Jury selection is underway today, as lawyers question three people at a time from the group that was called to the John Marshall Courts Building this morning.

Two jurors of the six jurors questioned as of noon were kept as potential jurors. Four were dismissed for a variety of reasons.

One woman was struck because she is a third cousin of Percyell Tucker, one of the three people Ray Dandridge is accused of killing.

Jury selection will continue all afternoon and will resume tomorrow morning.

Jury selection begins this morning in the capital-murder trial of Ray Joseph Dandridge, charged with the Jan. 6 slayings of the Tucker/Baskerville family in South Richmond.

The selection process is expected to take at least two days. Attorneys need to narrow the large pool to 12 jurors and four alternates.

The main portion of the trial begins Monday morning, with opening statements and evidence. The trial is expected to last through the end of next week.

Dandridge’s alleged accomplice, Ricky Javon Gray, was convicted last month of capital murder for the Harvey family slayings.

A jury recommended the death penalty, and he will be formally sentenced next month.

For a look at what to expect at Dandridge’s trial, see Sunday’s Times-Dispatch.

A Richmond Circuit Court jury has sentenced Ricky Javon Gray to death.

The jurors said he should die for the murders of Stella and Ruby Harvey.

He was given life prison sentences for the murder of Bryan Harvey in the commission of a robbery, for committing more than one murder in the same act and for committing more than one murder in a three-year period.

Judge Beverly W. Snukals read the jury’s findings. As she did, Gray showed no emotion.

Afterward, Snukals thanked the seven women and five men on the jury and told them, “This is probably the most difficult thing you’ve ever done,“ adding, “probably for me, too.“

Six hours today and still no verdict.
The jury has been deliberating since shortly after 9 a.m. today. They haven’t returned to the courtroom once.
That makes 11 hours of deliberations so far, and no word on whether Gray will get life in prison without parole or the death penalty.

Jurors weighing Ricky Javon Gray’s life worked through lunch this afternoon as they continued deliberating in the penalty phase of his capital murder trial.
As of 2 p.m., the panel of five men and seven women had deliberated 11 hours over the last two days. They must decide whether to sentence Gray to life in prison or give him the death penalty for the New Year’s Day slayings of the Harvey family.
A vote for death must be unanimous.
If the jury informs Judge Beverly W. Snukals that it is having difficulty reaching a decision, she could read what is known as an “Allen Charge” to the panel—a formal admonition to them to return to the jury room and seek consensus on a verdict.
If the jury still cannot come to a decision, the court could declare the panel deadlocked and impose a default sentence of life in prison without parole for the 29-year-old Gray.

The wait for Gray’s fate continues.
Jurors began their second day of deliberations shortly after 9 a.m. this morning in the penalty phase of the capital murder trial of Ricky Javon Gray.
As of 11 a.m., there had been no questions from the panel or word that they had reached a decision.
Prosecutors and Harvey family members have spent the anxious, intervening hours walking the halls of the John Marshall Courthouse, taking smoking breaks outside on the plaza and waiting inside the Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office.
 

The jury in the Ricky Gray trial is resuming deliberations this morning.