Suspect transported to city for arraignment on murder charge after release in Puerto Rico

Ramon Robles-Ruiz, 29, the suspect in the killing of Annette Y. Vazquez last December, was handed over to Watertown police Wednesday afternoon by U.S. Marshals at Poughkeepsie, and was being driven back to Jefferson County for jailing.

City police said he is named in a sealed grand jury indictment charging him with murder. He will be held in the Metro-Jefferson Public Safety Building, with arraignment anticipated for today in Jefferson County Court.

Robles-Ruiz was released Oct. 27 from a jail in Puerto Rico, where he had served a sentence for an unrelated crime, and was taken into custody there by the Marshals Service. He was flown to Poughkeepsie, where at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday he was handed over to Detective Stephen R. Backus and Warrant Officer Roy E. Whitmore.

Ms.Vazquez, 33, had a live-in relationship with Robles-Ruiz at 657 Olive St. until shortly before her disappearance Dec. 8. She failed that afternoon to pick up her two daughters, ages 12 and 6, at school, and later that day police found her car abandoned in a State Street parking lot.

A search for her ended March 23, when her remains were found in a gutter off Vrooman Hill Road in the town of Antwerp. Robles-Ruiz had been questioned in Puerto Rico by two detectives, one from Watertown and one from state police. Although city police declined comment, a U.S. Marshal told the Times that Robles-Ruiz provided police with information about where to find the body.