International Manhunt | Murder in Mind | Forensic Files

[ominous music] - When someone kills the mother of their child, then, in my opinion, they can harm anybody.
JULIA SHAW: He's very much controlling the narrative to set the story of how he wishes it had happened.
THEODORE STEPHENS: The way the journal is written speaks to his ability to change the facts in his own mind.
- He is the hero in his own fantasy. MICHELLE MILLER: He wanted to control her until her last breath, and that's what he did.
[theme music] [grim music] [birdsong] [dog barking] - On October 22, 2018, the Montclair Police Department
received a 911 call. The caller was a Robert Ray, who reported receiving a concerning note from his brother,
James Ray, which indicated there could possibly have been violence caused upon someone
at the house there. He decided to call the police department so that we could investigate.
[siren wails] - Within approximately six minutes of the initial call going out, I
was notified as an investigative supervisor, and I did respond, along with several other officers
that night. - When the Montclair Police Department arrived at that location, it was dark.
There were no lights on. It didn't appear that there was any activity going on in the house.
- Eventually, after not being able to make contact with Mr. James Ray, the decision
was made to make entry. [thud] And once we got to the rear and we knew that we had medics and ambulance on standby
from the outside of the house through a sliding glass door, one of the officers was able to observe what he described
as a silhouette of a body. MICHELLE MILLER: They were able to see an individual's legs
protruding out from an area of the kitchen and what appeared to be a blood trail.
At that point, they made entry into the rear of the home, and they observed a female on the floor.
And she was mortally wounded from what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds. - Obviously, we have a homicide victim at that point,
so their priority was to find James Ray. - He was trying to give them as much detail
as he could about his brother and about any details that he could give that would potentially
lead law enforcement to at least have a starting point on where to look for James Ray.
CHARLIE CUNNINGHAM: Our biggest concern is, how do we locate James Ray? We're afraid that he could harm somebody else.
At this current time, he was in the wind, and we didn't know where he was. [airplane engines humming]
CARLA BARANAUCKAS: While James was on the run, he kept an 18-page journal. It read a little bit like a thriller type of novel.
MAN (VOICEOVER): "This writing is an account of what may be either my last days upon the Earth or
my journey, travels, and experiences before the outcome of a trial for self-defense.
Any actions I may have taken during my final days was out of pure necessity." - The journal is incredibly fascinating.
I don't think anyone in this office has any recollection of a similar journal being prepared by a killer.
The way the journal is written speaks to his ability to change the facts in his own mind.
MAN (VOICEOVER): "Names in this book are both fictitious and real. Jack is a pseudonym."
- He wrote it in the third person. He identified himself as Jack. - This journal is, in a way, his psychological defense
is kicking in. It's very, very grandiose. It's very self-serving, delusional in a way.
I think that he's got carried away with the romanticism of being a fugitive. - What's clear here is he's very much controlling
the narrative to set the story of how he wishes it had happened. Maybe he also thinks that his writing
is so good that people are going to believe his version of events. MAN (VOICEOVER): "After the tragic course of events,
a road trip was underway to arrive at my planned destination of obscurity." - For investigators, the urgent questions
were, who is James Ray? And where is he? [siren wails] [intriguing music] James Ray was born in Brooklyn in 1963.
He was very driven, even from an early age. In high school, he played football and wrestling.
When James Ray graduated from high school, the very next day, he went into the Marines.
MICHELLE MILLER: I think his time in the Marine Corps really molded who he was and how he tried to live his life.
James Ray was a black belt in martial arts. He was successful. He was smart. He was a go-getter.
And he wanted to succeed in life, and he did. CARLA BARANAUCKAS: After he came out of the Marines,
he spent two years as a New York City police officer. Then he went on to get his MBA, and in addition, he
went on to law school, opened up his own law practice, and even had an insurance brokerage.
MAN (VOICEOVER): "Jack's mind drifted into thoughts about how one single morning
changed Jack's life forever. The value of the MBA, the law training diminished in value.
All that he'd worked for for the last 20 years-- it's gone." [intriguing music] - James Ray is atypical of the people
that I would normally see as a forensic psychologist. He comes from a very stable background.
There's no obvious trauma, and he's a success story. He's highly driven, very, very ambitious,
and he's really got the attributes that you would need in order to make something
of yourself and your life. But sometimes those attributes can be problematic as well.
- James Ray was very concerned about his social status. He wanted to play golf with people that mattered.
He wanted to go to social events where people mattered. He wanted to be at black tie events.
He cared about what people thought of him. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Wondering during his waking
moments about how close the police were on his trail. Jack has never been so nervous about people,
with suspicions that everyone was trying to get him." [resonant music] CARLA BARANAUCKAS: James Ray and Angela Bledsoe
met around 2009 in Brooklyn when she was working as a financial consultant. They started a romantic relationship,
and they continued it long distance between Brooklyn and Montclair. MICHELLE MILLER: Angela Bledsoe was extremely ambitious.
She was super intelligent, well educated, very successful. CARLA BARANAUCKAS: Angela grew up in Maryland,
and she went to Florida A&M University. She graduated with 11 job offers and decided to take one in New York.
She became a financial consultant and was so successful she was able to buy a brownstone in Brooklyn
when she was in her 20s. James was a very charismatic person. He was somebody who could achieve
what he wanted to achieve. For Angela, it seems she had found the perfect man. [grim music]
MAN (VOICEOVER): "Anxious to keep moving, not knowing if the police were closing in on him,
Jack never remained in the same place for more than four or five hours." MICHELLE MILLER: In Angela's mind,
things were going really well. James Ray was making Angela happy. They did a lot of things socially
that they both enjoyed, and Angela became pregnant. CARLA BARANAUCKAS: What Angela didn't
know when she met James was that he was married and had two children. [grim music]
MICHELLE MILLER: James Ray was married over 20 years. He had two adult children, and they lived in the home
in Montclair. He was living a double life, and both women didn't know about each other.
And then obviously that changed when Angela became pregnant. She had expectations that he would contribute
and help raise the child. [intriguing music] JULIA SHAW: For long running affairs where you are married
and sleeping with somebody else, to not tell them that you're married is evidence, both of a really severe form of lying
and also of being really good at keeping that complete other life secret. For someone who is so--
well, on the surface at least, rural-oriented and law-abiding, to then be so duplicitous when it
comes to his own relationships, that's quite shocking. [grim music] CARLA BARANAUCKAS: In 2012, James and
Angela had a baby girl. Once the baby came along, the dynamics of the relationship
got very difficult. Angela was in Brooklyn with the baby, and James was in Montclair with his wife.
James was not a very supportive father, and he was not very much help to Angela.
When she had business meetings she had to attend, she could not count on him to provide any sort
of support or childcare. JAMES RAY (ON RECORDING): I am doing work, which requires me to focus.
I have timelines. I have deadlines. I did everything that I can possibly do. I went to Costco and got two of those huge cartons of Pampers,
two of them, you name it. I was often so tired from staying out late at night, visiting her and the baby, where I was getting maybe
one or two hours of sleep. I can't support you financially if I'm not making money.
I cannot be there with you every day. [grim music] KERRY DAYNES: In 2013, there was a lawsuit against him
for sexual harassment in the workplace, and this involved a 27-year-old that he'd employed.
And he'd taken her out to dinner on one occasion, and he'd insisted that, in front of the whole restaurant,
she would feed him with chopsticks. So clearly, he is involved in some sort of fantasy
here about having a woman to serve him. - In the sexual harassment suit against James,
there's a statement which says that he was talking about polygamy. There's a huge community of people
who agree with their partners to open their relationships and to see other people together or
separately, that if you are in a serious relationship and you haven't talked to your partner
about this, what you're actually saying is, I want to cheat on my partner. The problem is that he is systematically
lying to the people he loves, who trust him, who are the mothers of his children,
and he's sort of seeing this as this game. [intriguing music] MICHELLE MILLER: James Ray decided
that he was going to divorce his wife and maintain the home, so that's what he did.
And he kicked his wife out of the house. And when James Ray and Angela Bledsoe's child
was three years old, Angela and the child moved into James Ray's home. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Jack began to mentally drift
with thoughts of his ex-wife, whom he loved dearly, but their lack of communication and insufficient quality
time spent together romantically caused the commitment of the marriage to wane. Jack felt so bad about his transition
from ex-wife to Angela. He was embarrassed." [grim music] MICHELLE MILLER: After Angela moved into the house,
she started to see who James was, and she did not like who he was revealing himself to be.
He became very controlling. He was manipulative. CARLA BARANAUCKAS: He started checking her phone.
He called her lazy. JAMES RAY (ON RECORDING): She says that I called her lazy, and I told her she's very lazy.
I said, you don't take care of this house. You don't do any dishes. Everything is sloppy.
Them bathrooms don't get cleaned if I don't get them cleaned or call in the cleaning the lady.
Nothing happened. - It also culminated in how he would speak to her. He would speak down to her.
He would disrespect her. He would do it in front of other people. JAMES RAY (ON RECORDING): She wanted to tell me that I don't
talk to her nicely because-- listen to this-- because I question her on everything.
And I say, that's conversation. If I don't understand something, why can't I ask you to who, to what,
to why, to get understanding. Oh, that's aggravating. That's annoying. I said, but that's-- that's--
that's intellectual. That's conversation. And I don't know how you can intellectually say
you're dumb and outright dumb. CARLA BARANAUCKAS: James went to some extremes. He put surveillance cameras in the home,
and he even went so far as to send Bible verses that would underscore the idea that women should be
submissive to their partners. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, for the husband
is the head of the wife." - This is not the kind of relationship that Angela had envisioned.
- Angela Bledsoe kept a journal. WOMAN (VOICEOVER): "The life that I desire-- to live in a house that I feel comfortable in, a man that
shows grace and mercy, that speaks to me in a loving voice, is not a dictator." - Angela is really living with coercive control at this time.
She describes in her diary as a dictator. Now, that's a very strong word. That's clearly how she sees this man
that she shares her life with. Coercive control is the biggest red flag to potentially fatal
violence in a relationship. [sweeping music] CARLA BARANAUCKAS: When Angela went back to Florida
for homecoming event, she met a college classmate, Bakari Burns, and she started
a relationship with him. MICHELLE MILLER: They had an intimate relationship. They mostly talked to each other via text message.
[notification ding] James Ray took screenshots of her cell phone based on the nature of the text messages
that he could see in her cell phone. It took a turn for him at that point. [grim music]
Angela woke up one day, like, 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, and he was sitting on the edge of the bed,
like, shaking his leg and just staring at her. She texted her sister. [notification ding]
He's basically accusing her of demonstrating behavior of somebody who cheats. [notification ding]
Her sister was very concerned about her, and she said, you know, you got to get out of there, you know.
It's time to go. JULIA SHAW: When James Ray finds that Angela has cheated on him, he sees this as a massive transgression,
and it's a really big deal. There's the double standard, which is that he wants to be able to have
multiple women in his life, and his woman, however, should not have any other men.
MAN (VOICEOVER): "Stay committed. Never cheat on your partner. Keep your head in the marriage at home."
[grim music] MICHELLE MILLER: In October of 2018, James Ray, in a moment of desperation,
typed up a prenuptial agreement. There was a paragraph in there that read, if either party cheats, then that offending party
has to pay $300,000 per act. Now, what's interesting about that is James Ray, he already knows that Angela had stepped
out of the relationship. [notification ding] And we also know that he presented it to Angela
because Angela texted her cousin, you know, look at this nonsense, you know. We're not even engaged to be married
and he wants me to sign some prenuptial agreement. - In James Ray's mind, Angela was humiliating
him, belittling him, even. The threat that that caused to his core self was overwhelming for him.
[resonant music] MICHELLE MILLER: On October 20th, James Ray asks Angela to call Bakari Burns.
The initial conversation with Bakari is like, hey, how about you and I can confront Angela?
And Bakari says, well, I don't have anything to confront her about. CARLA BARANAUCKAS: James ended the call with a veiled threat.
I may be coming down there to visit you in Florida. [notification chime] MICHELLE MILLER: Angela's mindset is like, oh, grow up.
Like, she didn't take it seriously. After that conversation with James Ray, Bakari Burns took it as a threat,
and he filed a police report. Angela just had enough, and at that point, she had sent him a text message, basically saying
that she was done and made it known to him that she was going to start making plans to actually
move out on her own. [grim music] JAMES RAY (ON RECORDING): She said, as soon as I get my house, I'm out.
I'm buying a house. I'm out as soon as I get it. And she's gone. We're done. MICHELLE MILLER: It got to the point for Angela
where living with James Ray just wasn't an option for her anymore, and the last text message
that basically she sent her sister was that she was getting out. KERRY DAYNES: Angela is planning to leave.
She feels that she can extradite herself from him safely, but this is going to be like a red rag
to a bull. When somebody who is highly controlling feels that that is slipping from their hands,
that's when they start to consider taking very drastic measures. [grim music] CARLA BARANAUCKAS: On October 22, 2018,
James and Angela take their six-year-old daughter to school and drop her off. [notification ding]
Angela has an appointment with a real estate agent that morning. - Angela never made the meeting.
[ominous music] - When the 911 call came in, it came from Robert Ray, who was the brother of James Ray,
and he indicated that he had met with his brother James earlier today, and his behavior was very concerning.
- They met up earlier that day at the request of James Ray and at a LongHorn Steakhouse in Piscataway, New Jersey.
- James Ray had his minor daughter with him. She was six years old at the time. And he had asked his brother Robert
if he could keep an eye on the child for a period of time. - James Ray had provided Robert with a couple of suitcases that
belonged to the daughter, and he indicated that Robert would know everything in about 24 hours.
James Ray asked Robert to take a picture of him and the daughter, which Robert did,
and then James Ray indicated he was going to use the men's room. And Robert watched him as he walked out
the door of the restaurant. James Ray had gotten into his BMW, and he just drove away.
THEODORE STEPHENS: The letter that James Ray left for his brother Robert gave his version of the story.
- They made entry into the rear of the home. They went directly to the kitchen. There was a significant amount of blood on the kitchen floor.
There was a partial blood trail leading from the living room into the kitchen. CHARLIE CUNNINGHAM: As we make entry, I can see the body.
I couldn't tell exactly what her injuries were, but we did notice weapons lying around the house.
MICHELLE MILLER: There was a shell casing in the kitchen, a spent .45-caliber shell casing.
There was a handgun in a puddle of blood, as well as a bloody cell phone on top of a stool.
There was an additional handgun in the living room, a couple of gun cases, as well as three spent
.45-caliber shell casings, along with cleaning kit for a rifle. - Once we were able to make the scene safe,
we were able to confirm that the victim that was there was 44-year-old Angela Bledsoe.
[grim music] - With James Ray, we felt comfortable that he was the person who committed
the murder of Angela Bledsoe. When someone kills the mother of their child, then, in my opinion, they can harm anybody,
so we need to latch on to him as soon as possible. [stirring music] MAN (VOICEOVER): "I had no cell phone,
no credit cards, no laptop. It appeared as if the hours were ticking away extremely
fast, so I bedded down for the night in the lounge chairs of the hotel." CHARLIE CUNNINGHAM: And we put out a BOLO on his vehicle.
Port Authority was contacted. Interpol was contacted. A lot of national-- international agencies
were contacted. We needed to find him as soon as possible. CARLA BARANAUCKAS: This was a huge story,
not only in Montclair, but throughout New Jersey. First, because murders are very unusual in this place, and
second, because of this disappearance of the suspect in the murder. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Jack's thoughts
of what his encounter would be like with the police was on a pendulum. I knew that my return would lead to handcuffs."
GREGORY EHRIE: If you commit a crime in the state of New Jersey, we will not forget,
we will not forgive, and we will find you. [intriguing music] MICHELLE MILLER: James Ray had not been captured.
He was on the run. The federal authorities were coming up empty at that point. They had no idea where he might be.
And then two days later, the red notice hits, and we find out that he's on his way to Cuba.
REPORTER: James R. Ray III is in custody after FBI agents had to go to Cuba to retrieve him.
[solemn music] THEODORE STEPHENS: The United States had to move very quickly, very expeditiously
because of the very tense relationships between the two countries. MICHELLE MILLER: James Ray was arrested in Cuba.
They detained him pursuant to a red notice that was issued by Interpol. With him was a duffel bag containing
his personal belongings. And one of the items in the duffel bag was a handwritten journal that he
spent considerable time writing while he was on the run for this homicide. [grim music]
He started by saying, October 22, 2018 started like any other day in the Ray household.
MAN (VOICEOVER): "I arose with my morning routine of stretching. On our way back from dropping our daughter off at school,
we spoke about us working to improve our relationship. Upon arrival at home, she said that there were a few errands
that she was going to run. Since I was home alone, I decided to clean my weapons.
Came out of the bathroom. Angela had one of the weapons in her hand. Angela's conversation went from going to run errands
to reflecting about her frustrations of our relationship on what she called the worst years of her life.
As she continued to rant about all the dysfunctional things in our relationship with a weapon pointed at me,
I remember feeling nervous and scared and out of options." - He says Angela started to confront
him about their relationship and how unhappy she was. [grim music] [birdsong] MAN (VOICEOVER): "I quickly picked up one of the weapons
on the table. I then fired in Angela's direction. She lifted her arm and pointed at me again.
Out of reaction, I fired in her direction, and it seemed like I couldn't stop firing.
I honestly believe there was no other choice that she would have shot first." MICHELLE MILLER: If you really were acting in self-defense,
why didn't you just call the cops? If you really were acting in self-defense, why did you leave the house at all?
No, he instead goes to Cuba. [grim music] KERRY DAYNES: Here is a man who can't take his rejection.
This was not somebody who snapped. This is not somebody losing control. It's somebody taking control.
- He types out a letter to his brother filled with lies. He types out his last will and testament, goes to the bank,
gets some cashier's checks made out to the daughter and his brother. [intriguing music]
After James Ray killed Angela Bledsoe, he had to go pick up his daughter from school,
and on his way, he calls a woman, and he records it. JAMES RAY (ON RECORDING): My only concern
is about my daughter and her well-being. You know, sometimes you have to protect people
in a way that's unconventional and may sometimes even be a little crazy. And-- and it only takes-- it takes a certain person
to understand. They may not agree, but it takes a certain person to understand. - What he's talking about when he says that is he
killed his daughter's mother to protect his daughter. How disturbing. KERRY DAYNES: All this is, is him
trying to set up a victim-blaming narrative for in the future if he needs it. So this telephone call is a little bit of insurance,
and it's a little bit of scene-setting. If you truly care about the welfare of your daughter
and that is paramount to you, you don't take away their mother. [intriguing music]
- James Ray outlines in his journal how he started his road trip to Cuba, and he starts to tell the story of what, for him, seemed
like, you know, an adventure. MAN (VOICEOVER): First stop was at Newark Airport to park the vehicle police were looking for.
MICHELLE MILLER: He details in his journal how he went to Newark Airport and he left his car
in a short-term parking. We were able to find his car. We know exactly what time he checked in because he left
the ticket on his dashboard. He took a taxi to Pennsylvania. We found the taxi driver that took him to Pennsylvania.
He'd paid in cash. MAN (VOICEOVER): "The taxi dropped Jack off in Philadelphia, Chinatown, at 2:00 AM.
The streets were empty. Jack sought cover of police by blending in with the homeless
to get some sleep." - He tried to hide himself in a homeless encampment, but realized he can't do that long term.
It's not for him. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Jack's first night in Philadelphia didn't fare well.
He began to quickly realize that escaping to the streets to forever become homeless
was not a part of his DNA." [grim music] MICHELLE MILLER: He finds, like, a truck stop,
and he meets a trucker who takes him from Pennsylvania to Ohio. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Jack awakens to a bright, sunny, but
rather chilly morning in Ohio. Shaking from pure nervousness, Jack asked a man for a ride, and they
began a road trip to Memphis." MICHELLE MILLER: From Memphis into Texas, he boards a Greyhound bus from one section of Texas
to another. MAN (VOICEOVER): "It was the bathroom stall that provided an opportunity to strip the H&K .45 and dispose
of the different parts into numerous trash cans during his travels." MICHELLE MILLER: In his journal,
he said that he had disassembled the .45-caliber handgun that he used to kill Angela
and discarded it in various garbage cans along the way. We never did find the .45-caliber.
MAN (VOICEOVER): "Jack's anxiety multiplied tenfold in Longview, Texas. Each hour Jack sat in the bus station
seemed like an unplanned disaster waiting to occur." - He gets another bus from Laredo, Texas,
into Monterrey, Mexico. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Riding the bus into Monterrey caused Jack's mind to drift into how one single morning
changed Jack's life forever." - And when he's in Monterrey, Mexico, he ends up purchasing a plane ticket.
MAN (VOICEOVER): "Jack purchased an airline ticket from Monterrey to Cuba. This was the easiest part of the trip."
- The fact that he made his way down to Cuba, I think he would believe that's a place where
he could evade detection and capture for perhaps the rest of his life. [grim music]
KERRY DAYNES: His journal is him trying to create a narrative that he will later
use in his defense, but I think that he's got a little bit carried away with it.
He is romanticizing it. He's turning this into a big adventure where he is surviving against the odds.
He's on his way to Cuba, but it's really not quite as dramatic as he makes out in his journal.
This is just a very macho man who has taken away a mother from her child and turned this into something
that is heroic and manly. MICHELLE MILLER: When you look at what he wrote in his journal
and you compare it to the crime scene, it contradicted it completely. Unfortunately for James Ray, he didn't
account for the bullet trajectories that were in Angela's body that were discovered
by the medical examiner. The autopsy report revealed that Angela Bledsoe was shot once in the chest.
She was struck in the heart. She was struck in the lungs. That bullet went through her, and
the projectile ended up in the seat cushion of the love seat. Angela Bledsoe stood up.
She placed her palm on the white sofa. He shot her at that point, once in the back.
Angela Bledsoe made her way to the kitchen, and there was a trail of blood that led from the living room
into the kitchen. And she ends up falling on her back. [gunshot] MAN (VOICEOVER): "She was initially sitting up
with a gun towards her side. She lifted her arm and pointed it at me again." - James Ray then took another shot at her, but he missed.
It caused a ricochet in the granite tile floor. [gunshot] The casing from that projectile burst apart
and cut through her clothing and caused abrasions on her back. And James Ray then walked over to Angela Bledsoe,
stood over her and delivered one final gunshot wound to her face. [intriguing music]
The medical examiner and the autopsy revealed that the trajectory of that gunshot wound to her face
was steeply downward, indicating that James Ray was standing right over her when he delivered
that final gunshot wound. MAN (VOICEOVER): "I honestly believed there was no other choice, that she would have shot first."
- He claims that Angela picked up the gun and was going to shoot him. There was a gun that was found on the kitchen
floor in a puddle of blood. There wasn't any blood on that gun. It was clean. It was clean as a whistle.
Yet he claims that Angela held it in her hand, and she was going to shoot him with it,
and he had no choice but to shoot her first. When the medical examiner examined Angela's body,
she clearly had blood on her hands, but there was no blood on the gun, no blood on any part
of the surface of the weapon. It was clearly placed in a pool of blood. - As our investigators delved into the scene
and got experts to really look at it, it could not have happened the way that James Ray
indicated that it did. [grim music] CARLA BARANAUCKAS: It took almost five years for the case
to come to trial. That was partly because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also just because sometimes the wheels of Justice
move slowly. - I was the lead prosecutor in charge of prosecuting state versus James Ray.
This defendant took his loaded .45-caliber, semi-automatic handgun and shot at Angela four times.
He shot her in the face. THEODORE STEPHENS: We knew that we had great evidence. We wanted to make sure that it was presented for the jury
to really come to what we thought was the inevitable conclusion, undeniable conclusion
that James Ray was guilty of murder. - James Ray carried himself almost as if he were a lawyer
representing someone else. He dressed well. He showed no expression on his face.
He came in, sat down, took notes, conferred with the lawyers, but there was never
any show of emotion at all. DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Angela Bledsoe, on October 22, 2018, picked up a 9-millimeter
and pointed it at James Ray. Period. He had no choice but to shoot. THEODORE STEPHENS: Defense's strategy was simply
self-defense, saying that he killed her, but he had to do that to save his own life.
[grim music] - Ray's brother took the stand. ROBERT RAY: Immediately, I cried because that letter had indicated
that Angela had been killed. MICHELLE MILLER: James Ray brutally, in cold blood, murdered Angela Bledsoe simply
because she made a decision that she didn't need him in her life anymore and that she was going to move on and
start a new chapter, and that new chapter did not include him. And he was going to be left behind,
and he did not want that to happen. He wanted to control her until her last breath,
and that's what he did. [grim music] CARLA BARANAUCKAS: After a six-week trial, the jury seemed to have no doubt.
They came back in three hours with a guilty verdict. As the verdict was read in court,
James Ray showed no emotion at all. He simply stood up, allowed the officers to put the handcuffs on him, said something to his lawyer,
and then he was taken away. MICHELLE MILLER: It was a verdict of guilty on all counts, which was just incredible.
Angela's family was there. Her parents were there. They were able to hear the verdict.
Everybody was really happy and, you know, ecstatic that Angela could hopefully begin her rest in peace.
We then scheduled a sentencing date for James Ray to be sentenced on the murder charge and the weapon charge,
and it was scheduled for June. [stirring music] - We have an update on the case of a New Jersey lawyer
convicted of killing his girlfriend. James Ray III died in jail after he was awaiting sentencing.
CARLA BARANAUCKAS: On June 18, 2023, James Ray was in the Essex County prison waiting to be sentenced for his murder conviction.
An officer found him unresponsive in his cell and tried to administer Narcan to him.
He was taken to a hospital, but he was not revived and was declared dead. Ironically, James Ray died on Father's Day.
[solemn music] MICHELLE MILLER: The family was never able to deliver their victim impact statements.
And now this little girl lost her mother in a really brutal, tragic way at the hands of her own father,
and then her father dies on Father's Day. And, you know, whatever questions she may have had for him that she may have wanted to ask him
as an adult, she was never going to be able to confront him or ask him about and never get the answers that maybe, maybe she
could have coaxed out of him. It was devastating. [somber music] KERRY DAYNES: For somebody like James Ray, who
had enjoyed all of the trappings of this really quite fantastic life that he had for himself,
that he just can't face the humiliation, really, and the loss of status that is going to come
from being incarcerated. So it's a final act, which is a desperate and sad act, in many respects, that's not lost on me,
but is also a final act of control. MICHELLE MILLER: Unfortunately, under New Jersey law,
because he was never sentenced, the case cannot remain open, so it was dismissed.
I mean, obviously, everybody knows he was convicted. He didn't go to his grave an innocent man.
Prosecutors who prosecuted the case know the truth, and the family knows the truth, that James Ray
was guilty of killing Angela Bledsoe. JULIA SHAW: James Ray had both ambition but also overconfidence.
He seemed to be intelligent but also controlling. He had these multiplicities within him,
these double standards, almost cherry picking the rules that he should live by and applying other rules to other people.
KERRY DAYNES: James Ray is a man who does what he sets his mind to and he does it very strategically.
This is a man who has very set ideas about masculinity, and this is a man with certain personality traits
that could have and should have catapulted him to success, but stopped there. Ultimately, I think that his need
to control women and his sense of entitlement and narcissism and his sense of outrage that a woman could assert herself
is what led to his downfall and becoming a killer. [resonant music] THEODORE STEPHENS: James Ray was an egomaniac
who was totally unprepared to accept that the mother of his child was going to leave him.
MICHELLE MILLER: Angela Bledsoe was very successful. She lived in an affluent neighborhood.
She had money. She was beautiful. She was talented. And domestic violence came to her.
If you're in a relationship with a man who-- or a woman who is domineering and controlling
and wants to know your every move, you should think about Angela Bledsoe and how she ended up.
You should listen to your gut and get out when you can. [theme music]

A high‑flying attorney, James Ray III, goes on the run after fleeing a gruesome crime scene in New Jersey.

Murder in Mind explores the psychological forces that drive people to murder.

Brief Summary

James Ray murdered Angela Bledsoe, revealing a controlling relationship and a tragic aftermath for their daughter.

Key points

The Ominous Call. On October 22, 2018, a 911 call was made reporting concerning behavior from James Ray.
The Discovery of Violence. Police find a mortally wounded Angela Bledsoe in her home, leading to a search for James Ray.
James Ray's Double Life. James Ray was married with children while having an affair with Angela Bledsoe, who was unaware.
The Threat of Control. Angela Bledsoe experiences coercive control from James Ray, leading her to plan an escape.
The Murder of Angela Bledsoe. Angela Bledsoe is found dead, prompting a manhunt for her partner, James Ray.
The Disappearance of James Ray. James Ray goes on the run after the murder of Angela Bledsoe, evading authorities for days.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He is the hero in his own fantasy.

0:51WatchOct 24, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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