ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601040042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
Bryant Ross, charged with shooting his estranged wife to death last week in Roanoke, made his first court appearance on Wednesday.
At an arraignment in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, Judge John Ferguson appointed a public defender to represent Ross and set his preliminary hearing for Jan. 26.
Ross, 36, is being held without bond on charges of murder and use of a firearm in the death of Vickie Shantella Ross, who was found shot to death in an abandoned car Saturday on Peach Tree Drive Northwest.
After the hearing, a relative said Vickie Ross had broken up with her husband about six weeks before her death.
"Vickie was the sweetest person you could ever meet," her sister said. "She didn't deserve this."
Police have said earlier that a friend went to Ross' Northwest Roanoke apartment Friday to pick her up to go to a party, but found no sign of her. Police responding to a missing person report found blood inside and outside the apartment.
The friend also told police that she saw Bryant Ross driving away from the apartment as she arrived. Vickie Ross' body was discovered the following day. An autopsy determined that the 34-year-old woman had been shot several times in the head.
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