A New Jersey man who tried to kill two women walked out of state prison on September 30 and allegedly shot his girlfriend to death 33 days later. Christina Cruz, 30, is dead because the system decided a man who fired at strangers was safe to release — and nobody in authority will have to answer for it.

Ricardo A. Ferrera, 32, was arrested after police found Cruz face down in the living room of a Franklin Township home with two gunshot wounds, according to an affidavit of probable cause. Officers tried to save her, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

A witness in a nearby bedroom heard Ferrera and Cruz arguing, then two shots, a thud, and what he believed was Cruz gasping for air, the affidavit states. A woman who lived upstairs with her three children rushed down after hearing gunfire and found Cruz on the floor. Ferrera told her, "I have to go," and fled in a vehicle.

Here is the part the criminal justice reform crowd does not want you to track. Ferrera was originally indicted on 10 counts, including two counts of first-degree attempted murder, for a January 2022 incident in Vineland. He threatened the driver of the car he was riding in with a gun to make her tail two women in another vehicle, then fired at them, NJ.com reported. Police recovered weapons and ammunition matching those used in the shooting.

That is not a dispute. That is attempted murder. But prosecutors let Ferrera plead down to aggravated assault. He was sentenced to five years — and by sentencing time, he had already spent three and a half years in county jail, court records show. The New Jersey Department of Corrections released him Sept. 30.

The affidavit also cites a July 2025 conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm. So even behind bars, Ferrera was racking up new gun charges. None of that stopped his release.

Neither outlet names the Cumberland County prosecutor who approved the plea deal, the judge who signed off on the sentence, or the parole officials who opened the cell door. The New York Post framed Ferrera as a "maniac" and a "nutjob" — colorful, but it lets the responsible officials slink away unnamed. NJ.com buried the plea deal details deep in its account, treating the reduced charges as routine.

New Jersey's bail reform and sentencing overhaul was sold to the public as a way to keep nonviolent offenders from languishing behind bars. In practice, it has become a revolving door for violent criminals who plead down from attempted murder to aggravated assault, serve a fraction of their time, and walk back onto the streets with a firearm conviction still fresh on their record.

Ferrera now faces first-degree murder and weapons charges. Cruz faces nothing ever again. The question is not whether this case is an anomaly — it is whether anyone in power will ever be forced to count the bodies their policies leave behind.