Accomplice in Norristown murder sent to prison for decades
NORRISTOWN » Calling it a “senseless” crime, a judge sentenced a Norristown man to state prison for being an accomplice in a shooting and botched robbery, an unprovoked attack that left a borough teenager dead.
“How senseless this crime is,” Montgomery County Judge Thomas P. Rogers said Thursday as he sentenced Ryan Stanford Lee, 24, to 17 ½ to 35 years in prison for his role as the getaway driver during the 10:05 p.m. March 18, 2011, gunshot slaying of 17-year-old D’Ravious “Ray” Dawkins at the intersection of West Oak and Noble streets in Norristown.
As the judge imposed the punishment, he recalled the account of a witness who said he overheard Dawkins utter, “Why are you doing this to me?” as he was attacked while walking home from his girlfriend’s house.
“Mr. Lee, I hope you wake up every day hearing those words,” the judge said to an emotionless Lee.
Rogers said the sentence will run consecutively to the 15-to-30-year prison term Lee received last year for shooting at another man on Sept. 24, 2014, in Norristown in retaliation for cooperating with police. That means Lee, formerly of the 500 block of East Moore Street, will have to serve at least 33½ years behind bars before he’s eligible for parole and up to a maximum of 65 years.
The judge said the consecutive sentence was necessary given Lee’s long criminal history, 10 prior arrests with convictions for drug and assault crimes, and to send a message of deterrence to a community plagued by violence.
“This defendant is part of a small group of individuals who have been the purveyors of violence, fear and intimidation,” said Rogers, explaining the offenders have tried to thwart police investigations and spread fear among residents reluctant to assist police out of fear of retaliation. “This defendant has played a major role in maintaining and facilitating this environment.”
Lee, who prosecutors alleged was the getaway driver during Dawkins’ killing, pleaded guilty to charges of third-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder shortly before his trial was to begin in April. Third-degree murder is a killing committed with malice.
Lee’s guilty plea came several days after Omar Terrell “Odie” Massenburg, 24, of the 1400 block of Tremont Avenue, Norristown, was convicted by a jury of a charge of second-degree murder in connection with his role as the triggerman during the fatal shooting. Massenburg, who prosecutors alleged was a passenger in Lee’s car at the time of the shooting, recently was sentenced to a mandatory term of life imprisonment on the second-degree murder charge, which is a killing committed during the course of another felony, such as robbery.
Before learning his fate, Lee maintained his innocence and claimed he only pleaded guilty to avoid the possibility of a life sentence if convicted of first- or second-degree murder at a trial.
“I never killed nobody (sic) and I never robbed nobody. I didn’t do it,” Lee said
“Their intention was to rob and intimidate this 17-year-old kid. He was the perfect mark. On that night there was such senseless violence.” — Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney James Price
as he addressed Dawkins’ grieving relatives.
Dawkins was described by loved ones as “a good kid” who wanted to be a Marine and who cared about his community and participated in local Police Athletic League events and was a youth mentor at his church.
“He was the kind of kid who would give you the shirt off his back. For them to take his life it broke my heart,” Dawn Brown Dawkins, Ray’s mother, addressed the judge. “He aspired to be something. It has devastated my family.”
Assistant District Attorney James Price argued Dawkins, carrying a backpack and listening to his iPod as he walked home from his girlfriend’s house, became an “easy target” for Massenburg and Lee who were roaming the streets terrorizing people and looking for someone to rob.
“Their intention was to rob and intimidate this 17-year-old kid. He was the perfect mark,” said Price, who theorized that when Dawkins fought back Massenburg shot him. “On that night there was such senseless violence.”
Price also recalled Dawkins’ last words, “Why are you doing this to me?”
“He could not understand why these individuals would try and put him into this senseless violence,” Price argued.
Defense lawyer Richard J. Tompkins asked the judge not to impose consecutive prison sentences
against Lee, arguing Lee was not the shooter, that he had a difficult upbringing, including being the victim of a shooting when he was 17, and has had no misconducts while in prison.
“My client did not intend to shoot or hurt anyone that night and he didn’t. He drove a vehicle,” Tompkins argued. “He’s an intelligent young man.”
Lee did not testify during
Massenburg’s trial but Price and co-prosecutor Lauren Heron made his role in the slaying known through other evidence introduced at that trial.
Lee and Massenburg were charged last year in connection with the 2011 murder after an extensive investigation. According to testimony and court documents, the investigation relied on seven cooperating
witnesses, eyewitnesses, cellphone analysis and other investigative information.
An autopsy determined Dawkins died from a single gunshot wound to his left shoulder and neck area, a bullet that traveled to his lungs and liver, according to testimony. A pathologist testified Dawkins essentially “bled to death.”
“On the evening of
March 18, 2011, Omar “Odie” Massenburg and Ryan Lee engaged in a conspiratorial relationship in which Lee drove Massenburg throughout the streets of Norristown,” county Detective Todd Richard and Norristown Detective Adam Schurr alleged in the criminal complaint.
The two men traveled to the west end of Norristown
and located Dawkins walking on Noble Street, detectives alleged.
“Massenburg then confronted and shot D’Ravious Dawkins in an unprovoked attack. Massenburg and Lee fled the crime scene and arranged to discard the murder weapon and create alibis to distance themselves from the homicide scene,” Richard and Schurr alleged.