Inset left to right: Issiah Ross, Lyric Woods and Devin Clark (Orange County Sheriff's Office). Background: A field where Woods and Clark were found shot to death just outside of Efland, N.C. (Google Maps).
A North Carolina double murder trial ended with a mixed result this week as justice was both meted out with a conviction and left hanging in the balance with a mistrial and potential retrial in the offing.
On Thursday, Issiah Mehki Ross, 20, was found guilty on one count of murder in the second degree by a jury of his peers in Orange County. The defendant had been facing two charges of first-degree murder.
The verdict came in response to his culpability for the death of 18-year-old Devin Clark. At the same time, however, jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict on a murder charge over the death of 14-year-old Lyric Woods. In the end, the judge declared a mistrial in that case.
The underlying incident saw three children in the same car one night – while only one of them was eventually able to leave.
Later, the slain bodies of Woods and Clark would be found near a power line easement by two men checking trail cameras within hours of the high school students' families reporting them missing.
Roughly midway through the three-week trial, star witness Christian Sykes, who said he hung out with Ross in 2022, detailed a confession and a boast that the bodies had been dumped where "nobody's gonna find them," according to a courtroom report by Greensboro-based CBS affiliate WFMY and Raleigh-based NBC affiliate WRAL.
Sykes relayed the order of events on the night in question, as allegedly told to him by the defendant after the fact.
First, jurors heard Sykes on a recording made by investigators.
On the night of Friday Sept. 16, 2022, the trio was in a car together, Sykes told investigators in the audio. During the trip, Clark repeatedly trained a handgun's laser sight beam on Ross and Ross repeatedly told Clark to stop pointing the gun at him, according to the witness.
Eventually, the defendant had enough of the needling and tried to grab the gun from Clark, causing Clark to squeeze off two shots near Ross, Sykes said. After that, Ross successfully pried the gun away from Clark and shot him. Then, he shot Woods because "she saw everything that happened," the witness added, quoting the defendant.
Later, Sykes himself took the stand.
"When they got there they were hanging out and stuff and somehow or another, the other boy had a gun and he was like playing with it, pointing it on him," Sykes told the Orange County jury. "He told him to stop and he did it again. He did it again. He told him to stop. He said the third time he went for the gun, they wrestled for the gun and I don't remember exactly if he said the gun went off. But I do know he said that he shot them and dumped the bodies."
In the end, the victims were shot at around 2 a.m. the next morning, investigators determined. Their bodies would be found some 36 hours later in a field along Buckhorn Road just outside of Efland – a tiny town located roughly 40 miles due east of Greensboro.
Clark was shot three times while Woods was shot seven times, according to autopsies obtained by The News & Observer.
In both cases, the defendant pleaded self-defense.
On Thursday, Ross was sentenced to spend 20-25 years behind bars for Clark's murder. He will also receive credit for time already spent in pretrial detention and must undergo psychiatric testing.
"It happened when I was 18, and no 18-year-old should have to deal with something like that," one of Clark's cousins told WFMY after the verdict. "I can't even hear his voice anymore, and it hurts. He was the glue of our friend group and made sure we all stuck together. He was taken away so early, and it still doesn't feel real. I am deeply hurt by this."
During the sentencing, Superior Court Judge Stephanie Reese remarked on the violence.
"I don't know why so many shots were fired and how many of those occurred while people were running, but it paints a horrible, horrible picture," she said, according to a courtroom report by Durham-based ABC affiliate WTVD. "You're going to spend a substantial time in jail…you get to choose whether that life is a reflection of you trying to fill some of the space that now is empty by being something more than just a convicted murderer."
The judge also noted that, despite the length of the sentence, the defendant can still speak with his family while Clark never can.
"It is always with a heavy heart that I come to a case involving young people," Reese continued. "There is nothing worse for a community than losing two lives forever. We gain nothing. We only lose. The actions of that morning have left people empty and scarred, and that will not go away because of the decisions you made."
In the end, jurors were irrevocably split eight to four on a verdict in the Woods case, according to a courtroom report by WRAL.
Both sides, finally, agreed to a mistrial.
"Based on all of that, I will grant the joint motion and declare a mistrial on that count," Reese said, delivering the ruling.
Prosecutors said they would likely seek a retrial in the Woods case.
"Just because we have ended where we have in this matter does not mean that justice for her is somehow gone by the wayside," Assistant District Attorney Anna Orr told the local TV stations. "I think they experienced some confusion and some disappointment certainly, but it's not the end of the road for her case."
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