Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office

                                 25 Kirkpatrick Street, 3rd Floor, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08901 (732) 745-3300

 

                                *News Release*         Date: September 17, 2010
 
 

 

 

 


New Brunswick man convicted of murdering wife

 

 

Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan announced that a 41-year-old New Brunswick man was found guilty today of strangling and bludgeoning his wife in their apartment.

 

A jury deliberated in New Brunswick for less than an hour before convicting Carmelo Cruz of murder, two counts of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, two counts of hindering his own apprehension and a count of fabricating evidence in the death on September 7, 2002 of Refugia Ruiz Olmedo, 36.

 

Cruz faces at least 30 years in prison when he is sentenced in New Brunswick on November 3, 2010 by Superior Court Judge Bradley Ferencz.

 

During a trial that began on September 9, 2010, Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Linda Estremera argued that Cruz tied a rope around the victim’s neck, struck her with a blunt object and fractured her skull because she planned to leave him.

 

An autopsy showed the cause of death was ligature strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head.

 

          The trial was the second for Cruz, who initially was convicted in 2005, but appealed and won a new trial in 2008.