[bomp] Conviction in brutal Richmond slayings

["Immortal Porpoises" <immortalporpoises@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Conviction in brutal Richmond slayings
By KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press WriterThu Aug 17, 2:28 PM ET

A man was convicted Thursday of the random mutilation killings of a musician
and his family, a verdict that took just 30 minutes to reach and could bring
the death penalty.

Lawyers for Ricky Jovan Gray, 29, presented no witnesses and acknowledged he
confessed to the New Year's Day slayings of musician Bryan Harvey, 49, his
wife, Kathryn, 39, and daughters Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4.

Seeing photographs and hearing details of how they died - bound, beaten and
stabbed, with their throats cut, in basement of their burning home - left
one juror in tears and others looking shaken. They could recommend that Gray
be executed after the trial's penalty phase, which was to begin Thursday
afternoon.

Harvey family supporters blinked back tears of relief and nodded in
affirmation of the guilty verdict. Gray stood stoically, his hands behind
his back.

The Harveys were well known in Richmond: Bryan was a guitarist and singer
for the rock duo House of Freaks, which released five albums between 1987
and 1995, and Kathryn co-owned a quirky toy and novelty store called World
of Mirth.

According to his confession to Philadelphia police after his Jan. 7 arrest,
Gray and two accomplices were looking for a house to rob on New Year's Day
when they noticed the Harveys' front door was open. They would flee with a
computer, a wedding ring and a basket of cookies.

"It was an open door - a front door - that brought Ricky Gray into their
home," prosecutor Michael Herring told jurors. "He came into that house and
he invaded what was clearly a household of love and peace. ... What Mr. Gray
brought was nothing but sadness, despair and destruction."

Medical examiner Dr. Darin Trelka said Bryan Harvey was struck six times in
head with a hammer, and that his neck was cut in a sawing motion eight
times. His body also had "very severe" burns in several places.

Kathryn Harvey also was stabbed and had saw-motion wounds to her neck and
burns, he said.

Ruby was also burned and had stab wounds to the throat and skull fractures,
but it was stab wounds in her back that caused her death, Trelka testified.

Stella, who also was stabbed in the neck multiple times, was alive when the
fire was set, Trelka testified. She died from smoke inhalation and blunt
force trauma to the head.

Kathryn Harvey's half-brother, actor Steven Culp, who played Rex Van De Kamp
on "Desperate Housewives," wept as Trelka described injuries to Kathryn's
body.

In a brief cross-examination, defense attorney Jeffrey Everhart asked Trelka
if the blows to the head would have left the Harveys unconscious.

"Likely," he replied.

Gray pleaded not guilty to the slayings, but his attorneys acknowledged his
confession, called no witnesses and contested none of the facts of the
commonwealth's case during closing arguments.

"I can't tell you why he did what the commonwealth alleges he did," Everhart
said.

Gray and his nephew and suspected accomplice, Ray Joseph Dandridge, are
accused of a bloody crime spree that began in November, including the
killing of another Richmond family just days after the Harveys were slain.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for both men, but only Gray has
been charged in the Harvey slayings.

Dandridge, 29, is scheduled to go on trial Sept. 18 on capital murder
charges in the Jan. 6 killings of a couple and their daughter. A victim in
Jan. 3 home robbery in which Gray and Dandridge also are accused has said
the daughter killed had been an accomplice in the attack against him.

The defendants, both ex-convicts from Arlington, also have been charged in
the slashing assault and robbery of an Arlington man on New Year's Eve, and
are suspects in the Nov. 5 killing of Gray's wife, Treva, who was found
asphyxiated near woods about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh.

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