Guilty Verdict in the Murder of Wilson's Melody Ross

A gang member was convicted today of first-degree murder for gunning down a 16-year-old honor student after a homecoming football game at Wilson High School in Long Beach nearly two years ago.

The Long Beach Superior Court jury deliberated about 2 1/2 days before finding 18-year-old Tom Love Vinson of Bellflower guilty of the Oct. 30, 2009, slaying of Melody Ross, said Deputy District Attorney Dean Bengston. Jurors additionally convicted Vinson of the attempted murders of two gang rivals who were the intended targets, but survived their wounds, and one count of attempted voluntary manslaughter involving a girl who was sitting next to Ross on the curb just after the football game finished. She was not wounded.

Jurors also found true gang and gun use allegations against Vinson, who was 16 at the time of the shooting but was tried as an adult, according to the prosecutor. The panel acquitted the defendant of an attempted murder charge involving another girl who escaped injury.

By all accounts, Ross was ``the true innocent bystander,'' Bengston said. ``That is what was so painful about this.''

The teenager -- a Wilson High school junior who was in Advanced Placement classes and on the track team -- was shot once in the upper body and pronounced dead at a hospital.

Vinson is facing 155 years and six months to life in state prison, with sentencing set for Oct. 25 before Judge Mark Kim.

Vinson's co-defendant in the case, Daivion Davis, 17, pleaded no contest Aug. 5 to manslaughter and attempted murder. He was sentenced today to eight years and four months in a juvenile facility.

--City News Service.