Renaldo Baptiste Convicted in Joanne Penney Murder as 11 Gang Members Face Sentencing
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · May 28
Renaldo Baptiste Convicted in Joanne Penney Murder as 11 Gang Members Face Sentencing
3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · May 28
A Cardiff Crown Court jury found prisoner Renaldo Baptiste guilty of orchestrating Joanne Penney’s March 2025 killing from his cell, alongside convictions for Donna James, Laura John and Molly Cooper in a second trial.
Prosecutors said the murder grew out of a south Wales drug turf war: Baptiste used a hidden prison phone to help supply a .38 pistol and ammunition after rivals in Talbot Green had confronted and humiliated his associates.
Penney was shot through the heart when Marcus Huntley, Jordan Mills-Smith and Melissa Quailey-Dashper carried out the revenge attack; Huntley had messaged Baptiste about buying a gun and “10 sweets,” while saying “Leg shots only.”
Cooper was tied to the ammunition by DNA evidence the court heard was at least 1 billion times more likely to be hers than anyone else’s, while James and John were convicted over travel and taxi arrangements that helped Mills-Smith flee.
Five others had already been convicted of murder in an earlier trial, bringing the total convicted across both cases to 11; all are due to be sentenced next month.
A lifer ordered a fatal shooting from his cell. Has the UK prison system become a command center for organised crime?
With 21,000 illegal phones seized in a year, is a £40 million security upgrade failing to stop inmates from running criminal empires?