Jury finds Issiah Ross guilty of 1 teen's death, hung on the other

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- An Orange County jury on Thursday found Issiah Ross guilty of second-degree murder of Devin Clark, but failed to agree on the charges related to Lyric Woods' death.

The two teens were killed in 2022.

For three weeks, witness testimony and evidence presented at trial showed how the three teens had planned on social media to meet up and have sex.

Ross picked up Woods and Clark using his mother's car and drove them to the woods, where they were later found dead with "multiple gunshot wounds" on a remote ATV path off Buckhorn Road.

Ross testified that there was an argument, and Clark shot Woods and lunged at him. Ross claims that he wrestled the gun away from Clark and shot him in self-defense.

"Losing him has left everyone with a pain," one of Clark's family members said in their victim impact statement on Thursday. "I need you to understand ... you changed the course of our lives forever."

After four days of jury deliberation, Ross was sentenced to at least 20 to 25 years in jail for the charges related to Clark.

"I don't know why so many shots were fired and how many of those occurred while people were running, but it paints a horrible, horrible picture," Judge Stephanie Reese said. "You're going to spend a substantial time in jail ... you get to choose whether that life is a reflection of you trying to fill some of the space that now is empty by being something more than just a convicted murderer."

What's next in Lyric Woods' shooting death?

As for Woods, getting justice is not over, according to prosecutors.

"Just because we have ended where we have in this matter does not mean that justice for her is somehow gone by the wayside," Assistant District Attorney Anna Orr said regarding seeking a retrial.

The trial was also disrupted by winter weather, pausing jury deliberations on Monday and Tuesday.

"Ideally, we would have wrapped up probably last week," Orr said. "But the jurors stayed very engaged, and I was very pleased with their level of participation in this case and the level of consideration that they gave to both the state and the defense in their deliberations."

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