Prosecutors outline robbery scheme in 2015 slaying at East Ridge motel

Khyree Thompson

Verronta Page

Tabitha Garrison

When Bruce Ross arrived at the Cascades Motel on Ringgold Road, the door to Room 48 was open. The patrolman of 21 years at the East Ridge Police Department slowly made his way down the walkway. He unholstered his gun and padded into the room.

It was cold that February 2015 morning. Inside the room, Ross noticed an unmade bed and blood on the left side of the covers. He heard the TV, and it was very loud. He crossed to the far side of the room, looked in between the wall and the nightstand.

And there it was, a body on the floor – 21-year-old Reginald Ballard. His body held up the nightstand at an odd angle against the wall.

“Was it early morning?” Hamilton County prosecutor Andrew Coyle asked the officer.

“It would have been around 7 o’clock in the morning,” said Ross, who is now retired from the department. “So maybe an hour into the shift.”