June 15, 2023 1:46 p.m.
White Plains, N.Y. - Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced today 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; and a Sleepy Hollow man was indicted for the 1997 beating and strangulation death of his 34-year-old ex-wife, Nusinaida Ramos. Both cases—after lengthy investigations by the Yonkers Police Department and the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office—are the latest homicides charged by the Cold Case Bureau, which the District Attorney established upon taking office in 2021.
DA Rocah said: “Today we have delivered some measure of closure to the families who have lived with these unsolved cases for a combined 36 years. 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.”
Yonkers Police Commissioner Christopher Sapienza said: “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. Words cannot assuage the grief of losing a loved one to violence, so we hope these efforts bring some degree of closure to those who knew Pamela and Nusinaida.”
2012 Murder of Pamela Graddick
The defendant, Wanda Veguilla, 42, pleaded guilty on April 3, 2023, to Murder in the Second Degree and Tampering with Physical Evidence, for the Aug. 12, 2012 murder of Graddick. According to the investigation, in the days leading up to the murder, the defendant plotted to kill her girlfriend and purchased a gun from a “Latin King” gang associate in the Bronx, with the help of an individual, 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, and is awaiting sentencing. The defendant then shot her girlfriend 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 then, with a second individual, who was later convicted for Criminal Facilitation in the Second Degree, Hindering Prosecution in the First Degree, and Tampering with Physical Evidence, and sentenced, 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. The victim’s decaying body was found by a passerby on Sept. 4, 2012.
Following the creation of DA Rocah’s Cold Case Bureau in 2021, forensic data experts in the DA’s Office High Technology Crimes Unit examined the victim’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 revealed text messages between the defendant and victim following the murder, which the defendant subsequently admitted to sending herself from the victim’s phone.
Yonkers police arrested the defendant on Jan. 23, 2022, at her residence in the Bronx, 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 District Attorney 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.
1997 Murder of Nusinaida Ramos
A Westchester County Grand Jury indicted Rafael Ramos, 54, 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 June 14, 2023, and remanded.
On the afternoon of March 9, 1997, the defendant, a former Corrections Officer at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, 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. The next day, Yonkers police conducted a welfare check at the behest of the victim’s family and found her dead on her living room floor.
Yonkers police arrested the defendant on June 14, 2023, at his residence in Sleepy Hollow.
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.
The charges against the defendant are merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Progress in Westchester County Cold Cases
By establishing a Cold Case Bureau upon taking office in 2021, the District Attorney enabled the DA’s Office to prioritize solving the approximately 135 open homicide cases in Westchester County. With a dedicated team in place, the Bureau’s skilled attorneys, investigators, and crime analysts have renewed investigations and are maximizing advancements in scientific and digital forensics.
In addition to today’s announcements, indictments and sentences secured by prosecutors and DA Rocah’s Cold Case Bureau include:
- an indictment we announced last week for a 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 in Aug. 2022 for the 2017 death of Tremayne Williams of Mount Vernon
- the Nov. 2021 indictment for the 1982 homicide of Kathleen Durst in South Salem
The Bureau has also utilized DNA testing and investigative genealogy to advance cases by
- 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
Bolstering the efforts of the Bureau’s work, the 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 the course of three years, supports an additional full-time ADA to prosecute cases where a suspect's DNA has been identified.
Anyone with information pertaining to an open homicide case in Westchester County is encouraged to call the DA’s Office 24-hour tips line at (914)995-TIPS. Language assistance is available.
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Anna Young, Public Information Officer
(914) 995-6551
ayoung@westchesterda.net
