged gunman nor the fiance, Schmidt said.
For hours after the 4 p.m. shooting, the victim's neighbors gathered near the
two white limousines and the Rolls-Royce and recalled the last moments of a day
that should have been Ricart's happiest.
"She looked regal," said Maria Cabezas, who was visiting a friend on Morse
Avenue. Cabezas described the bride-to-be as wearing an old-fashioned gown with
a tight bodice and a flowing skirt.
Atop her head, Cabezas said, was a glittering tiara.
Another neighbor, a 12-year resident who asked that her name be withheld, said
police had visited the victim's home within the past two weeks.
"There was some kind of argument," the neighbor said. "There definitely were
some goings-on until the police showed up."
Shortly before 4 p.m. Sunday, the neighbor said, she glanced out a screen door
to see the limousines lining up.
"I thought, 'Today's the wedding.' Then all of a sudden everybody seemed to be
running in all directions."
Four or five bridesmaids, dressed in green silky finery, clung to one another,
the neighbor said. Among them were two youngsters dressed as a pint-size
wedding couple and cradling a puppy.
Jackie Leatham of Morse Avenue said a neighbor trembled as he told her the
news.
"This was devastating," said Janet Donnelly, another neighbor. "It's sad on a
wedding day. In five minutes she's dead."
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PUSSSYKATT
CATHY BURKE
-----------------------------
A stern New Jersey judge yesterday said he thought the death penalty would be
perfectly "appropriate" for the alleged killer who coldly blew away a beaming
bride on her wedding day.
"This was a horrendous event," said Superior Court Judge William Meehan. "This
should have been the happiest day of her life. Instead, it was the last day of
her life.
"If the state will seek the death penalty, I think it's appropriate."
Meehan slapped a $5 million bail on Agustin Garcia, 47, of North Bergen, N.J.,
for the slaying Sunday of his ex-girlfriend, Gladys Ricart, 39, in her
Ridgefield, N.J., home.
Garcia - described by his lawyer as a prominent leader in the Dominican
community in Manhattan - pulled out a gun from a briefcase and opened fire,
hitting Ricart with three bullets that tore through her body, soaking her
pure-white wedding gown with her blood, prosecutors said.
The beaming bride had been posing for wedding pictures at her home while her
intended - 36-year-old James Preston of Brooklyn - waited in the Queens church
where the wedding was to have taken place Sunday.
"This day, I will marry the one who loves me without end, the one who brightens
my life and gives love a new meaning," Ricart wrote on her wedding invitation.
"The one who shares my dreams."
Garcia, his head shaved, pleaded innocent to murder and weapons possession
charges.
Garcia's lawyer, Fernando Oliver, said the suspect feared for his children, 15
and 19, saying the Ricart family was "talking about retribution and vengeance."
He hinted he would argue that Garcia opened fire in self-defense.
Oliver said Garcia was "jumped" when he went to Ricart's home, and "a scuffle
broke out."
He also said he'd seek a psychological evaluation of Garcia.
But the lawyer said the victim and suspect had been together just last weekend
"as boyfriend and girlfriend. It was a shock to him when he learned [Ricart and
Preston] were getting married."
Assistant Prosecutor James Santulli said Garcia coldly "shot into a room with
children and women present" - and apparently knew what he planned. Santulli
said the state may seek the death penalty.
"He also had extra ammunition in his pocket," Santulli said.
At a business Garcia runs in Washington Heights, called "Illusion," employees
and customers were shocked.
Stylist Zoe Guzman said she last cut Ricart's long brown hair three weeks ago,
recalling her as "very quiet" and never talking about her romantic life.
"I don't know how this happened," Guzman said. "I'm very surprised. [Garcia] is
not a bad person."
Preston's friends were equally devastated.
At Double Click, the Internet company where he worked in the finance
department, a statement offered condolences to Preston, but had no further
comment. Employees refused to talk to the media.
But Preston's neighbors were devastated.
"She used to come over ... they looked like they were very much in love," said
Dale Baptiste, a neighbor of Preston at his Flatbush Avenue building.
"She was always happy. They were so much alike. She always had a smile."
"She finally found happiness," said a neighbor of Ricart, Joseph Bongiovanni.
"I guess [Garcia] wasn't going to let her go."
Neighbors and authorities said Ricart ended her relationship with Garcia about
nine months ago. Garcia was abusive and violent and had been stalking her,
neighbors said.
Ricart had met Preston about four months ago and became engaged to him - though
she still kept in contact with Garcia to try to "turn him around," Bongiovanni
said.
"The bastard should rot in hell, I'm telling you," said Bongiovanni. "He took a
beautiful life."
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