More than 20 law enforcement officers watched intently Monday afternoon as Judge Steve Burgess read the jury's verdicts in the trial of Earnest Lynn Ross, who was charged with engaging in an organized criminal conspiracy and two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Earnest Lynn Ross
Several members of Ross' family and some friends sat quietly as the judge read.
After two hours of deliberation, jurors found him guilty of the conspiracy charge and one of the weapons charges.
They found him not guilty on the second weapons charge.
The courtroom emptied quietly, and bailiffs escorted jurors to their cars.
Ross, 46, has an extensive violent criminal record in Denton and other counties. He allegedly has made threats against the life of Sheriff Benny Parkey. Earlier in the trial, Burgess admonished some of Ross' supporters after a parole officer involved in the case reported they crowded into an elevator with her and tried to intimidate her.
Testimony in the punishment phase of the trial begins at 1 p.m. today.
Ross was charged with working with at least two other men in numerous burglaries and home invasion robberies. He was arrested June 16, 2008, in a sting operation handled by Denton County sheriff's narcotics officers and SWAT team members.
A member of his gang had been arrested and agreed to work as an informant. Cedric Autrey told Narcotics Lt. David Scott that he, Ross, Courtney Farmer and Devin Stephens planned to burglarize a Plano drug dealer's home where they believed $3 million to $4 million was kept in a safe, according to testimony.
Scott devised a sting that involved a meeting of the suspects at a Wal-Mart parking lot in the Denton County part of Dallas. The other men believed they were picking up a rental truck with a hydraulic lift to carry the safe away from the house. When they pulled up to the truck, they were surrounded and arrested.
Later, Stephens and Farmer agreed to testify against Ross.
One weapons charge involved two pistols and an assault rifle the officers found in the trunk of Ross' silver Mercedes that day. The key to a case where the weapons were found was on Ross' key ring. Jurors found him guilty on that charge.
The second weapons charge involved two shotguns found a day later in a Denton house. A couple testified that the shotguns had been taken from their residence in Rockwall during a home invasion robbery. The wife was bound with zip ties, blindfolded and gagged with duct tape while men went through her home with her children asleep upstairs.
Officers found the shotguns in the master bedroom of the Denton house, which belonged to Stephens. Ross slept in an upstairs bedroom, but prosecutors argued that he sometimes slept in the master bedroom when Stephens was away.
Jurors found him not guilty on the second weapons charge.
Prosecutor Bill Schultz told the jury in summation that Autrey had been a credible informant because the things he told officers turned out to be true. Autrey told Dallas Detective Duane Boy that a crime was about to be committed in Denton County, and Boy told Parkey, Schultz said.
"A crime was about to be committed, and they were trying to prevent it," he said.
Defense attorney Mic Meyer told the jurors the case relied on an informant who went on to commit numerous crimes after he was given a deal by Dallas prosecutors. He called Autrey "the devil himself."
Both Stephens and Farmer agreed to testify against their former friend to get better sentencing terms themselves, Meyer said. They testified they had no deal and no expectations, but Meyer told jurors to use their common sense. They would say anything the prosecutors wanted them to say, he said, in their "wink, wink, no deal, deal."
Meyer insisted that Ross had no knowledge of a plan to burglarize a house and was just at the parking lot to drop off Stephens, who had asked for a ride. Ross could not be convicted of possessing the shotguns because Stephens had already pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing them, he said.
Prosecutors did not bring Autrey to testify because he had no credibility, the defense attorney said.
"They made a deal with the devil. You are not here to decide if he is guilty," Meyer said. "The question is whether they've proved it beyond a reasonable doubt."
Prosecutor Michael Graves told the jury that the key to all the evidence Meyer suggested that Autrey planted in the Mercedes was the key on Ross' key ring. It was Ross' car and Ross' locked case where the evidence was found, he said.
He said the co-defendants, Stephens and Farmer, were truthful.
They had no deals with the prosecution, Graves said, and they faced numerous charges.
"We're not asking you to like them," he said. "They are over there in the county jail, and they will have their day."
Ross was guilty as charged, Graves said, and the state had proved it beyond a reasonable doubt.
"Mr. Ross was not there in that parking lot that day to see if Wal-Mart was rolling back prices."
DONNA FIELDER can be reached at 940-566-6885. Her e-mail address is dfielder@dentonrc.com.
