CARACAS, Venezuela, Aug. 11 (UPI) — John Ralston Pate, a well-known American lawyer, was found stabbed to death in his apartment in Caracas, Venezuela, in an apparent robbery and kidnapping attempt.
Pate, 71, was a member of the Editorial Board of the Caracas Daily Journal, the predecessor of the Latin American Herald Tribune.
Two or three suspects reportedly entered through a bathroom window of the Vista Real apartment complex in the Lomas de San Román district of Caracas Sunday evening. Police believe the suspects knew the building well, stating it is difficult to access common areas of the complex.
Pate’s girlfriend, Sally Evan Oquendo, 67, was in the apartment and is hospitalized to treat stab wounds.
Police are interrogating several contractors who are working on apartments that are being remodeled.
Pate attended Brown University and Boston University and had been a member of De Sola Pate & Brown, a Caracas-based law firm, since 1981. He was a member of the Bar of Massachusetts.
“His principal areas of expertise are in negotiating international business transactions, commercial and corporate law, foreign investment, licensing, franchising, international banking, project finance, commercial aviation and secured transactions,” De Sola Pate & Brown said in a description of Pate on its website.
Pate’s first wife, Gertie Paez Pate, a well-known Peruvian painter, died of cancer in 2007.
He is survived by his son, Thomas John Pate, a lawyer at the international law firm White & Case, based in Miami, Fla.
