Westchester Man Indicted In 1997 Cold Case Murder Of Ex-Wife

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY — In Westchester County, justice might not always be swift, but it is certainly unrelenting.

Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah announced on Thursday that a Sleepy Hollow man was indicted for the 1997 beating and strangulation death of his 34-year-old ex-wife, Nusinaida Ramos, in Yonkers.

In addition, the DA announced that a Bronx woman was sentenced to 20 years to life in state prison for the 2012 shooting death of her 26-year-old girlfriend, Pamela Graddick.

After lengthy investigations by the Yonkers Police Department and the Westchester County DA’s Office, both cases are the latest homicides charged by the Cold Case Bureau, which Rocah established soon after taking office in 2021.

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"Today we have delivered some measure of closure to the families who have lived with these unsolved cases for a combined 36 years," Rocah said. "The sentence and indictment in these two cases show what can be accomplished with the resources and commitment of our dedicated Cold Case Bureau. Thanks to the tenacious work by our attorneys, investigators, and our vital police partners, we are securing justice for victims."

1997 Murder of Nusinaida Ramos

A Westchester County grand jury indicted 54-year-old Rafael Ramos for murder in the second degree, for the alleged beating and strangulation death of his ex-wife Nusinaida Ramos. The defendant was arraigned before Judge Fufidio in Westchester County Court on Wednesday, and remanded.

On March 9, 1997, Ramos, a former Sing Sing corrections officer, allegedly used a t-shirt to strangle his ex-wife to death after beating her until she bled in her Colins Street apartment in Yonkers. Yonkers police conducted a welfare check the next day at the request of the victim’s family and found her dead on her living room floor.

Yonkers police arrested the defendant on Wednesday, at his Sleepy Hollow home.

The case is before Judge Fufidio in Westchester County Court, and is being prosecuted by Cold Case Bureau Chief Daniel Flecha of the Trials and Investigations Division. Criminal Investigator James Menton assisted with the investigation.

2012 Murder of Pamela Graddick

Wanda Veguilla, 42, pleaded guilty on April 3, to murder in the second degree and tampering with physical evidence, for the August 12, 2012 murder of Pamela Graddick.

According to investigators, in the days leading up to the murder, Veguilla plotted to kill her girlfriend and purchased a gun from a "Latin King" gang associate in the Bronx, with the assistance of John Torres, who later pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the second degree, criminal facilitation in the second degree, hindering the prosecution in the first degree, and tampering with physical evidence. He is currently awaiting sentencing.

Veguilla then shot Graddick execution-style in the back of the head while she was watching television after midnight in their Morris Avenue apartment in the Bronx. The defendant and her accomplice then wrapped the victim’s body in a comforter, placed her in garbage bags and disposed of her body in a wooded area of Rossmore Avenue in Yonkers. Graddick's decaying body was found by a passerby on September 4, 2012.

Forensic data experts in the DA’s Office High Technology Crimes Unit examined Graddick’s cell phone and obtained GPS location data that tracked the device to Yonkers and back to the Bronx on the night of the murder. The cell phone analysis found text messages between Veguilla and Graddick following the murder, which Veguilla eventually admitted to sending herself from Graddick's cell phone.

Yonkers police arrested Veguilla on January 23 of this year, at her Bronx home, and she confessed to the murder.

The case was before Judge George Fufidio in Westchester County Court, and was prosecuted by former Cold Case Bureau Chief Laura Murphy. The DA thanked Trials and Investigations Counsel John O’Rourke, Detective Vionette Martinez and retired Detective John Geiss of the Yonkers Police Department’s Cold Case unit.

Progress in Other Westchester County Cold Cases

The Cold Case Bureau enabled the DA’s Office to prioritize solving Westchester County's approximately 135 open homicide cases. With a dedicated team in place, the bureau’s attorneys, investigators and crime analysts have renewed investigations and are maximizing advancements in scientific and digital forensics, according to Rocah.

Indictments and sentences secured by DA Rocah’s Cold Case Bureau include:

• an indictment for 1995 homicide of Michael Jones at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.
• a 20 years-to-life prison sentence of Christopher Gonzalez for the 2005 strangulation murder of Angel Serbay of Yonkers.
• a 25 years-to-life sentence of Luis Alturet-Rivera for the 2017 shooting death of his ex-girlfriend Diana Casado of Yonkers.
• an indictment of Edmund Pennil for the 2017 death of Tremayne Williams of Mount Vernon.
• an indictment for the 1982 homicide of Kathleen Durst in South Salem.

The Bureau has also used DNA testing and investigative genealogy to advance cases:

• identifying "Jane Doe Mount Vernon" in 2021 as Veronica Wiederhold, the homicide victim whose body was found in 1988 on Carelton Avenue in Mount Vernon.
• identifying "Yonkers Jane Doe" in 2021 as Meresa Hammonds, another homicide victim whose body was found in 1992 on Midland Avenue in Yonkers.
• creating a composite sketch using autopsy photos of a 1978 Hastings-on-Hudson murder victim to place into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System in May 2021.

Rocah also announced that her office was selected for the Department of Justice’s 2022 Bureau of Justice Assistance Grant for Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA. The $500,000 award, funded over three years, supports an additional full-time ADA to prosecute cases where a suspect's DNA has been identified.

"I applaud the extraordinary efforts of our Yonkers Police Cold Case Detectives and the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Bureau in pursuing justice for the Graddick and Ramos families," Yonkers Police Commissioner Christopher Sapienza added. "Words cannot assuage the grief of losing a loved one to violence, so we hope these effort bring some degree of closure to those who knew Pamela and Nusinaida."

Anyone with information about an open Westchester County homicide case is asked to call the DA’s Office 24-hour tips line at (914)995-TIPS. Language assistance is available.