A judge sentenced the convicted killer of a Richmond family to death Monday for his role in a bloody crime spree that left four other people dead as well.
Circuit Judge Beverly Snukals followed the jury’s recommendation in imposing the ultimate punishment on Ricky Jovan Gray for the random New Year’s Day slayings of musician Bryan Harvey, 49, his wife and two young daughters.
The four were found in the basement of their burning home. Authorities said they had been bound, beaten with a hammer, stabbed and their throats had been cut.
Gray, 29, was convicted of capital murder in August. Snukals sentenced him to death for the murders of the two children, Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4, and gave him life sentences for the slayings of Bryan Harvey and the family as a whole.
Gray and his nephew, Ray Joseph Dandridge, both of Arlington, killed the Harveys as part of a violent rampage that included the slaying of a second Richmond family less than one week later, authorities said.
Dandridge, also 29, pleaded guilty last month to three counts of capital murder for the Jan. 6 killings of Percyell Tucker, 55, his wife, Mary Baskerville-Tucker, 47, and her daughter, Ashley Baskerville, 21. The men said Ashley Baskerville was an accomplice in the Harvey slayings.
Gray confessed to the Nov. 5 killing of his 35-year-old wife, Treva Terrell Gray, in Washington, Pa., about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh. In his confession, Gray said he beat his wife to death in their bed with a pipe while Dandridge held her down. The two also are persons of interest in another killing on Dec. 18 in Culpeper.
Bryan Harvey was a guitarist and singer for the rock duo House of Freaks, which released five albums between 1987 and 1995. His wife, Kathryn Harvey, co-owned a quirky toy and novelty store called World of Mirth and was the half-sister of actor Steven Culp, who played Rex Van De Kamp on “Desperate Housewives.”