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The two defendants were sentenced and indicted in both the 2012 shooting death of 26-year-old Pamela Graddick in the Bronx and the 1997 beating and strangulation of 34-year-old Nusinaida Ramos in Yonkers, the Westchester County District Attorney's Office announced on Thursday, June 15.
Both cases were solved after lengthy investigations by both the Yonkers Police Department and the DA's Office, officials said.
According to the DA's Office, the defendant in the Pamela Graddick murder case, 42-year-old Wanda Veguilla, was sentenced to 20 years to life in state prison for second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence.
In the days leading up to the murder, which happened on Aug. 12, 2012, Veguilla plotted to kill Graddick, who was her girlfriend at the time, and bought a gun from a “Latin King” gang associate in the Bronx to do so.
Veguilla then shot Graddick in the back of the head execution-style while she was watching television after midnight at their Bronx apartment on Morris Avenue before wrapping her body in a comforter, placing her in garbage bags, and disposing of her body in a wooded area off Rossmore Avenue in Yonkers.
Veguilla had help in doing this from an individual who was since convicted and sentenced, officials said.
Graddick's decaying body was found by a passerby on Sept. 4, 2012.
Investigators were able to arrest Veguilla after using Graddick's cell phone to obtain GPS data that tracked the device to Yonkers and then back to the Bronx on the night of the murder. Authorities also found text messages between Veguilla and Graddick that were sent after the murder that Veguilla later admitted to sending herself from the victim's phone.
Veguilla was arrested on Monday, Jan. 23 at her residence in the Bronx, and she later confessed to the killing. She pleaded guilty on Monday, April 3.
The defendant in the second cold case, 54-year-old Rafael Ramos, was indicted by a Westchester County grand jury for the 1997 murder of his ex-wife, Nusinaida Ramos.
According to authorities, on the afternoon of March 9, 1997, Ramos, a former Corrections Officer at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, allegedly used a tee shirt to strangle Ramos to death after beating her until she bled at her apartment in Yonkers on Colins Street.
She was found dead on her living room floor the next day by Yonkers Police, who had been conducting a welfare check at the request of her family.
Ramos was arrested on Wednesday, June 14 at his residence in Sleepy Hollow and arraigned in Westchester County Court before being remanded. He faces a charge of second-degree murder.
Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah attributed the sentencing and indictment of the two defendants to the work of her office's Cold Case Bureau.
"The sentence and indictment in these two cases show what can be accomplished with the resources and commitment of our dedicated Cold Case Bureau," Rocah said, adding, "Thanks to the tenacious work by our attorneys, investigators, and our vital police partners, we are securing justice for victims.”
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