Va. man convicted of 2006 slaying of family is executed

JARRATT, Va. — A man convicted of killing a family of four, slashing their throats and setting their home ablaze after they left their front door open while preparing for a New Year’s Day party in 2006, was executed Wednesday.

Ricky Gray. 39. was pronounced dead at 9:42 p.m. following a lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt.

Gray showed no emotion as he was walked into the execution chamber. Asked if he had any final words, he responded, “Nope.”

Gray was condemned to death in 2006 for the murders of 9-year-old Stella Harvey and her 4-year-old sister Ruby, and sentenced to life in prison for the slaying of their parents, Bryan and Kathryn Harvey.

The family was getting ready to host friends for a chili dinner when Gray and his nephew, Ray Dandridge, were looking for a home to rob and spotted the open door. Court records show they tied up the family in the basement and Gray slashed their throats and bashed their heads with a hammer before setting their home on fire and fleeing with a computer, a wedding ring and a basket of cookies.

The family’s slaying was followed by the killing of a Richmond family less than a week later.

Gray also confessed to participating in the slaying of 21-year-old Ashley Baskerville, her mother Mary Baskerville-Tucker and stepfather Percyell Tucker days after the Harvey deaths, but he wasn’t tried in that case.

Gray and Dandridge said Ashley Baskerville had served as a lookout for them during the Harvey slayings.

Dandridge pleaded guilty to the Tucker-Baskerville slayings and is serving a life sentence.

Police in Washington, Pa., were interested in speaking with Gray and Dandridge in connection with the 2005 death Gray’s wife, Treva Terrell Gray.

At 8:54 p.m. Wednesday, prison officials closed a curtain, shielding Gray from view. That is typically when officials insert the IV. The curtain remained closed for more than 30 minutes before it was opened and the lethal injection began.

Lisa Kinney, a Virginia Department of Corrections spokeswoman, said she could not explain why the curtain was closed that long.