Man Accused Of Abandoning Daughter At Port Authority Bus Terminal Charged With Murder In Wife's Death
STAMFORD, C.T. (CBSNewYork) -- The man accused of abandoning his daughter at Port Authority last month appeared in court Friday.
Elmer Gomez Ruano faces a murder charge in the death of the girl's mother.
"They've moved the charge to murder, and we know all deaths are not murder," his attorney Darnell Crossland told CBS2's Emily Smith.
It all started when police found the little girl at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on November 14. According to police papers, he told his daughter he was leaving her there while he took her mother to the hospital.
The girl gave her apartment address to police, who discovered her mother, Dionicia Cano Bautista murdered.
Turns out the couple had reportedly only reunited one day before she died. According to Ruano's lawyer and the police reports, Bautista had been seeing a man named Ezequiuel for four months when she moved back in with her husband.
"They were married since they were 17 years old. Unbeknownst to him, she just moved in one day, into the Stamford apartment, while he was still at work... and then, that night something happened," Crossland said.
According to the police report, her lover helped her move into the estranged husband's apartment. The report also stated that Ruano said his wife told him she wanted to be with her lover.
According to the report, Ruano went into the kitchen and retrieved a knife, saying, "kill me and you'll both be happy." A fight ensued, he then reportedly "pushed her down on her throat and chest and smothered her with a wet towel for about a half hour until she stopped fighting back and was dead."
Ruano was held on $900,000 bond. An order of protection prohibiting contact with his daughter is also in place.
The NYPD told CBS2 the 6-year-old girl is in foster care and is adjusting.
