A Silver Spring, Maryland, man pleaded guilty Monday to murdering his wife three years ago.
Ruel Dempster, 34, was arrested in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, a few weeks after the 2018 slaying of Alice Dennis, then 34, inside an apartment in the 3600 block of Bel Pre Road, near Connecticut Avenue.
“This defendant fled the country after committing murder in our community, but will now be held accountable for his actions,” State’s Attorney John McCarthy said in a statement Monday.
Prosecutors believe Dempster, who already had a lengthy criminal record, killed Dennis as part of a domestic dispute. At the time of the murder, he was on federal probation for a 2015 gun conviction.
According to Montgomery County authorities, Dennis had told her boyfriend that Dempster suspected she was cheating on him. When Dennis left the boyfriend’s residence on April 16, 2018, she said she would call him later, adding, “If I don’t, [Dempster] did something to me.”
Her body was found two days later.
Back in 2007, Dempster was arrested and indicted for manslaughter in connection with the death of rookie Montgomery County police officer Luke Hoffman. Prosecutors later decided to drop the charge.
Dempster is expected to receive “an agreed upon 40-year prison sentence” for Dennis’s murder, the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
He’s scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 4.
