By Shavonne Potts
spotts@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — A Rowan County man convicted last year of the attempted murder of a Hispanic couple was re-sentenced in Rowan County Superior Court this morning.
And even though a panel of judges with the N.C. Court of Appeals agreed three aggravating factors should not have been presented to jurors at his trial, Ray Lee Ross received the same sentence he did in April 2010.
That means he’ll continue serving two consecutive sentences of 18 to 22 years in prison for the February 2007 shootings of Pedro Romero Amaro and his wife Angelica Martinez Besies at their Kannapolis home.
Rowan court officials said the sentence didn’t change because Ross had previously been sentenced — taking into account his criminal history — at the low end of the “aggravated range” under the state’s Structured Sentencing Law. Without the aggravating factors, he was sentenced at the high end of the “presumptive range.”
A jury in 2010 found Ross guilty of two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury and assault on a female.
Ross had also been charged and was being tried at the same time for the murder of Henry Aldridge, which occurred about a week before the shooting of Amaro and Besies. Prosecutors linked the two crimes through a shotgun stolen from Aldridge that police said Ross later sold to Amaro.
Ross acknowledged knowing Aldridge and said he’d been in the man’s home, but denied killing him.
Jurors acquitted Ross in Aldridge’s murder
Ross appealed on a number of points: that the cases should not have been joined; that a witness who testified at his probable cause hearing was not available for cross-examining at trial; that the trial court erred by not dismissing the attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon charges for lack of evidence; and that the aggravating factors should not have been introduced.
In an opinion issued late last year, the Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s ruling on the all but the aggravating factors appeal, agreeing with Ross they should not have been presented to jurors because they had not been included in an indictment.
The aggravating factors considered by jurors were that Ross used an unregistered silencer in the shootings; that he was involved in the illegal sale and purchase of narcotics at the time of the crime; and that he was involved in a course of conduct that included violent crimes another person or people.
Prosecutors argued they weren’t required to include the aggravating factors in an indictment, relying on rulings by the N.C. Supreme Court and N.C. Court of Appeals. The appeals panel ruled, though, that those cases only dealt with whether failing to include aggravating factors in an indictment is unconstitutional and don’t address a 2005 change in state law that does require aggravating factors to be presented in an indictment or “other charging document.”
Contact reporter Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253.