PHILIPSBURG--The Court of First Instance on Wednesday, found two men guilty of involvement in a number of shootings. Rolando C.T. Arrindell (32), aka “Flamingo” was sentenced to eighteen years, and his accomplice Renald Reo Reymond (26) to sixteen years.
Arrindell’s girlfriend P.G. (25) was acquitted of being an accomplice to one of the shootings.
Raymond was charged with three attempted murders with five victims, one of who was paralysed for life, and with one case in which a man was threatened with a firearm. The Prosecutor’s Office held Arrindell responsible for four attempted murders with seven victims, including the man who was paralysed, and two police officers.
The Prosecutor’s Office had called for 21-year sentences for the two men and three years against the woman.
The two men had allegedly drafted a “death list” of persons they held responsible for the violent death of Reymond’s girlfriend Deyanida “Clarisa” Faneyte (20). She was hit by a bullet while sitting in the car next to her boyfriend on March 18, 2014.
Reymond held it against the Court that during his trial no attention had been paid to this fact. He shook his head repeatedly while the judge read out the sentence. “No justice has been done to the fact that my girlfriend was shot and died,” he exclaimed after his conviction.
Arrindell claimed he was also a victim in a shooting, which took place on January 23, 2014, in which he was injured to his right hand and upper arm. After these two incidents, the two men sought revenge and started hunting the people they held responsible and their aids, family and friends.
Six shootings, mainly in Dutch Quarter, took place in less than three months between May and July 2014. Shots were fired at random, usually from a driving car, which could easily have led to bystanders being hit. Eleven people, among them two police officers, could have lost their lives, but in fact, only one person was severely injured.
Reymond was arrested on August 21, 2014. Five (semi-)automatic firearms with ammunition, among which one machine gun, were found in his apartment on Gibbs Drive. Ballistic investigations linked him also to the other shootings, among which a shooting on May 16, 2014, during which at least six gunshots were fired at two men in a car.
The Court found Reymond guilty of three attempted murders and one case of threatening. He was also found guilty of misappropriation of two vehicles and licence plates, but acquitted of drugs possession.
The Judge said Reymond had been in possession of a big “arsenal” of firearms and ammunition and was guilty of a number of “serious violent crimes.” Among these crimes were the attempted manslaughter of two men on May 16, 2014. On July 19, 2014, he threatened a man with a firearm and fired a shot. One day later, he fired a number of gunshots at a man’s bedroom window. The window was shattered and two shots hit the headboard of the bed in which that man was sleeping. The Court also found it proven Reymond had tried to kill a man on the public road on July 24, 2014.
“The relentless way in which the defendant took aim at his victims is characteristic of his cold and extremely violent way of operation. This way, the suspect gave proof of his total lack of respect for the lives of other human beings. The frequency and the ease by which, in this case, firearms were used to shoot at people and the circumstance that the victim does not take any responsibility for his acts makes one fear the future,” the Judge said.
Arrindell was arrested on Raspberry Road in St. Peters on March 7, 2015. Two woman officers barely escaped death as he fired a number of shots at the two officers from close range. The Court held Arrindell responsible for two attempted murders, three manslaughter attempts and violation of the Fire Weapon Ordinance.
All three suspects had denied involvement in all charges, only admitting to possession of a single firearm. These statements were mirrored by their lawyers, who pleaded for acquittal for lack of evidence.
Arrindell’s girlfriend was acquitted of being an accomplice to attempted murder in the July 20, 2014, incident. The Court did not find it proven she had the intention to commit attempted murder, manslaughter or any other violent crime, when she provided information about the victims’ whereabouts.
