ST. LUCIE COUNTY — The 1986 cold case homicide of Albert “Trent” Clay has been closed, with apparent crucial evidence being uncovered more than 15 years later, a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s detective said in a recent interview.
Clay, 37, was found March 31, 1986, in the C-24 canal in the area of Okeechobee Road with more than a dozen stab wounds, and several “gash” injuries to the head, sheriff’s records show. He’d been reported missing four days earlier to the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office.
“He was well known in Okeechobee as a drug runner,” Sheriff’s Detective Paul Taylor said. “That was … during the days of the whole 'cocaine cowboys' thing. He was mixed in with that — a lot.”
The term refers to1970s and 1980s Miamidrug kingpinsand one of the largest drug cases in United States history, in which 75 tons of cocaine was smuggled into the country, largely through Miami.
Taylor investigates cold cases for the Sheriff’s Office. The first and oldest such case he solved was the June 1974 fatal shootingin an area of what now is Fort Pierce Inlet State ParkofCharles “Jack” Rose, 36, a Vero Beach High School teacher.
Taylor said officials confirmed Clay was involved in a drug trafficking ring, but the investigation was suspended after a lack of evidence and no arrests were made.
More than 15 years later — in 2003 — then Detective Bill Hardman got information from informants that Ralph Richard Ray was responsible.
Taylor said Hardman, who retired in December 2020 as a captain, had worked in the drug unit, and had a lot of street contacts.
Hardman also identified Monserrate Ruiz as a suspect. Ruiz was arrested less than a year before Clay’s death by Fort Pierce police after investigators reported finding a .25-caliber pistol concealed in his vehicle.
Taylor said an informant Hardman spoke to turned out to be a direct witness.
“She knew a lot of information that you would not know unless you were there,” Taylor said.
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Taylor said the woman indicated she was dating Ray at the time.
“Him and Monserrate Ruiz actually beat him to death right there while she was standing there watching them out her kitchen window,” Taylor said. “She even talked about how they’d wrapped him in plastic and put him in the back of the truck, made her drive when they went to the C-24 canal off Okeechobee Road.”
Taylor said at the time of the original autopsy, it was believed Clay may have been struck with a tire tool.
He recounted Hardman told the woman Clay must have really angered someone “to beat him in the head with this tire iron that bad.”
“Whenever I talked to Bill, he goes, she was looking at me like I had two heads and she's like, what do you mean a tire iron?” Taylor said. “She says, 'They didn't hit him with a tire iron, they hit him with a baseball bat.'”
Taylor said Hardman met with then medical examiner Dr. Roger Mittleman, who died in 2020, and asked him to review photos.
“They started looking at the X-rays and the injury patterns” and Mittleman said he thought the instrument used was wider than a tire iron, such as a baseball bat or a pipe.
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‘Gagging and swimming towards the shore’
According to Taylor, the woman had been to the spot where Clay’s body was recovered months before the killing in what could be described as bizarre circ*mstances.
Taylor said the woman overdosed on Ray’s drugs in his house, and was unconscious.
Ray loaded her in the back of his pickup, drove her to the C-24 canal and threw her off a bridge.
“When she hits this cold water, she wakes up and she's like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I'm in the water,’” Taylor said. “She starts gagging and swimming towards the shore.”
Taylor said Ray looked back because he heard the noise and saw her coming out of the water. He waited for her to climb up the canal back.
“She was like, ‘What are you doing? And he goes, … ‘You OD’d, I thought you was dead,’” Taylorsaid. “She goes, ‘Well, you just threw me in the water?’ And he says, ‘Well, yeah, … You OD’d on my drugs … I ain't bringing that heat on me.’”
Taylor said the woman got back in the pickup and went home with him.
“Where he threw her was the same place that Albert ‘Trent’ Clay was recovered,” Taylor said.
‘Fell through the cracks’
According to a report, Hardman met with Ruiz, who admitted to stabbing people in the past, but denied any involvement in Clay’s murder.
A polygraph test showed Ruiz “was being deceptive when asked questions about his involvement in the murder,” the report states.
Ray declined an interview and requested an attorney.
[ Read the original news coverage from the 1986 slaying below.Having trouble seeing the document? Clickhereto view it in a new window. ]
According to records, Hardman reported meeting in 2003 with prosecutors. They found sufficient probable cause to submit the case to a grand jury.
Taylor said the case apparently never was presented to a grand jury, and “fell through the cracks.”
He said such an occurrence wouldn’t happen now, noting additional checks and balances and the amount of supervision and levels of communication at the agency.
A report states Taylor met in 2019 with Hardman to talk about the case.
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Hardman contacted his then supervisor who “reminded him that due to a conflict and internal bureaucracy within the Detective Bureau at the time, the case was taken from Detective Hardman and was not re-assigned for closure or submission to the grand jury.”
As for Ray, he diedMay 29, 2006, in Okeechobee Correctional Institution when he was 50, records show. Ruiz died March 30, 2010, in Fort Pierce when he was 57, records show.
Taylor concluded that because both suspects are dead, the case is cleared. Investigators reported being unable to find family members or associates of Clay.
Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm.Follow Will on Twitter@OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com
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