Problem is: When you take LE out of the game, there would be no murder story. Even this murder wasn't intended by Ross at the start. It was his mentor Variety Jones ( https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=935434.0 ) , who convinced him to order the hit, after Ross wanted only his money back.
I agree with you in the point of his intentions at the time of his decision to actually "kill" people (if it was really proven it was him ---> Maryland indictment still to come ). He should get a bonus round for that one, like 5 extra years on top of 5 ys for the drug dealing. 10 years is a very long time in prison
If you have 6 people dead and someone is responsible: life (or even death sentence). If noone is killed: Give him a few years in a cell together with some tough guys and he will learn some important things about life in general, hrhrhr.