PAWTUCKET –– The man accused of murdering Mayra Cruz on Wednesday was arrested in January on charges he broke into her apartment, struck and choked her and ripped the telephone off the wall.

Juan L. Diaz, 24, was charged following the incident with breaking and entering, felony assault, simple assault, disorderly conduct, vandalism and preventing Cruz from using the phone.

He was released on personal recognizance after being arrested by Pawtucket police following a traffic accident unrelated to the Jan. 18 break-in at the Galego Court housing project, where Cruz, 26, lived with her 6-year-old daughter.

Diaz was scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court last week on charges stemming from the assault and break-in. A warrant for his arrest was issued when he failed to appear.

Diaz is now being held in a jail in Albany County, N.Y., where he was picked up on a warrant charging him with Cruz’s murder. Pawtucket police said he fled to Albany after shooting Cruz in the basement apartment at 14 Reservoir Ave., where he had been living since the end of March.

In an interview Thursday, Diaz’s landlord, Jacinta Fernandes, said Cruz was a frequent visitor to the apartment. Diaz introduced her as his girlfriend, Fernandes said, and she usually dropped by at night.

The police were called to the apartment at 9:46 p.m. Wednesday, after Diaz called and said he had accidentally shot Cruz during a struggle over a gun.

When they arrived, Diaz was gone, Cruz was lying dead in the apartment. The state medical examiner’s office ruled Thursday that she died from a single gunshot wound to the head.

Authorities tracked Diaz to Albany after learning he had relatives there and tracing a cell phone call he had placed to a girlfriend in Pawtucket’s Prospect Heights housing project.

Michael J. Healey, a spokesman for the Rhode Island attorney general’s office, said it is unclear when Diaz will be returned to the state.

“We’re waiting to hear whether he waives extradition,” Healey said. “We won’t know anything until Monday, at which time, if he waives, Rhode Island state marshals will be going to Albany to bring him back.”

It was unclear yesterday what has happened to Cruz’s 6-year-old daughter. In a written statement she gave the police after the Jan. 18 break-in, Cruz said she awoke at about 1:40 a.m. to find Diaz trying to remove the girl from the room.

Diaz struck her several times, Cruz said, then choked her, holding her against the bedroom mirror. When she was finally able to leave the bedroom, she told the police, she noticed that Cruz had ripped the telephone from the wall.

She sent the girl to her sister’s apartment to get help, but Cruz’s sister wasn’t home.

Diaz left the apartment at 4:30 a.m. He was arrested following the traffic accident six days later.

Diaz is described in the police report as Cruz’s ex-boyfriend. Cautioning that he was not commenting on this case specifically, Healey said, “Unfortunately it is fairly common” for a domestic-assault victim to continue to associate with the victimizer.

“Oftentimes these relationships are controlled by one person,” Healey said. “It’s very difficult for a whole host of reasons for the person being abused to withdraw.”

jcastell@projo.com