Haine Announces Guilty Verdict in Trial of Man Who Fired Shots at Homes

EDWARDSVILLE/ALTON — Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine announced Wednesday that a jury found a defendant guilty of aggravated discharge of a firearm for firing shots at two homes in Alton, nearly striking a child. The jury deliberated about two hours Wednesday before finding Rondell L. Sanders, 32, of Alton guilty of two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm and one count of obstructing justice. The trial began Monday.

Evidence and testimony showed that Sanders had been involved in a feud with an individual who was residing at a home on Belle Street. That home and a neighboring home were struck by gunfire on May 22, 2024.

The shots were fired from a vehicle. No one was injured, but some of the bullets nearly struck a 3- 3-year-old child who was inside one of the homes. While Alton Police were at the scene gathering evidence from the roadway, a suspect vehicle drove around the police barricades and through the crime scene. Police pursued the vehicle and apprehended Sanders. “This conviction sends a clear message: Reckless violence has no place in our community,” Haine said. “Firing shots at a home is an intolerable act of violence. We’ve seen how conduct such as this can have results that are terribly tragic.”

Haine commended Alton Police along with the prosecution team: Assistant State’s Attorney Morgan Hudson, who is Chief of the Criminal Division at the State’s Attorney’s Office, and Assistant State’s Attorney Luke Yager. Hudson, in her closing argument to the jury, said the 3-year-old girl was watching television and getting ready for bed. “But on that night…their safe space was shattered. This defendant decided to turn their home, their safe space, into a war zone,” Hudson argued.

Hudson said the girl’s mother ran into the room to find the child screaming, trembling and surrounded by drywall dust, “but by some miracle, unharmed.” The prosecutor argued that Sanders returned to the scene, with a reloaded weapon, to finish the job.

“Luckily, police were already on-scene. Luckily, he wasn’t bold enough to shoot the house in front of a slew of police officers,” Hudson told jurors. “Don’t give him that second chance. That kind of reckless disregard for human life cannot go unanswered.” Associate Judge Neil Schroeder presided at the trial.

Sanders will be sentenced later. Aggravated discharge of a firearm is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

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