Four men charged alongside Ricky "Angel" Vargas in the 2024 fatal stabbing of a Hawthorne man were remanded to Bergen County Jail in March 2024. No subsequent disposition, release, plea, trial, or sentence has been reported in any open source as of May 2026.

GARFIELD, N.J. — Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella announced on May 11 that Ricky Vargas, a 37-year-old East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania resident and known member of the Latin Kings gang, was arrested at a private home in Longview, Texas on May 7. FBI agents from the Dallas field office, working with the Dallas Police Department and Longview Police Department, took him into custody without incident. He now sits in the Gregg County Jail awaiting extradition to New Jersey.

The arrest closed a 15-month gap that began at 12:44 a.m. on February 4, 2024, when Garfield police found 31-year-old Richard Franceschi bleeding from multiple stab wounds to his chest outside JoJo's Bar & Grill on Monroe Street. Franceschi, a Hawthorne resident who grew up in Puerto Rico before moving to New Jersey to join his mother and three siblings, was pronounced dead at 1:29 a.m. at Hackensack University Medical Center.

Four other men were arrested within a month of the killing. Jayson William Rivera, 23, of East Stroudsburg surrendered to Garfield police with his attorney on March 12, 2024. Bryant Joshua Sanchez, 26, of Paterson; Erony Sanchez, 27, of Clifton; and Dante Marquise Moore, 23, of Passaic were taken into custody on February 22, 2024 by the Bergen County Regional SWAT Team and New Jersey State Police SWAT Team in Ogdensburg and Passaic. All five were charged with first-degree murder, causing serious bodily injury, and leaving the scene of a crime. Vargas faced additional weapons charges.

Records from March 2024 show all four co-defendants were remanded to Bergen County Jail, denied release, and expected to remain there pending trial. No subsequent disposition has been reported in any open source. Whether they remain in pre-trial detention as of May 2026 is unknown.

Musella said Bergen County detectives developed information about Vargas' possible whereabouts on May 6 and, with FBI assistance, determined he was hiding in Longview "in a matter of hours." The FBI had added Vargas to its Most Wanted List on March 12, 2025, more than a year after the federal warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was issued by the U.S. District Court in Newark on February 7, 2024. The bureau offered a $15,000 reward. No source reports whether that reward was paid, or to whom.

The 13-month delay between federal warrant and Most Wanted elevation remains unexplained. The FBI does not publish standard timelines for Most Wanted additions. Historical cases range from hours to years. The FBI raised its standard Most Wanted reward ceiling to $250,000 in May 2023. Vargas' reward was $15,000, well below that ceiling. The FBI does not disclose how it sets individual reward amounts.

FBI Newark, which assisted in the Texas operation, has not published a press release on the arrest. Attempts to reach the field office for comment were unsuccessful.

The conditions of Vargas' flight are clearer. He had no valid driver's license. Investigators said he used ride-sharing services and mass transit to travel, and may have stayed in homeless shelters. He maintained ties to East Stroudsburg, Winter Park, Florida, Chicago, Arizona, and Puerto Rico. Texas was not on that list. How he reached Longview, a city of 82,000 in East Texas some 1,400 miles from Garfield, and what sustained him there for 15 months, remains unclear.

The victim's family has not been silent. Angelique Morales, Franceschi's sister, organized a GoFundMe campaign titled "Richard Franceschi — Forever & Always" to cover funeral expenses. In the description, she wrote that Franceschi "was a victim of a disgusting act of violence" and added: "Due to the lack of urgency with first responders and those around him, he succumbed to his injuries. Richard deserved better." The statement does not specify which responders Morales referenced.

JoJo's Bar & Grill, where the altercation began, has a TikTok account advertising itself at "133 Monroe Street," two doors down from the 131 Monroe Street address every news source has cited. Whether this is a typo, a second entrance, or a license-jurisdiction question, is unresolved. No source has examined the bar's liquor license status, its security measures at 12:44 a.m., or whether staff intervened before the confrontation spilled outside. Garfield city code governs alcoholic beverage hours of service and premises regulation, but no enforcement action against the establishment has been reported.

The four co-defendants have spent 15 months in Bergen County Jail while their alleged accomplice built a life in Texas. Rivera was unemployed. Bryant Sanchez worked as a carpenter. Erony Sanchez was unemployed. Moore worked in retail. Their occupations, their families, their legal representation, and the status of their cases remain buried beneath the headline of a captured fugitive.

Vargas faces first-degree murder, third-degree possession of a weapon, third-degree endangering an injured victim, and fourth-degree possession of a weapon. The charges are identical in structure to those filed against the four men who did not flee. The four men detained in March 2024 and the one man arrested in May 2026 face identical charges. The disposition of all five cases remains unreported.

Sources 

• Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella, "New Jersey Prosecutor Thanks Longview Police for Help in Capture of FBI Most Wanted Fugitive," KLTV, May 11, 2026

• Daily Voice (Garfield-Lodi), "5 Charged with Murder in Stabbing Death at NJ Bar; Armed Fugitive Being Sought, Cops Say," March 18, 2024

• Daily Voice (Garfield-Lodi), "Murder Suspect in Garfield Bar Stabbing Found Hiding in Texas: Prosecutor," May 8, 2026

• News12 New Jersey, "FBI Captures Fugitive Wanted in Deadly New Jersey Bar Stabbing," May 8, 2026

• NorthJersey.com / USA Today Network, "Final Suspect Arrested in Connection to 2024 Fatal Garfield Stabbing," May 8, 2026

• CBS19 (Tyler, TX), "New Jersey Murder Suspect Found at East Texas Home After Months-Long Manhunt," May 10, 2026

• Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Ricky Vargas — FBI Most Wanted," fbi.gov, active profile

• Angelique Morales, "Richard Franceschi — Forever & Always," GoFundMe, active campaign

• TikTok @jojosbargrill, "JOJOS BAR & GRILL • 133 MONROE STREET GARFIELD NJ," active account