Last defendant in bodybuilder murder case gets probation

Maura James, whose daughter’s bound and tortured body was found in a torched Jaguar in 2005, spoke during the sentencing for Anthony Gross, the final co-defendant in the case.

Gross, 26, earlier pleaded no contest to charges of accessory to arson and conspiracy to commit arson.

“My daughter, Melissa James, went up in flames on the side of a desolate desert road,” Maura James said. “Because of Anthony Gross, I will never know what her last hours and minutes were like, nor what it was to hold her just one last time.”

During the hearing, the victim’s sister wept in the back of the courtroom.

District Judge Jackie Glass sentenced Gross to probation, saying that he had helped law enforcement and that prosecutors had agreed to grant him probation as part of a plea deal.

“I hope the James family can move forward and have some sense of closure,” Glass said.

She then spoke to the defendant.

“I hope we never see you again Mr. Gross,” she said.

Gross was initially charged as an accessory to murder for the slaying of James, 28.

Prosecutor Robert Daskas said the district attorney’s office agreed to give Gross a deal in part because he helped authorities in a separate murder-for-hire plot, involving Ronald Nelson Brady Jr.

Brady was a fan of Titus who met and befriended the bodybuilder while serving time in the county jail. Brady, 37, was convicted last year of three counts of solicitation to commit murder for trying to hire a hit man to kill Gross and two others.

Daskas also said Gross has stayed out of trouble during the case.

He described Gross as a star-struck fan of Titus, who was a Mr. Olympia competitor and world-class bodybuilder.

Titus and wife Ryan were convicted in connection with the death of Melissa James, their personal assistant.

Authorities said Titus called Gross after he killed James. He asked Gross to help destroy Ryan’s 2003 Jaguar in the desert.

James tortured body was inside the vehicle, but Gross maintains that he didn’t know.

“I live with regret for answering the phone that night,” Gross said. “I thought I was helping someone, but I really wasn’t helping.”

Titus, 44, last year pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and arson. He was sentenced to 21 to 55 years behind bars. Ryan, 36, pleaded guilty to arson and battery with a deadly weapon causing substantial bodily harm and was sentenced to six to 26 years in prison.

Maura James said she didn’t buy the argument that Gross deserved a second chance because he was still young. Her daughter, she said, is dead.

What sickens her most is that no one knows whether her daughter was still alive when she was burned inside the Jaguar.

“I will continue to lose sleep each and every night of my life wondering,” she said. “Tell me, does Anthony Gross wonder?”

Contact reporter David Kihara at dkihara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.