While awaiting sentencing for manslaughter and other violent crimes, notorious gangster Richie Fontaine was meanwhile sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday for robbing and shooting a man in August 2009.
A jury in March found Fontaine, 21, guilty of first-degree robbery and five other counts including weapons charges, for robbing Edgar Francis at gunpoint and then shooting him as Francis gave up jewelry and cash.
Citing a terrifying litany of crimes for which Fontaine has been recently convicted, arrested or associated with since he arrived in the territory from his native Dominica, Superior Court Judge Michael Dunston said Fontaine represented a threat to society.
“Based on the pre-sentencing report, Mr. Fontaine came to the Virgin Islands in 2005,” he said. “The fact that he migrated here from Dominica has no impact on my sentencing. But what concerns me is that from the time he came here in 2005 there is a long and continuous history of involvement in violence crimes.”
“There is a clear pattern here,” Dunston said.
While Assistant Attorney General Lofton Holder requested a 40-year sentence for Fontaine, Dunston combined charges, folding all six into two for the purposes of sentencing, and sentenced Fontaine to 15 years in prison, minus the 239 days he has already served. He received 10 years for robbery and 15 years for using a dangerous weapon in the commission of a crime of violence to be served concurrently for a total of 15 years.
Calling his client a man of faith, attorney James Bernier pleaded for leniency.
“He came here with his mother. He is a family guy. He has two kids back home in Dominica,” Bernier said in a high pitch. “This is not an individual who was callous or without a heart…. This is a person who is productive, who has been productive and who can be productive.”
On April 10, a jury convicted Fontaine of voluntary manslaughter for the death of Philip George, who was shot and killed outside the Club Lexus strip joint in Smith Bay on March 7, 2009.
In November, Fontaine was also convicted of nine crimes — including first-degree robbery, assault and various weapons charges that carry heavy mandatory sentences – in connection with a daylight robbery at Tabor and Harmony.
He awaits sentencing on both of those convictions.
Fontaine has also been charged in several separate robberies and at least three other shootings, including a shootout a year ago near the E. Benjamin Oliver Elementary that left a 10-year-old boy wounded on a school bus.
Fontaine’s mother wept and was too grief-stricken to speak on her son’s behalf when Dunston gave her the chance.
Dunston said Fontaine represented a serious problem in the territory.
“The Virgin Islands have been plagued with a series of shootings, drive-bys, that become the basis for revenge shootings,” Dunston said. “The process doesn’t end.”
He said that 34 people have been killed in escalating violence this year. Fontaine was “not solely responsible,” Dunston said, “But he has certainly been a part of it.”
“It does not appear that Mr. Fontaine has a substantial regard for other people’s lives,” Dunston said.
In addition to the 15 years in prison, Fontaine was ordered to pay a $15,000 fine.
