ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, April 4, 1996                TAG: 9604040071
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: VIRGINIA EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER

HUSBAND GUILTY OF MURDER HE COULDN'T DEAL WITH SPLIT, SO HE SHOT WIFE

Bryant R. Ross hung a note on the Christmas tree last December, telling his estranged wife that he loved her.

Then he shot her six times in the head.

Prosecutors gave that account Wednesday after Ross, 41, of Roanoke, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and use of a firearm.

When he is sentenced in May, Ross will face a maximum punishment of life in prison plus three years for the death of Vickie Shantella Ross, whose partially clad body was found Dec. 30 in the back seat of a car parked on Peach Tree Drive Northwest.

At a hearing in Roanoke Circuit Court, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Bowers said the shooting stemmed from Ross' inability to cope with the breakup of his seven-year marriage.

On Dec. 29, Ross went to his apartment on Lancelot Lane, where his 34-year-old wife was gathering some of her belongings to take to a friend's apartment where she had been staying since they separated the previous month.

In a statement to Detective Neil Tolrud of the Roanoke Police Department, Ross said he and his wife began to argue. "She said she wanted me out of her life," he told Tolrud. "I asked why it had to be that way and what could I do to make it right."

As the argument escalated, Ross said, he took a gun from a closet and shot his wife once in the neck as she was standing in an upstairs bathroom. He told Tolrud that he had no intention of shooting her. "I guess I just lost my head," he said.

After apologizing to his wife, he shot her five more times in the back of the head as she began to make her way down the stairs, Ross said in the statement. He then dumped her body in the back seat of her car and drove it to Peach Tree Drive.

Although Vickie Ross was not fully clothed when police found the body the next day, Bryant Ross said he did not try to have sex with her during the attack.

After Vickie Ross was reported missing by friends Dec. 29, police went to the Lancelot Lane apartment and found blood splattered throughout the home. They also found several notes, including one on the Christmas tree that Ross had signed, "Love you, Bryant."

A second note found in the apartment read: "Vickie, I love you always. Please take me back some day."

LENGTH: Medium:   51 lines
KEYWORDS: ROMUR