RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Back in 2006 Ricky Gray was convicted in the New Year’s Day murders of Bryan and Kathryn Harvey, their 9-year-old daughter Stella, and 4-year-old daughter Ruby. The family was stabbed and beaten to death after being tied up in their basement.
“Mr. Gray is very remorseful of the things that happened and he’s interested in getting a fair hearing and concerned that he hasn’t had a fair hearing,” said Gray’s attorney Robert Lee.
Lee was one of the attorneys arguing in a federal appeals court Tuesday morning, that Gray’s original attorneys did not fully communicate to the jury Gray’s state of mind when he committed the crimes. Ray Dandridge and Ricky Gray allegedly did huge amounts of PCP, and drank to the point of intoxication everyday during the time period the two went on a killing spree.
“There’s a question about whether jurors knew about the extensiveness the drug binge that Dandridge and Gray were on,” said Lee.
The Attorney General’s office argued that Gray knew what he was doing and described in detail his premeditation of the murders. Gray’s attorneys say evidence on the effects of the drugs and alcohol were never presented, and could have affected the outcome of Gray’s sentence to death instead of life in prison.
“But it hasn’t changed his appreciation of the tragedy of the crime,” said Lee.
A decision on the appeal could come down any day but general guidelines for capital cases are within 120 days.
