A man apprehended in Florida after he allegedly murdered his longtime girlfriend in their Camden home last month has been held on $2 million bail following his arraignment today.
William W. White, 59, was charged with murdering Alma Reyes Brito, 49, his companion of 15 years. Brito's body was found June 4 in the second-floor bedroom of the couple's residence in the city's Fairview section. An autopsy revealed that her death was the result of blunt trauma to the head and neck.
White has confessed to beating Brito with a handgun on June 2, Assistant Prosecutor Kelly Testa told Judge Thomas A. Brown Jr. at today's hearing in Superior Court in Camden County.
White used Brito's ATM card to withdraw money from a Wawa ATM in Mount Ephraim in the days after the attack, Testa said. He then fled to Homestead, Fla., where he was found at a homeless assistance center on July 7, she said.
He was extradited to New Jersey on Monday and has not yet secured an attorney.
Family and friends of Brito's wept and embraced as White was brought into the courtroom.
Brito's murder was a "particularly heinous crime," Testa said, in that White "left her to die alone."
