by A Georgia man was sentenced to 65 years in prison for the shooting his then-estranged wife seven times after she told him that their marriage was beyond repair and asked for a divorce.
Cherokee Superior Court Judge David Cannon, Jr., sentenced Ronald Richard Goss, 57, on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of his now ex-wife Tina Davis on Feb.11, in Ball Ground, Georgia.
Goss also pleaded guilty to home invasion, attempted arson, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and nine counts of family violence aggravated battery on Jan. 26, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Goss told Davis before the shooting that “if he could not have her, no one could,” according to the Cherokee County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said that Goss visited Davis the day before the shooting in an unsuccessful attempt to save their troubled marriage.
He returned the next day, around 5 a.m., entering the home through the garage door after cutting off the power. Prosecutors said that Goss knew his wife of nearly 10 years would be up at that hour, according to WMAZ.
Once in the master bedroom, he shot Davis in the chest, left forearm, left thumb, left shoulder, right hip, and head, “causing internal injuries as well as a spinal injury that left her with no feeling from the waist down,” prosecutors said.
During the shooting “a bullet ricocheted and struck Goss in the face,” they added
After the shooting, Goss used his cell phone to document the scene, taking photos of Davis and himself, and then called 911. He told the dispatcher that he had shot his wife and himself and waited for help to arrive.
“He did everything in his power to kill Tina Davis. It is only by the grace of God that she is still here with us,” Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said in her statement.
“While his plan to kill Tina was unsuccessful, in less than five minutes, Mr. Goss ended Tina’s life as she once had known it,” Wallace added. “In the four years since Tina was ambushed in her home, she has endured a tremendous amount of physical and mental suffering, and I am in complete awe of Tina’s strength and determination to regain what this defendant took from her. Hopefully, the resolution in this case will provide her and her family comfort and closure.”
Davis survived but is still recovering from the shooting, undergoing more than 15 surgeries and dental procedures in the last four years to help correct the damage. She is also able to walk again after more than 450 hours of physical and occupational therapy.
But Davis, once a devoted runner, is no longer able to pursue that passion.
Davis said in her victim’s impact statement that Goss took away the “best years of my life.”
“What hurts most are the things he took from my future. I would have been a go-to babysitter for my grandkids. I would have been the fun Nana. These should be the best years of my life. I should be checking off my bucket list,” she said, according to the prosecutor’s office. “But thanks to him, I spend my days in therapy just to regain a portion of what he took. I may not have died that day, but he took my life just as if I had.”
Prosecutors said that Goss had intended to inflict even more harm.
He had doused her car, which was parked in the attached garage, with gasoline and was planning to set it ablaze, but apparently never got the opportunity.
Davis asked the judge to deliver a tough sentence and not be swayed by her survival.
“A weaker person physically, mentally, spiritually would not have survived,” Davis said. “There will be no parole for me. Please make him live with the consequences of his decisions for the rest of his life.”
Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence plus 30 years, while the defense requested a 20 year sentence with the possibility of parole.
