The Bloomfield man faces a 10-count indictment for the Dec. 6 death of a 35-year-old woman.
ELIZABETH -- A grand jury has indicted a Bloomfield man for murdering a Rahway woman in her home last December.
Roberto Grillo, 37, is accused of strangling 35-year-old Yolanda Vega inside her Beacon Street house on Dec. 6.
He faces charges of first-degree murder, first-degree felony murder, second-degree burglary, six related weapons offenses and fourth-degree criminal trespassing, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace Park said Thursday.
The Union County Homicide Task Force and Rahway police responded to Vega's home around 4 a.m. on Dec. 7 and found the woman's body inside. Vega was pronounced dead at the scene, Union County Assistant Prosecutor Melissa Spagnoli said.
Details of Vega's death are unclear. Neighbors said one of Vega's two sons found a masked gunman hiding in a closet on Dec. 6 and ran to tell their next-door neighbors. They said one of the neighbors chased the gunman until police arrived and questioned him, while the gunman escaped.
Neighbors said police searched Vega's house with a dog that night but did not find her, so family members filed a missing person's report. A relative found Vega's body in the basement around 4 a.m. the next day, neighbors said.
The prosecutor's office and Rahway police have declined to comment on whether authorities were, in fact, at Vega's house on Dec. 6.
Authorities charged Grillo with the murder on Dec. 15. Grillo was already at Union County Jail because Linden police had arrested him for trespassing at the Phillips 66 Bayway Refinery on the evening of Dec. 6 -- about 90 minutes after Vegas was found to have been killed and at a spot less than half a mile from her house.
The prosecutor's office said Vega and her family knew Grillo, but they have declined to specify how they were acquainted.
At the time of the murder, Grillo was free on bail after he was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor in Bloomfield.
Grillo's bail is set at $2 million. Murder convictions are usually punishable by 30 years to life in state prison.
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