Keith Renaldo, on the right, appears in court for sentencing after he was convicted of murdering Gina Baca, inset on the left. (Screengrab via The Buffalo News; Selfie)
An upstate New York man who murdered a mother of four with a shotgun two years ago is heading to prison for at least 25 years.
Keith Renaldo Jr., 40, was convicted in late June on one count of murder in the second degree for the June 26, 2021, slaying of Gina Baca, 45, the Erie County District Attorney’s Office announced in a press release. Judge Kenneth Case handed down the sentence on Tuesday, as the defendant was condemned to his fate behind bars for 25 years to life.
Before being sentenced, the convicted killer was allowed to speak on his own behalf in court. He did so – expressing grief for the loss suffered by Baca’s family, insisting he “lost somebody, too,” and maintaining his innocence while hoping someone else is accused of the crime that took his on-again, off-again girlfriend’s life.
“I had nothing to do with this,” Renaldo said – directing his comments toward the victim’s family. “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.”
Jurors in Erie County did their best to foreclose against that possibility after an eight-day trial, finding that the defendant was, in fact, responsible for the multiple shotgun blasts – in the woods off New York State Route 438 – that took Baca away from her family forever. Deliberations reportedly took less than three hours.
“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 covered by The Buffalo News. “I always thought we would have time to repay her for all the sacrifices she made in her life for us.”
The distraught daughter called the defendant a “monster” who gave the deceased woman’s family a life sentence of their own.
Baca was reported missing for several days in late June 2021.
She last spoke with her mother on June 26, 2021, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said during a press conference that year.
The missing person investigation was initiated by the Seneca Nation of Indians Marshals; New York State Police were later contacted and first found Baca’s car – before making the sad discovery of the tribal member. Her body was found in a pond on July 1, 2021.
Baca’s cause of death was determined to be a gunshot wound to the head; she was also shot in the left side of her body. Renaldo 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 said, recounting the words of an investigator working the case. “No one could have survived that gunshot wound to the head. No one.”
Both the defendant and his victim lived on the Seneca Indian Reservation, Flynn said, and the two grew up there together.
“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.”
According to the Observer, Renaldo was initially arraigned in the Brant Town Court and remanded to the Erie County Holding Center. There, he was detained 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.”
Taylor remembered her mom as “always laughing and dancing.”
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