A Winston-Salem man stabbed his girlfriend 11 times because he thought she was cheating on him, posted a video admitting what he had done on Facebook and then drove his girlfriends car head-on into a tractor-trailer in an attempt to kill himself, a Forsyth County prosecutor said in court Wednesday.
Ross Weathers IV, 35, of the 1900 block of Bedford Street, pleaded guilty in Forsyth Superior Court to one count of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury.
Judge Kevin Bridges of Forsyth Superior Court sentenced Weathers to a minimum of four years and 10 months and a maximum of six years and 10 months in prison.
Ebonee Sade Burnette and Weathers had dated for several years and had a son together, Assistant District Attorney Ben White said.
On July 29, 2019, Burnette arrived at her home with a male friend and her son. White said Weathers was already in the house, but Burnette didnt know it.
Burnette went into the kitchen. Weathers, White said, came out and stabbed Burnette nine times in the back, once in the arm and another time in the chest. Burnette fell to the ground, and Weathers kicked her several times, including in the face.
In a victim impact statement, Burnette wrote that Weathers stomped her in the face. She was taken to the hospital and has fully recovered, White said.
Afterward, Weathers posted a video on his Facebook page. He said when he saw Burnette with another man, he blacked out and stabbed her 30 times.
Hopefully, shes (expletive deleted) dead, he said in the video, according to White. He also indicated that he was going to commit suicide.
Soon after posting the Facebook video, Weathers drove Burnettes car along U.S. 64, crossed the centerline and ran into a semi-truck head-on, White said. Weathers was treated and released from a local hospital. He told Davie County Sheriffs deputies and troopers with the N.C. Highway Patrol that he was trying to kill himself after he had committed a passionate crime.
He is facing a pending charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury and several other misdemeanor charges in connection to the crash.
After the incident, Burnette sought a domestic-violence restraining order against Weathers. In the complaint, she said her son witnessed the assault. The restraining order was granted and is effective until August of this year. She also obtained a domestic-violence order in 2018 after an incident in which she alleged Weathers held a knife to her throat while she was pinned to the bed. She said Weathers threatened to kill her.
Burnette came to the hearing but had to leave the courtroom because she did not want to be in the same room as Weathers, White said.
Burnettes mother, Teresa Adams, told Bridges that her daughter is traumatized by what happened. Adams also said the whole incident has traumatized her as well, leading to a mental breakdown. She has struggled with how to deal with Burnettes son, who just got home from a road trip with Weathers and now has to face the fact that his father is going away to prison for stabbing his mother.
Adams said she has already lost one daughter to violence and has had to deal with almost losing a second daughter the same way. Adams daughter, Chiquita Lawanna Adams, 35, was found strangled to death in a hotel room in High Point on Christmas Day in 2015, according to a Feb. 8, 2016, News & Record story. When Atrium Inn employees checked on the room, they found Adams 11-year-old daughter crying. The girl said she could not wake up her mother.
Shanion Donta Watson, 39, was convicted of first-degree murder on July 12, 2019, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in Adams death.
Jason Whitler, Weathers attorney, said his client suffers from bipolar disorder. He said he has remorse for what he did and accepted responsibility for his actions early on in the investigation.
Bridges ordered Weathers to not have any contact with Burnette.
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