Ross is accused of stabbing his 24-year-old girlfriend Sierra Dawn Woodfork to death and then putting her body in a closet, a refrigerator and finally a dumpster. Authorities responded Jan. 18, 2020, to her Aberdeen Avenue apartment building when her body was discovered.
He is charged in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court with murder, felonious assault, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held on a $1 million bond in the Montgomery County Jail.
Montgomery County Judge Steven Dankof ruled that a brief exchange between a Dayton police officer who apprehended Ross at a Dayton shelter and the defendant couldn’t be used because Miranda rights were not read to the man. However, the judge found that once the man was interviewed by Kettering police detectives, he was told his rights.
“During the interview, Mr. Ross was offered a break, given water and the detectives extended some measure of compassion to Mr. Ross when he cried or became emotional, giving him time to answer their questions. Mr. Ross spoke openly and made incriminating and detailed statements about the incident, including stabbing Ms. Woodfork in her apartment.”
The judge allowed the statements and also ruled that prosecutors would be allowed to use a statement allegedly made by Ross after the interrogation.
“During the booking process, (a detective) remarked to a corrections officer that he couldn’t believe anyone could act normally with a dead body in a nearby refrigerator,” the court document says. “(The detective), unaware that the windowed door was opening and closing frequently, did not realize Mr. Ross heard this remark until Mr. Ross knocked on the window, motioned (the detective) over to him, and stated, ‘I heard what you said. I didn’t just watch movies. I ate food, too.’”
A next court date in the case has not been set.
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