EDWARDSVILLE — An Alton man was sentenced to 14 years in prison for a May 2024 shooting that endangered residents of a Belle Street neighborhood.
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Rondell L. Sanders, 32, was found guilty in May on three counts related to the incident. After about two hours of jury deliberation, Sanders was convicted of aggravated discharge of a weapon on two counts and obstruction on a third count.
He received a 14-year sentence on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025, for the first count, seven years for the second count, and three years for obstruction, all to be served concurrently. Sanders must serve 85% of the sentence before eligibility for release.
According to court evidence and testimony, Sanders was involved in a feud with an individual living at a Belle Street residence. On May 22, 2024, gunfire was directed from a vehicle toward that home and a neighboring property. Although no injuries were reported, some bullets narrowly missed a 3-year-old child inside one of the homes.
At the sentencing hearing Wednesday, Assistant State’s Attorney Morgan Hudson asked the Court to impose a sentence sufficient to protect the community from Sanders and deter similar conduct.
Hudson argued the justice system needs to send a message that “if you shoot a gun into an occupied home, if you nearly kill innocent people and children, you will be punished severely for your reckless disregard for the lives of the innocent people in this county.”
The 3-year-old girl was watching television and getting ready for bed. The girl’s mother ran into the room to find the child screaming and trembling in a cloud of drywall dust, but physically unharmed. The girl’s mother, in a victim-impact statement, said the family has moved from their previous home and gotten rid of their bullet-riddled furniture – “reminders of a night we are still trying to forget.”
The mother said her child still talks about their old house, “but every time she does, she brings up the ‘bad guy with guns’ who shot at us. It breaks my heart to hear her speak of it so vividly, so innocently, yet so painfully.”
While Alton Police were collecting evidence at the scene, a suspect vehicle reportedly drove around police barricades and through the crime scene. Officers pursued and apprehended Sanders.
Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine commented on the conviction after the trial, saying, “This conviction sends a clear message: Reckless violence has no place in our community. 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.”
