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Newport News man convicted of killing his family wants an appeal

Posted at 6:04 PM, May 06, 2014
and last updated 2014-05-06 18:04:11-04

The Newport News man convicted and sentenced to life in prison for stabbing his wife and three step-children to death wants a new trial.

NewsChannel 3 has obtained Ragin's handwritten appeal to Newport News Circuit Court claiming "insufficient evidence" and "errors during trial."

"I will win my appeal.  We will have a new trial, and everything that they did wrong at the last trial will be done right at the new trial," said Ragin last month after his sentencing hearing during an interview with NewsChannel 3's Jessica Larche.

Prosecutors spent weeks showing evidence that Ragin stabbed his family more than a dozen times each in 2011.  They said he covered their bodies in gasoline, set the apartment on fire and took off to his hometown in South carolina with the young son he and his wife Crystal shared.

There is also surveillance video of Ragin at a Newport News convenience store buying gasoline the night before the bodies were discovered.  The cashier said she noticed Ragin's hands were bloody that night.  An expert testified that the cuts on his hands likely came from the blade of a knife.

"I don't even see why he's fighting this," said Shelby Hancock, Crystal Ragin's sister.  "There's no other person responsible because there's no other person that could have done such horrible, horrific things."

There has been no decision yet on Ragin's request for an appeal.