ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
Bryant Ross had a gun. But he needed something else for what he had in mind.
On the way to his Northwest Roanoke apartment the night of Dec. 29, he visited a friend and asked to borrow a flashlight.
Ross explained that he was going to hide in the attic and wait for his estranged wife - who thought he was out of town - to stop by to pick up her belongings as they ended seven years of marriage. "He said she was going to get the surprise of her life," the friend, Virgie Peters, testified.
It turned out to be a surprise that ended the life of Vickie Shantella Ross.
After showing up alone at what she thought was an empty apartment, Ross was shot six times in the head at close range.
Bryant Ross, 41, was sentenced Tuesday to life plus three years in prison for the murder.
In giving Ross the maximum sentence for first degree murder and use of a firearm, Roanoke Circuit Judge Robert P. Doherty said it was clear that he "terrorized, stalked" and "laid in ambush" for his estranged wife.
Although Ross admitted killing his 34-year-old wife, the details of exactly what happened at their Lancelot Lane apartment have been clouded by several different statements he made to police.
Ross first said he "lost his head" and shot his wife during an argument in which she said she wanted him out of her life. He later told a probation officer that he killed Ross after she swung a knife at him in the kitchen, nicking him in the chest.
The basic theme of both accounts - that Ross had what his lawyer called a "spontaneous overreaction" - was challenged by Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Bowers.
"This is a case not about a domestic argument that went bad ... but a case about men executing women," Bowers said. "And that is what Bryant Ross did to Vickie Ross."
The prosecutor pointed to evidence that on the day of the killing, Bryant Ross told his wife that he was going to Philadelphia because a family friend had died. It was only then that Vickie Ross, who had been living with a friend because of her fear of Ross, decided it would be safe to go to the apartment to pick up some of her belongings.
A short time later, Bryant Ross stopped by Peters' house and asked to borrow a flashlight. He said that his wife thought he was out of town, but that he was going to set up a "booby trap" to catch her in the apartment, Peters testified.
Witnesses also testified that Ross had been watching his estranged wife from afar with binoculars, and that once before he had surprised her by showing up at the apartment unexpectedly.
After Vickie Ross was reported missing by friends Dec. 29, police found blood splattered throughout the Lancelot apartment. The following day, Ross' partially clad body was discovered in the back seat of a car parked on Peach Tree Drive Northwest.
Bryant Ross, who had led friends of his estranged wife's on a road chase after they ran into him leaving the apartment, was arrested a short time later.
In asking Doherty to consider something less than a life sentence, Assistant Public Defender Roger Dalton reminded the judge that Ross will not be eligible for parole. (He will, however, be considered for release when he turns 60 under a geriatric clause of the state's new no-parole law.)
Dalton also pointed out that Ross had no prior record of violence. ``The events of Dec. 29 were an aberration in Bryant Ross' life,'' he said.
Just before he was sentenced, Ross told the judge:
``You only know me as a statistic, and on that you must judge me.''
Apologizing to both factions of his fractured family that sat on opposite sides of the courtroom, Ross said that "only God, Vickie and myself know what really happened."
``I know in my heart that I have been forgiven by them, and my conscience is clear,'' he said.
That prompted one of Vickie Ross' friends, seated on the front row, to blurt out:
``You have no heart.''
LENGTH: Medium: 79 linesby CNB