The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was remanded to prison late yesterday afternoon after being arraigned in connection with the “execution” of a fellow Grand Bahamian four days before his alleged victim’s retrial for murder.

Renaldo Armbrister, 27, of Freeport, appeared before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt facing a charge of murder in the May 29 shooting death of 33-year-old Renaldo Bonaby, who was found dead on a track road between Odle Corner and Gibbs Corner around 6am.

Bonaby, who was fitted with an electronic monitoring device, was believed to have been shot around midnight, according to reports of gunshots being heard in the area.

Armbrister was not required to enter a plea to the charge due to the nature of the offence, but is to reappear in Magistrates Court no 9 on August 20 for the case to be forwarded to the Supreme Court.

Bonaby, with Armbrister and Kevin Harvey, were found guilty in 2010 of the 2006 kidnapping and brutal murder of Philip Gaitor Jr.

According to court documents, the men lured Gaitor to an isolated spot near Barbary Beach where they beat him with baseball bats before burning him alive in the back seat of his car.

Bonaby was sentenced to death after the judge said he “showed no remorse” and was the “mastermind” in the plot to extort $100,000 from the victim’s father Phillip Gaitor Sr.

However, his sentence was overturned in the Court of Appeal and he and Armbrister were ordered to face a new trial in 2011. He was released on bail. Krysta Mason-Smith appeared as his lawyer.