More on the NJ Bride killed on wedding day
PattyC
Well this is pretty interesting, as maybe? manslaughter is not out of the
question. I still think it's a joke to consider that the guy didn't know
she was scheduled to get married, so am all for murder one. But whatever
the reasons for the bride's still talking to the old boyfriend, she sure
muddied the waters for the 1st degree murder case. I think sometimes people
continue to talk to nut cases in their lives because they think it's
"kinder" or will cause "less" problems.
Picture this, the guy IS stalking her, follows her into the store, is
talking to/at her. Puts his arm around her shoulders as they walk. She
maybe doesn't scream at him to get away in order to not cause a scene?
I'd love to see the store video, and also wish I knew more about the
prospective groom.
I don't think it's THAT big a deal that her son didn't know the groom's last
name. Sometimes people of 19 or 20 are not so interested in anything but
themselves...
PattyC
--
"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people."
Bride, killer met night before
Wednesday, October 10, 2001
By PAULO LIMA
Staff Writer
His left arm slung casually over her shoulder, Agustin Garcia and Gladys
Ricart seemed like any other happy couple striding into a supermarket for a
late-night purchase.
Less than 15 hours later, Garcia shot Ricart dead in a murderous rage as she
stood in her living room in her wedding dress preparing to marry another
man.
Prosecutors played the store surveillance video for jurors Tuesday during
Garcia's murder trial in Superior Court in Hackensack.
The tape captures the couple as they enter and leave the Pathmark
supermarket on Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen shortly after 1 a.m. -- the
same day Ricart was scheduled to marry James Preston.
Garcia, 49, and Ricart had dated on and off for about seven years before he
killed her on Sept. 26, 1999, as she posed for photos in her Ridgefield
home.
Defense attorneys claim the video shows that Ricart was dating two men at
once, right up to the eve of her wedding to Preston. They contend that
Garcia was under the impression that he and Ricart were still a couple and
was shocked when he found her in a wedding dress.
Using that defense, they hope to persuade jurors not to convict Garcia of
murder, which could send him to prison for life, but of manslaughter, which
carries a 10-year term.
Ricart led a double life, keeping her own family essentially in the dark
about the man she planned to marry, the defense lawyers claim.
During testimony Tuesday, Ricart's son, Davis, said he met Preston only
twice -- the second time being when they went to be measured for their
tuxedos.
"On the date this was to occur, you didn't even know this man's last name?"
said defense attorney Edward Jerejian. "You were going to walk your mother
down the aisle and hand her over to James and not even know his last name?"
"I knew his name was James," Davis Ricart answered.
Prosecutors, in turn, have suggested that Garcia was stalking Ricart.
Toward that end, they called Ricart's maid of honor, Josephine Formato, to
the stand Tuesday. She testified that she was with Ricart until about
midnight on the eve of the wedding. Ricart left to purchase a feminine
hygiene product for her friend and was gone a long time, she said.
"I asked her what took her so long and she said she bumped into an old
friend," said Formato, a co-worker at the Manhattan travel agency where
Ricart worked.
During cross-examination, Jerejian seized on the statement to counter the
prosecutors' case.
"Did she [Ricart] tell you somebody was following her?" Jerejian asked
Formato. "Harassing her? Stalking her? Did she call the police?"
Formato answered "No" to each question.
In a statement to investigators the day of his arrest, Garcia said he and
Ricart returned to his house in North Bergen after leaving the Pathmark. He
said they sat in his bedroom until about 2:30 a.m., when Ricart left.
Garcia also told a detective that he and Ricart had sex "three or four"
times in the week before her planned wedding, but not that particular night.
Formato gave emotional testimony about how she and Ricart worked late into
the night decorating the bride-to-be's home before the wedding. Struggling
to maintain her composure, she wept when Bergen County First Assistant
Prosecutor Fred Schwanwede asked her to identify a wedding invitation.
"She described this as her fairy-tale wedding, so she wanted everything to
be perfect," Formato said.
Earlier, Davis Ricart testified that he was supposed to walk his mother down
the aisle and give her away.
Now 22, Ricart was a college freshman when his mother was slain.
He remained impassive during questioning Tuesday, mechanically responding to
both the prosecutor and defense attorney. He did not return to the courtroom
after he was finished.
Jerejian accused Davis Ricart -- along with Gladys' brother, Juan -- of
ambushing Garcia the moment he entered the house.
Davis Ricart repeatedly denied hitting Garcia. He said he let Garcia into
the house because Garcia was knocking loudly and causing a scene. Once
inside, he told jurors, Garcia pushed past him and began shooting.
Schwanwede argued that the 6-foot-4, 235-pound man could have hurt the
slightly-built Garcia if he had actually attacked him.
Prosecutors planned to rest their case today, with the possibility that
defense attorneys could begin calling witnesses. The lawyers said they
expect to have Garcia testify next week.
Superior Court Judge William C. Meehan told jurors he hopes they can begin
deliberations before the end of next week.
Defendant dubbed victim 'my wife'
Thursday, October 11, 2001
By PAULO LIMA
Staff Writer
Prosecutors rested their case Wednesday against alleged bride-killer Agustin
Garcia, while defense lawyers set about establishing that Garcia and his
victim maintained an intimate relationship right up until her death.
Garcia, 49, is charged with killing ex-girlfriend Gladys Ricart in her
Ridgefield home on Sept. 26, 1999, the day she was to marry another man.
Garcia burst in and shot Ricart as she posed in her wedding dress
distributing flowers to bridesmaids.
Prosecutors have said the couple broke up several months earlier and that
Garcia was stalking Ricart. The defense contends that they were dating the
entire time and that Garcia didn't know about the wedding.
Garcia is charged with murder. Defense attorneys hope to persuade jurors not
to convict Garcia of murder, which could send him to prison for life, but of
manslaughter, which carries a 10-year term.
Defense lawyers Wednesday questioned five friends and associates of Garcia,
several of whom testified that he had introduced Ricart as "my wife"
whenever they were together in public.
Garcia, who was president of the Dominican-American Chamber of Commerce in
Manhattan, once served as grand marshal of the Dominican Day Parade in the
early 1990s. Ricart rode at his side during the parade, said Angel Caso, a
business associate and friend.
"I don't remember anytime that they weren't a couple," Caso said.
Caso and his wife also testified that they had seen Garcia and Ricart
behaving intimately a few weeks before her slaying. The Casos said the
couple joined them for dinner at a Washington Heights restaurant sometime in
September 1999. After that, Angel Caso told jurors, he drove them to New
Jersey and dropped them off at Ricart's home.
Jurors on Tuesday saw a supermarket surveillance video showing Garcia and
Ricart together late at night on the eve of the killing. Garcia also has
told detectives that he and Ricart had sex "three or four" times that same
week.
The defense witnesses gave jurors a better picture of Garcia, a co-founder
and former executive director of an organization called Asociaciones
Dominicanas. The non-profit group teaches young adults basic job skills at
its midtown Manhattan office and operates a day-care center on 145th Street.
Garcia also owned a beauty salon and travel agency in Washington Heights.
Several witnesses testified that Garcia carried a gun regularly. The
impetus, Caso said, was the killing of a fellow Dominican merchant.
Two other witnesses told the jury that Garcia had agreed to deliver the
welcoming remarks at an art exhibition at Asociaciones Dominicanas at night
on the day Ricart was slain.
"He said goodbye and promised that he would arrive early [on Sept. 26] to
see how the [preparations] were coming," said Adela Luppi, an art critic.
Bergen County First Assistant Prosecutor Fred Schwanwede accused the defense
of trying to mislead jurors into thinking that the state must prove
premeditation for Garcia to be guilty of murder.
"The defense has now called two witnesses to show that Mr. Garcia had plans
subsequent to killing Miss Ricart," Schwanwede objected.
Superior Court Judge William C. Meehan allowed the testimony, adding that he
will instruct jurors on the law before they begin deliberations.
The defense testimony followed the state's final witness, Dr. Mary Ann
Clayton of the Bergen County Medical Examiner's Office. Ricart's relatives
were not present in the Hackensack courtroom as Clayton detailed the bullet
wounds to the slain woman's back, head, and arm.
Gunpowder burns on the wedding dress indicate that the .38-caliber revolver
was a few inches from her body when the bullet tore into Ricart's back,
Clayton said. The bullet then ripped through both lungs and lodged beneath
Ricart's left collarbone, she said.
The head shot entered below her right ear and passed under her skull before
exiting just below her left eyebrow, Clayton said. Although that bullet --
fired from no more than 18 inches away -- did not penetrate the brain, it
created a shock wave that caused the brain to swell, she testified.
Either of the two shots could have killed Ricart on its own, Clayton told
jurors. The other bullet passed through Ricart's forearm and reentered her
upper arm, she said.
Clayton agreed with investigators' assessment that the bullet to the arm was
the first to strike Ricart. Defense lawyer Edward Jerejian asked Clayton
whether the arm wound could have been fatal by itself. She replied that it
could not.
That is significant to Garcia's defense because Jerejian has argued that
Ricart's brother, Juan, was hanging on to Garcia's arms as he fired the
shots.
Maggie
>Well this is pretty interesting, as maybe? manslaughter is not out of the
>question. I still think it's a joke to consider that the guy didn't know
>she was scheduled to get married, so am all for murder one. But whatever
>the reasons for the bride's still talking to the old boyfriend, she sure
>muddied the waters for the 1st degree murder case. I think sometimes people
>continue to talk to nut cases in their lives because they think it's
>"kinder" or will cause "less" problems.
***I think that happens. And sometimes, I think, people keep in contact with
old boyfriends because they like stringing them along and playing games.
At any rate, it seems pretty clear that manslaughter is all they'll get (since
the prosecution's through and the case looks shaky even without the defense's
case). I'm wondering why Garcia didn't try for some sort of diminished
capacity defense.
>
>Picture this, the guy IS stalking her, follows her into the store, is
>talking to/at her. Puts his arm around her shoulders as they walk. She
>maybe doesn't scream at him to get away in order to not cause a scene?
>
>I'd love to see the store video, and also wish I knew more about the
>prospective groom.
>
>I don't think it's THAT big a deal that her son didn't know the groom's
>last
>name. Sometimes people of 19 or 20 are not so interested in anything but
>themselves...
***Have you read anything about how long the engagement lasted? I assume she
didn't wear an engagement ring.
Maggie
"The same people always urging us to not blame the victim in rape cases are now
saying Uncle Sam wore a short skirt and asked for it." -- Jonathan Alter