BUFFALO, NEW YORK: A New York man has been sentenced to at least 25 years behind bars for murdering a mother-of-four with a shotgun a couple of years back. The convicted murderer spoke on his own behalf in court and mourned the loss suffered by the victim's family, insisting he “lost somebody, too,” as he maintained his innocence by claiming that someone else gets charged for the crime that claimed the life of his partner.
“I had nothing to do with this,” Keith Renaldo Jr, 40, said according to Law and Crime. “You guys all know me. You guys all respected me as I respected you. Love you guys all. We’ve all lost somebody and I’m just as heartbroken as you guys are. But I stand here strong and I will do my best to prove my innocence.”
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Who is Keith Renaldo Jr?
The Erie County District Attorney’s Office announced in a press release that Keith Renaldo Jr. was convicted in late June on one count of murder in the second degree for the June 26, 2021, slaying of Gina Baca, 45. On Tuesday, July 25, Judge Kenneth Case handed down the sentence as Keith is set to remain in prison for at least the next 25 years.
After an eight-day trial, jurors in Erie County found that Keith was responsible for the multiple shotgun firings in the woods off New York State Route 438 that tragically killed Baca. “It takes a special person to raise four children. She made miracles happen,” the victim’s oldest daughter, Quala Taylor said, in a victim impact statement during the sentencing proceedings. “I always thought we would have time to repay her for all the sacrifices she made in her life for us.”
Baca was reported missing for several days
The devastated daughter termed Keith a “monster” who gave the victim's family a life sentence of their own. In late June 2021, Baca was reported missing for several days. Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said during a press conference that year that the woman last interacted with her mother on June 26, 2021.
The missing person investigation was conducted by the Seneca Nation of Indians Marshals. New York State Police were later contacted and they first found the deceased woman's vehicle before making the tragic discovery of the tribal member. On July 1, 2021, her body was found in a pond.
Baca died of a gunshot wound to the head and was also shot in the left side of her body. Keith was arrested and charged with her murder 13 days later. “This was the most gruesome homicide – as far as wounds to the body; to the head specifically – that he has ever seen,” Flynn recalled the words of an investigator who worked on the case. “No one could have survived that gunshot wound to the head. No one.”
“The evidence of his guilt was overwhelming,” Assistant Erie County District Attorney Ryan Haggerty said during sentencing. “It was evidence not just of his guilt. It was evidence of the moral and psychic harm that he inflicted, on not just Gina, but on her family.”
Renaldo was initially arraigned in the Brant Town Court and remanded to the Erie County Holding Center, the Observer reported. He was detained there without bail throughout his case. “I lost my mother in an unbelievable way that is still hard to wrap my head around,” Taylor said during the defendant’s sentencing. “My life will never be the same. I have constant fear and anxiety and questions. I can speak on behalf of my three siblings. That the last two years have been extremely difficult for us. We feel lost without our mother – who was our rock, our protector. Life without her doesn’t feel real.”
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