Jurors in the double-murder trial of Issiah Ross, 21, black, male, formerly of Mebane, heard testimony from a man who said Ross had confessed to the murders before the victims’ bodies were located along a power line easement off Buckhorn Road on Mebane’s outskirts in September 2022.
Ross is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Devin Clark, 18, black, male of Mebane, and Lyric Woods, 14, white, female, of Efland, on the outskirts of Mebane in the early morning hours of Saturday, September 17, 2022.
Prior to hearing from the former friend to whom Ross allegedly confessed, the prosecutor, Orange County assistant district attorney Anna Orr, introduced a motion – before the jury was led back into the courtroom following the lunch break Tuesday afternoon – to limit access and prohibit livestreaming, videotaping, and photography during the witness’ testimony.
Orr said she was requesting to limit access due to the witness’, Christian Sykes, “comfort level” and his fear of reputational and/or physical harm due to his involvement in the case.
Ross’ defense attorney, Jonathan Trapp of Raleigh, objected, telling Reese, “There [have] been no threats – no evidence to suggest he has been threatened, and there isn’t any reason to suggest the need for special consideration.”
Visiting superior court judge Stephanie Reese, who is presiding over Ross’ trial in Orange County, cited a 1980 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia, as well as the North Carolina Constitution, in denying Orr’s motion to limit access. “In this case, it is stressful,” Reese acknowledged. “Having people know your potential involvement in the case is stressful.”
That, however, is outweighed by an overriding interest in upholding the First Amendment, as well as the state’s Constitution and case law, which have established that all courts shall be open to the public, Reese told Orr.
‘They were going to run a train on a white girl’
Sykes testified Tuesday afternoon that he’d met Ross about six months earlier, in the spring of 2022, through his cousin. “We would hang out, chill, talk – normal stuff,” Sykes said, either at his grandmother’s house or at Ross’ house in the car.
Sykes said that, at first, he didn’t believe Ross when he told him about the killings. He eventually contacted investigators and relayed what he’d been told after seeing messages on Facebook that seemed to line up with what Ross had described on Saturday, September 17 and the morning of Sunday, September 18 – before Clark’s and Woods’ bodies were discovered around 3:00 p.m. that Sunday afternoon.
“He told me he was going to hang out, and they were going to run a train on a white girl,” Sykes testified. [Subsequent questioning indicated that had meant Clark and Ross were both planning to have sex with Woods when they met up early Saturday, September 17.] Sykes recalled that Ross had told him, “When they got there, the other boy had a gun and was putting a beam on him,” i.e., pointing a laser finder on the gun at Ross. Ross had said he asked Clark to stop three times, and when he wouldn’t, they wrestled for the gun.
“He said he shot them and dumped the bodies. Honestly, I didn’t believe it – it just sounded crazy.”
– Christian Sykes’ Tuesday testimony
“He said he shot them and dumped the bodies,” Sykes testified. “Honestly, I didn’t believe it – it just sounded crazy.”
After a friend showed him messages posted on Facebook about the subsequent discovery of the victim’s bodies, Sykes said, “I started thinking, ‘this is, like, matching up.’”
“At what point did he shoot the guy or girl?” Orr asked Sykes under direct examination.
“I don’t know; I wasn’t there,” Sykes responded, while several Orange County deputies filed in and sat in the courtroom gallery to listen to the testimony Tuesday afternoon.
‘I was supposed to be anonymous’
The description he gave to investigators at the time, Sykes recalled, was that Ross was skinny, light-skinned, and had curly hair, which was blond at the time.
Sykes revealed additional details about his relationship with Ross during a subsequent interview with an Orange County sheriff’s investigator in the parking lot at the Walmart in Mebane on Monday, September 19, 2022 – which he said Tuesday that he’d only recently learned had been recorded.
“I knew initially I was supposed to be anonymous,” Sykes insisted during questioning by Orr.
An audio-recording of the interview in the Walmart parking lot in Mebane was played for jurors during his testimony.
Sykes said during the interview that he and Ross “smoked” – which Sykes later admitted to the investigator meant they’d been smoking marijuana – at the apartment where Ross’ mother lived at Deerfield Trace after Sykes had gotten off work at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 17. Ross told him, “‘stuff went crazy last night’” but didn’t elaborate, Sykes said during the interview with the investigator in the Walmart parking lot.
Sykes told the investigator that Ross used to work at Lowe’s Foods in Mebane, and he would occasionally pick Ross up from work and they would “smoke.”
Sykes left that Saturday afternoon to pick up his girlfriend, but the next morning, September 18, Ross called him via a Snapchat video call (similar to FaceTime) from his stepdad’s house and showed him the gun. Ross told him that he’d picked up a “dude and then was going to pick up a girl to have sex,” Sykes said during the recorded interview, telling the investigator that he hadn’t asked Ross if that meant that Clark and Woods were going to have sex, or all three of them.
Ross said, “I capped ‘em,” Sykes told the investigator. When he asked Ross what he meant, Ross told him the “dude was holding a beam on him.” Ross told Sykes that a bullet “went near” Clark’s legs, and he got the gun from him. “He said the girl was in the backseat and said she saw everything, so I shot her, too,” Sykes told the investigator during the interview in the Walmart parking lot. Sykes said Ross was “laughing and carrying on, smiling,” as he described the shootings to him via Snapchat that Sunday morning.
“He just said he had to dump the bodies, and nobody’s going to find them,” Sykes told the investigator.
After learning from another friend – who told Sykes that investigators had found the two people who were missing that weekend – he asked Ross about it, and Ross, said, “‘Yeah, Lyric and Devin.’”
Ross told Sykes that he going to go to Raleigh to take a bus to New York, Sykes told the investigator during the interview. Ross told him that his mom was kicking him out because he’d wrecked the car, which Ross told his friend that somebody else had hit.
‘It happened twice… most of the time we just smoked’
The investigator asked Sykes during the interview whether he’d had a relationship “other than friendship” with Ross.
“It happened twice,” Sykes told the investigator, alluding to having had sexual relations with Ross twice, “but most of the time we just smoked.”
Sykes told the investigator that he started to worry about what Ross and his family might be capable of. “If his family is helping him get to New York, in my eyes, that says they know and don’t care,” Sykes recalled of his thought process during the interview. “He knows where my grandmother lives. From what I know, he has the gun with him.”
Sykes described the gun as a “maybe a 9mm,” which he said Ross had removed the clip from and had no bullets when he showed it to him during the Snapchat video call.
“It was crazy, because there was no remorse. If you can murder two people and show no emotion – that’s evil.”
– Christian Sykes in initial interview with investigator
“It was crazy, because there was no remorse,” Sykes told the investigator. “If you can murder two people and show no emotion – that’s evil.”
However, Sykes told the sheriff’s investigator he hadn’t asked Ross for details, saying, “This was a whole story I didn’t think was real.” He added that Ross wasn’t always truthful.
Sykes said when he’d go to pick Ross up to hang out, Ross always had a gun but would put it back in the house “because I don’t like that…I’m not a gun person.”
Sykes ended the interview by telling the investigator, “If I see him, I’ll point him out. I know right now he’s got blond hair, and 22 hours ago he got on a bus to New York.”
Sykes told the investigator that he called Ross, and they texted via Snapchat around 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 18. He again asked Ross about the victims, to which Ross responded, “Yeah, Lyric and Devin rest up” and included a “rest in peace” type of emoji in the text.
“I said, ‘are you for real?’” Sykes told the investigator. Ross said, “The story, it’s for real,” Sykes told the investigator, adding, “It’s been sitting on me all day.”
‘We was cool’
During cross-examination by defense attorney Trapp, Sykes’ recollection of the events surrounding Ross’ confession in 2022 seemed increasingly hazy. When asked whether it was possible he had misheard or just not gotten clarification from Ross, Sykes said it was, adding, “Again, I didn’t believe it.”
“In the video, you mentioned this [intimate] relationship you had with Mr. Ross, is that right?” Trapp asked Sykes.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Sykes responded.
“What would you call it?” Trapp pressed.
“We was cool,” Sykes said, growing defensive when pressed on cross-examination about whether he’d had a sexual relationship with Ross, with Trapp implying that Sykes might’ve been spurned by the defendant.
After the judge summoned both attorneys for a bench conference, Trapp rephrased his question to Sykes: “Is what you said in the recording true about your relationship with Mr. Ross?”
Sykes said it was, adding he was told Ross was going to New York and talked to Ross while he was either on the way to or at the bus station in Raleigh on Sunday, September 18.
After Trapp pressed Sykes about the nature of his relationship with Ross, Sykes said, “I don’t think so” when Orr asked during re-direct whether he’d had a falling out with Ross.
Sykes emphasized during cross-examination that he’d thought the information he provided to investigators was to have remained anonymous.
He acknowledged under cross-examination by the defense that he never actually saw a firearm with a laser during the Snapchat video call, but said Ross “kind of alluded to it” being the gun used in the killings.
“Whatever I said on the video [recorded interview with the investigator] is what happened. I don’t remember. . . He wasn’t always the most truthful person, so I don’t know what was true and what wasn’t.”
– Christian Sykes on witness stand Tuesday
He also admitted to having told the investigator in the Walmart parking lot, “I wished I’d asked more questions because maybe some of these things wouldn’t seem so off.”
“You stated Mr. Ross told you, ‘I capped them,’” Trapp recalled for Sykes.
Sykes reiterated to the defense attorney, “Whatever I said on the video [recorded interview with the investigator] is what happened. I don’t remember…He wasn’t always the most truthful person, so I don’t know what was true and what wasn’t.”
Trapp asked the judge – after jurors were excused from the courtroom for an afternoon break – to hold off on releasing Sykes as a witness. During the earlier bench conference with Reese and Orr, Trapp told the judge there were inconsistencies between Sykes’ testimony and what he’d said back in 2022, Reese later told observers in the courtroom gallery. “There may be some information that comes up later that may be relevant,” Trapp told Reese, who instructed Sykes to remain available in the event he’s called to testify again later.
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