Man accused of killing teens in Orange County claims self-defense as trial starts
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Issiah Ross faces first-degree murder charges as his jury trial begins.
- Autopsies and investigators say the teens were shot while running around 2 a.m.
- State enacted Lyric and Devin’s Law in 2024; community pressed for transparency.
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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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The attorney for an Alamance County man accused of fatally shooting two teenagers in Orange County in 2022 said in court Monday that he will argue it was self-defense when the jury trial starts later this week.
Issiah Ross, 21, is accused of killing 14-year-old Lyric Woods and 18-year-old Devin Clark on Sept. 17, 2022, in a field on Buckhorn Road near Efland.
Woods lived a few miles from where she was killed and was a student at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough. Clark lived in Alamance County and attended Eastern Alamance High School.
Defense attorney Jonathan Trapp’s comment about self-defense elicited a snort of derision from one of the victims’ relatives Monday. Deputies were stationed around the courtroom for what is expected to be a high-profile and tense trial.
Orange County Assistant District Attorney Anna Orr had offered Ross a deal that would let him plead guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and serve a total of 480 months to 600 months in prison, or 40 to 50 years.
The prosecution had also offered the possibility of negotiating less prison time for a guilty plea, Orr said. The deal expired Monday, and Ross could receive two life sentences if the jury finds him guilty of two first-degree murders.
Suspects who are under age 18 when they commit a murder cannot get the death penalty in North Carolina.
Superior Court Judge Stephanie Reese encouraged Ross to consult with his attorney and consider his options carefully. Ross’ mother, who sat alone across the aisle from the victims’ families, leaned in as she listened to her son talk to the judge.
“I would like to reject the offer, ma’am,” Ross told the judge. “I would not like to make a counteroffer, ma’am,” he added in response to her questions about negotiating a shorter sentence.
Prosecutor says teens shot as they ran through field
Prosecutors have said that Ross picked up Clark before picking up Woods, who was last seen at home around 11 p.m. Sept. 16 when she told her parents she was going to take a shower. They reported her missing the next day.
Orange County Assistant District Attorney Anna Orr said in March 2025 that investigative and autopsy reports show the teens were running for their lives when they were shot shortly after 2 a.m. on Sept. 17. Residents who live near the site of the shootings reported hearing multiple gunshots between 2:10 a.m. and 2:20 a.m., she said.
Two men riding four-wheelers in the rural field found Woods and Clark lying together, with their arms outstretched, around 3 p.m. Sept. 18. Clark’s mother had filed a missing persons report earlier that day with the Mebane Police Department that said he was also last seen around 11 p.m. Sept. 16.
Investigators have said the teens were shot and then dragged or placed where they were found. They also found 17 9 mm shell casings near the bodies, Orr has said. Autopsies show Clark was shot five times, and Woods was shot seven times.
Jury selection will start Tuesday morning and could take at least a day, Orr said. That will be followed by opening remarks from the prosecution and Ross’ defense attorneys.
After presenting a series of motions to the judge Monday regarding witnesses and evidence, Orr said the attorneys have agreed not to show photos of the bodies to the public on courtroom monitors, due to the age of the victims. Several family members of both victims are also expected to testify about the events leading up to the shooting.
Arrest in Delaware leads to NC law change
Ross’ attorney Jonathan Trapp acknowledged in court last year that Ross picked up Clark and Woods, but said a witness told Orange County deputies the teens were shot after Ross and Clark struggled over a gun.
Attorneys said in court that the gun belonged to Clark’s father.
In a 2024 bond hearing, Orr shared more details about the case, including cell phone data from a State Bureau of Investigation analysis that showed cell phones belonging to Ross and Clark pinging a tower near the crime scene between 1:45 and 2:15 a.m.
Woods’ family found messages in her Snapchat account showing that she had reached out to Clark for a ride around 1:20 a.m., Orr said.
Ross’s cell phone pinged another tower near the Petro gas station on Buckhorn Road around 2 a.m., Orr said, and video footage from the gas station shows a white GMC Terrain similar to one that belonged to Ross’s mother hitting a concrete pillar at a gas pump. Ross appears in another video from the gas station pay window, she said.
Cell phone data shows that Ross then drove back toward the crime scene and returned in the direction of the Petro station before arriving home shortly after 3 a.m., Orr has said.
Prosecutors have not said what they think led to the struggle over the gun. Ross had enrolled that fall at Eastern Alamance after moving to Mebane to live with his mother. He fled to Delaware after the shootings, where he had previously lived with his father, and was arrested on Oct. 5, 2022, after a search that lasted over two weeks.
The lack of information about the suspect during the search caused a furor and led to the state’s passage of “Lyric and Devin’s Law” in 2024. The law allows law enforcement to release information about juvenile suspects who are being sought for violent crimes and the risk they may pose to the public.
That information previously could be released only if charges were filed in Superior Court.
Ross was initially held after his arrest in a secure, juvenile detention facility because of his age. He was charged as an adult with the murders in November 2022, following his 18th birthday. Two Delaware women — Nakaysha Ross and McKenzie Mitchell — were charged in 2022 with helping him avoid prosecution.
Ross has since been held without bail in the Orange County jail. In March, he pleaded not guilty to the teens’ murders.
Woods’ friends and family have packed one side of the courtroom at every hearing since her death, wearing T-shirts with her image printed on them. Her grandfather erected a memorial at the site after her death, which was vandalized in September 2023.
The Sheriff’s Office offered a $3,500 cash reward for information in the vandalism case, but no one has been arrested.
This story was originally published January 12, 2026 at 8:02 AM with the headline "Man accused of killing teens in Orange County claims self-defense as trial starts."
