Death Row Convict Faces 2nd Trial in Killing Spree

A man on death row for the New Year's Day murders of a Richmond family will stand trial in another capital murder case in Culpeper, in which a 37-year-old woman was found dangling by an electrical cord in her basement after a man came to her house asking to use the phone.

The trial of Ricky J. Gray, 30, will begin Oct. 29 in Culpeper County Circuit Court in the slaying of Sheryl Warner, who was found dead in her home Dec. 18, 2005.

Authorities allege that Warner was the ninth person whom Gray, of Arlington County, killed in a murderous rampage with his nephew between November 2005 and January 2006. It was one of the worst killing sprees in the area in recent history.

Gray was sentenced to death in October for the Jan. 1, 2006, slaughter of Richmond musician Bryan Harvey, 49; his wife, Kathryn, 39; and daughters Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4. The family members were bound and beaten, their throats cut and their basement set on fire in a south Richmond suburb, police said.

Harvey was a guitarist and singer for the rock duo House of Freaks, which released five albums between 1987 and 1995. Kathryn Harvey co-owned a Richmond gift store and was a half-sister of actor Steven Culp, who played Rex Van De Kamp on the hit television show "Desperate Housewives." Their violent deaths rocked their quiet suburban neighborhood and were so gruesome that homicide detectives cried.

Five days later, about a mile from the Harveys' home, members of another Richmond family -- Percyell Tucker, 55; his wife, Mary Baskerville, 47; and her daughter Ashley Baskerville, 21 -- were found dead in their home, which had been ransacked, police said.

Ray J. Dandridge, Gray's accomplice in the Harvey murders and his sister's son, pleaded guilty to capital murder in the deaths of the Tucker-Baskerville family. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Although they were uncle and nephew, the two men, only eight months apart in age, grew up more like brothers, family members have said.

Culpeper County Circuit Judge Paul M. Peatross set Gray's trial for Oct. 29 to Nov. 5. Gray did not enter a plea, but defense attorney Ted Bruns said he expects his client will plead not guilty. Gray faces a possible death sentence in the case.

Bruns and co-counsel Jeffrey Everhart also defended Gray in the Harvey case. No pretrial hearings have been set in Culpeper, Bruns said.

Warner's killing in Culpeper occurred two weeks before the Harveys were killed in Richmond.

Warner, the mother of three young children, was on the phone with her father when she told him that a man was at her front door asking to use the phone. Warner never called her father back, and when she didn't answer his repeated calls to her, authorities went to the house and discovered her body in the burning basement.