Good Samaritan Mourned at Milwaukee Homicide Sentencing

Only half of the courtroom was full ln April 22 as convicted murderer Christopher Ross awaited his final sentence. The family of Ross’ victim, Latrail Ball, filled the gallery on the prosecutor’s side in blue tie dye T-shirts that said “Trail World.”  One-by-one, members of Ball’s family told Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Ellen Brostrom exactly what had been taken from them.

“It’s been a long, hard year trying to make it through without the light of our family,” said Charity Ball, Latrail’s youngest sister.

She read from a letter she had written for the occasion, sobbing as she did so. The silence of the courtroom was jarring compared against her audible agony. “The last time I saw Latrail, I was throwing dirt six feet under,” said Charity Ball.

Ross murdered Latrail Ball during a drive-by shooting a year ago in February. Ball had pulled over his vehicle in an attempt to help another person, a decision that resulted in him losing his life. Ross was sentenced to 35 years of initial prison time with 15 years of extended supervision for a total of 50 years (as well as another concurrent sentence).

He is allegedly known by police to hang around with members of the Wild 100s gang. The gang is notorious in Milwaukee and is known for taking part in a large number of crimes around the city. During the trial, he claimed to not be a part of the gang and denied knowledge of its very existence. Ball’s brother, Laron, was previously involved in a high-profile Milwaukee courtroom shooting He was killed on the scene by a homicide detective who was sitting in the courtroom. In 2006, Latrail Ball was convicted of substantial battery for participating in a high-profile mob beating of a Milwaukee man.

Ross, who had limped into the sentencing earlier with a cane and darkly tinted sunglasses, sat quietly as family members shared their feelings of loss. He was convicted of one count of 1^st degree reckless homicide, a count of felony possession of a firearm and one count of 1^st degree reckless endangering safety. The statements of eyewitnesses found in the case file help re-create the story of what happened the nigh of Feb. 8, 2015.

Kendall Purifoy, one of the witnesses to the shooting that happened on Fond du Lac Avenue, identified Ross at the Hideaway bar with another person whom he identified as a member of the notorious Milwaukee gang, the Wild 100s.  Purifoy was able to identify Ross because they had been in a previous altercation at a Halloween party. The men had an argument about a girl, and Ross proceeded to get physical with Purifoy.

According to the criminal complaint, Ross left the bar before Purifoy, who stayed and talked with his friend Derrick Johnson. When the pair decided to leave the Hideaway bar, Purifoy agreed to give Johnson a ride to 68^th Street. On his way, Purifoy was pulled over by police. After being pulled over, his Tahoe slipped into a ditch because of the slippery road conditions. It was then that Latrail Ball made the decision to pull over and help Purifoy. While Ball was trying to pull the Tahoe out of the ditch with his vehicle, Ross arrived and shot up the entire scene. Purifoy heard the shots and turned around to see the shooting unfold before him.

“He was so close that you could see his face from the muzzle flashes,” said Purifoy in the criminal complaint. Ross fired at least seven times that night. One bullet struck Derrick Johnson in the leg, while Latrail Ball suffered four gunshot wounds through the back.

Johnson, who managed to crawl and take cover in the parking lot of the BMO Harris Bank, was also present that day (at the sentencing notably without the crutches he had previously been using). He was the last one to see Ball alive.

“I wake up in the middle of the night crying,” said Johnson. “My mom told me to leave it in God’s hands.”

Once it was the defense’s turn to speak, Ross maintained his innocence.

“I know him as Trail,” said Ross. “He was a friend of mine.” Family members of Ball scoffed under their breath at the comment.

Ross apologized to the family for their loss and explained to the judge that it just wouldn’t make sense for him to go and shoot someone that the state said he “had beef” with, referencing his altercation with Purifoy at the Halloween party.

“I had nothing to do with this,” said Ross.

“Then who did?” demanded one of his family members before she was hastily escorted out of the courtroom.

In addition to this, Ross defended his previous convictions for 1^st degree reckless injury. In a letter to the judge he wrote while awaiting trial, Ross begged her to not think of him as the young boy from 2006, as he is no longer young and foolish.

“I get the feeling of being played,” said Judge Brostrom in response to Ross’ defense.

Ross also claimed to suffer from an eye disease that made sunlight difficult to deal with, hence the dark sunglasses. However, a video from inside Hideaway bar showed Ross completely healthy on the night of the shooting. He claimed that he could not have been the shooter due to his poor vision.

Latrail Ball’s family got up and left immediately after the judge read out the first sentence. The Ball family has had two other family members who have died, and two others who are in prison wow.

Although the Ball family has lost some of its members in the past, the way his family described Latrail Ball didn’t make him seem like he should have been another loss.

“You took someone who cared-someone who wasn’t in the street,” said Ball’s oldest sister, Tamiaa Hobgef.

Out of her five uncles, Ball was the only one to show up for her 21^st birthday party and spent the entire day with her. Ball also leaves behind three children, two girls and one boy who is named after him.

The murder of Latrail Ball was described by the prosecution as a true case of “being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” For his family, the mourning process will be a difficult one.

“It’s like I lost everything I ever had,” said Charity Ball as she finished reading her letter to the courtroom.