for the harvey murders, believing they had their best chance in this case. notwithstanding my feelings about the death penalty, i wanted to try to kill ray dandridge, legally, of course. in a capital case your number one job is to try to save his life. people who do capital cases understand that a win is a life sentence. reporter: dandridge had confessed to wrapping the victims faces with duct tape. but unfortunately, there were large gags put in the mouth of the victims before they were duct taped. and that could have been the actual cause of death. reporter: dandridge never admitted to gagging the victims before taping their mouths. as the case was about to go to the jury, dandridge s defense team had second thoughts. they decided to plead guilt in exchange for a sentence of life in prison rather than risking the jury would come back with a guilty verdict as a death sentence. one was the issue of whether or not the judge might be granting us a first-degree
instruction. and we knew that was a concern to the commonwealth at that point. and in virginia if he had been convicted of first degree the maximum punishment would have been life in prison. there would have been no death penalty on the table. reporter: ray dandridge was spared the death penalty. he received life in prison without parole in exchange for pleading guilty not just to the tucker-baskerville murders but also to the harvey family killings. relieved. whenever you can determine that your client is not going to be looking at the death penalty anymore, it s always a great relief. reporter: responsible for these eight death, ray dandridge and ricky gray are behind bars for good. i don t think it would have stopped. they were never going to look to leave another witness living. reporter: ray dandridge cannot appeal his decision, since he pleaded guilty to the tucker-baskerville murder. under virginia law, ricky gray s death sentence will automatically be reviewed by the
reporter: only one week into a new year, and richmond police had seven murders that they believed were committed by just two men. those men, ricky gray and ray dandridge, were tracked down and arrested in the early morning hours of january 7th, 2006. matt geary, one of the prosecutors handling the case, headed to philadelphia with a team of richmond investigators. by the time we got there, ray dandridge was talking to the police, and shortly after we arrived ricky gray began to talk, and reading the written word of what they had done, you could tell that those seven people experienced what each other did. they saw each other die, viciously. reporter: not only did the pair confess to the richmond murders, but ricky gray admitted to murdering his wife, treva
the second week of january 2006 gray and dandridge were extradited. richmond prosecutor michael herring decided he would take the lead in prosecuting the two men. when you re talking about a death penalty case, and this is a death penalty case, you can never assume that a jury is going to return a death sentence. this could be a fight, tooth and nail, right down to the end. reporter: while prosecutors were planning their case, defense attorney jeffrey eberhart was given the tough task of defending ricky gray. after reading gray s confession, eberhart had some strong advice for gray. just advised him to keep his mouth closed, not to share his thoughts or anything he knew about the cases with any of the inmates who happened to be there, anybody spoke to him. reporter: clair cardwell, a former prosecutor, was assigned as ray dandridge s attorney. he s a very quiet person, very reserved. and always seemed to be a little bit confused about what was going on. reporter: prosecutor
gray, in november 2005. gray says he and dandridge dumped her body alongside a road in her hometown of washington, pennsylvania. treva gray s mother, myrna, blamed local police for not arresting gray two months earlier, before the richmond killing spree. there wouldn t have been another murder. they wouldn t have killed babies in virginia. reporter: ricky gray even confessed to a brutal assault during a robbery in arlington, virginia, a washington, d.c. suburb. i had broke my knife in the man and asked gray where his knife was. he gave it to me. i broke that knife in him, too. that attack happened in an area the pair knew well. they d grown up in arlington. both gray and dandridge have long rap sheets and had committed crimes together before. they pleaded guilty in march 1996 in alexandria circuit court in connection with a series of robberies. both served time in virginia state prisons. now the pair was being sent back to virginia to face the consequences of their confessed crim