Orange County jury finds Ross guilty of 1 teen’s murder but splits on 2nd killing
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The deaths of Lyric Woods & Devin Clark
On Sept. 18, 2022, two missing teens were found dead with gunshot wounds in Orange County near Efland. Here is ongoing coverage from The News & Observer of the investigation, its aftermath and trial.
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An Orange County jury found a Mebane man guilty of second-degree murder Thursday in the 2022 death of an Alamance County teenager, but remained split over whether he also killed a 14-year-old girl.
Issiah Ross, 21, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder after Lyric Woods, 14, and Devin Clark, 18, were found on a gravel path off Buckhorn Road near Efland on Sept. 18, 2022.
The jury deliberated for four days after a week of testimony and evidence to reach its unanimous verdict that Ross is guilty in Clark’s death. For second-degree murder, jurors had to find he acted with malice, but not with premeditation and deliberation.
The jury split on whether Ross is guilty of first-degree murder in Woods’ death.
“Honestly your honor, I don’t believe more time” will resolve the differences, the jury foreperson said.
The decision forced Superior Court Judge Stephanie Reese to declare a mistrial in Woods’ death. The court will have to seat a new jury for a new trial on those charges.
Ross was sentenced to 240 months to 300 months — 20 to 25 years — in prison in Clark’s death.
Orange County investigators testified that the teens were shot multiple times around 2 a.m. Sept. 17, 2022, after Clark reached out to Ross for a ride the night before and promised Ross that he would be able to have sex with Woods in exchange for the ride.
Ross, who testified on his own behalf, claims he acted in self-defense. Clark shot Woods after the pair got into an argument, Ross testified, and Clark then turned the gun on Ross, forcing him to wrestle the gun away and shoot Clark to save his own life.
Reese warned the courtroom before the verdict that anyone whose reaction was disruptive would be taken into custody.
“The jury has worked extremely hard in trying to do the right thing,” Reese said. “I want everybody to know there will be no reaction to the jury’s verdict, whether good or bad.”
“I will, no matter who it is, take action for that,” Reese said.
Woods’ grandfather left the courtroom after the verdict was read, while other relatives of both victims wept quietly. In a courtroom ringed by Orange County Sheriff’s deputies, Clark’s family spoke about his life and what his death has meant.
Cassandra Bryant read a Bible verse from Psalms 34 that she said “has carried our family through some of the darkest moments since losing Devin.” Ross was their “gentle giant,” she said, and he “carried a kindness, a calmness, that drew people in.”
The Eastern Alamance High School senior was the wide receiver for his varsity football team, and “played with passion that reflected who he was on and off the field,” Bryant said. He was also a son, a big brother, a grandchild and a nephew, she said.
The murders “shattered two families’ entire lives,” Bryant said.
“There’s no preparation for the silence that follows the loss of a child. No preparing for his empty room, missing his voice and the laughs around the house, and the milestones that we will never get to witness. … The man that he was becoming,” she said.
Woods’ family did not speak before sentencing and declined to comment after court. Clark’s family said the aftermath of the murders has brought the families together, but “I can never imagine the deep pain that Lyric’s parents are feeling,” Clark’s cousin Alexandria Blackwell said.
What happened to Lyric and Devin?
Witness testimony and evidence presented during the trial showed Clark reached out to friends on Snapchat looking for a ride. He offered sex with Woods to whoever responded.
Ross agreed to pick up Clark, and the young men then picked up Woods outside her home after she slipped out to meet them. Woods was last seen at home at 11 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16.
Ross drove to the rural utility easement about two miles from Woods’ home, where the teens parked.
Ross testified that he got out of the SUV to give Woods and Clark privacy while they had sex. Woods got out a short time later, followed by Clark, and they were arguing, he testified.
Clark retrieved the gun from the front seat and shot Woods before turning the gun on him, Ross said. He lunged at Clark, wrestling away the gun, and shot Clark in self-defense, he testified.
Ross, who was 17 at the time of the murders, was the only witness for the defense. He testified that he did not know Woods, a student at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough, before that night. Clark and Ross attended Eastern Alamance High School.
Defense attorney Jonathan Trapp and Assistant District Attorney Anna Orr agreed that Clark brought the gun with him that night.
But Orr said the evidence tells a different story.
She contends that Ross and Clark argued — possibly because Woods refused to have sex with Ross — and Ross wrestled the gun away from Clark before shooting him and Woods. A key witness, Christian Sykes, told the jury that Ross wrestled the gun away from Clark, who was pointing its laser sight at him, and shot both teens.
Woods and Clark were shot as they ran away, Orr said, and after they fell, Ross fired “insurance shots” to make sure they were dead.
Clark was shot six times, and Woods was shot seven times, their autopsies show. Hunters found their bodies on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 18, 2022.
“They spent their last moments together, they died together, and Issiah Ross killed them,” Orr said before sentencing. “I hope that Devin will be remembered for all of the things his family just shared with us.”
“His kindness, his loyalty, his protective nature, which I fully believe he was exercising in the early morning hours of Sept. 17. His compassion. The mark that he left and that he leaves, and that they will forever carry with them.”
The “embarrassing, awful things said about him” in court were unavoidable and don’t reflect the person he was, she said, “but to be accused of murder when he himself was murdered is despicable.”
Sykes testified that Ross confessed to both murders in a Snapchat call before he took a bus to Delaware on Sept. 18. Trapp contends Ross left Mebane to go stay with relatives in Delaware after his mother kicked him out for damaging her car that weekend.
Law enforcement arrested Ross in Delaware over two weeks later.
Trapp called Ross’ prison sentence “appropriate,” adding, “We always knew that this was going to be tough, because we’re talking about kids, two kids who lost their lives.”
“I know that Issiah Ross never went out to try and harm anyone that night. We may never know what was in the minds of Devin and Lyric, and how everything transpired, but there was some instance, some moment, where things got out of hand,” Trapp said.
Twenty years is “not going to bring back what was lost,” he added, but it will give Ross time to grow and maybe to teach others how to avoid the same mistakes.
This story was originally published January 29, 2026 at 2:45 PM.
