When Angelia Cross hit Kylin Bursey’s red Chevrolet Tahoe near 4th and Connecticut St. in Gary on April 30, 2024, it set an egg timer that ended with his death hours later.

At the crash, they traded words.

Later, she called her husband Billy Cross. They tracked Bursey’s vehicle to the 4100 block of West 23rd Avenue, where Billy shot Bursey, 33, of Gary, at least six times in the head, neck and back.

At trial in May, he argued it was self-defense, acting before Bursey could shoot him. A jury disagreed. Bursey’s girlfriend Shawntel Rice testified he was unarmed.Judge Samuel Cappas sentenced Billy Cross Thursday to 83 years — 63 for murder, 10 for unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon and 10 for a gun enhancement.

His lawyer Mark Gruenhagen said he will appeal.

Angelia Cross was charged last fall. Her trial is scheduled for October.

Deputy Prosecutor Brad Carter said the Crosses were the ones who turned a car crash into violence. Billy Cross wasn’t even there at the accident and didn’t know what happened, he said. Rice was braiding her daughter’s hair when the Crosses pulled up.

He asked for 88 years. Cappas corrected him that one count, for five years, was not part of the sentencing.

Gruenhagen said any term would be a “life sentence.”

Cross, 47, of Gary, was remorseful and a father himself, his lawyer said. He said Cross would not speak in court due to his appeal.

“He wants everyone to know how sorry he is, how he wishes he could take those moments back,” Gruenhagen told the court.

Earlier in the hearing, Brittany Dunner, Bursey’s sister, said he was killed on their mother’s birthday, the day before his youngest child’s birthday.

His five kids, then 9 and younger, were in the SUV and heard everything.

“They don’t even know how to explain,” she said. “We can tell what the pictures (they draw) are.”

It was reasonable to believe Cross hunted Bursey down, Cappas said at the hearing’s end. Video showed the couple driving around Gary looking for him.

He unloaded over a dozen rounds within a few feet of Bursey’s young children — an act that would traumatize them forever.

Cross had his head down during much of the hearing, at times appearing to close his eyes in resignation.

During the first bail hearing on Aug. 22, Carter played a jail call. He said Cross was telling his son that his wife’s longtime “road rage” had finally led to something dire.

“It didn’t have to go like this,” Cross says on the tape, adding her behavior was problematic.

mcolias@post-trib.com