- April 17, 2024
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A Palm Coast man convicted June 18 in the armed robbery and kidnapping of a delivery driver from King’s Palace Chinese restaurant was sentenced to life in prison in a Wednesday, July 15 sentencing hearing in which not a single family member or community member testified on his behalf.
Giuseppe Verdone was convicted by a Flagler County jury June 18 of robbery with a weapon, kidnapping with a weapon, battery, burglary with assault or battery, and burglary while armed. The jury, of 4 men and 2 women, deliberated for less than 50 minutes.
Verdone’s attorney, Regina Nunnally, said some of the five charges — robbery with a firearm, kidnapping, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, burglary with an assault or battery and burglary while armed with a deadly weapon — duplicated each other, constituting illegal double jeopardy.
The state conceded, asking Circuit Judge David Walsh to vacate the charge of burglary while armed. He did so.
“I do find that the convictions for both counts four and five would const double jeopardy,” he said. “The court will vacate count five, dismiss county five. Otherwise I’ll maintain the verdict as presented, finding no other issues of double jeopardy.”
Nunnally also motioned for a new trial, questioning the prosecution’s instructions to the jury, the inclusion of information about alleged crimes committed by Verdone in St. Johns County in the trial, the consistency of the victim’s memory and the fact that interpreters and witnesses, she said, talked amongst themselves in Mandarin during the trial.
A prosecutor contested the allegations, and added, “The other evidence in the case was overwhelming.”
Walsh rejected all of the defense’s motions for a new trial, noting that "The court did not find in any way that the testimony of this witness was in some way manufactured,"and that the defense's concerns about interpreters speaking with witnesses should have been raised at the time it occurred.
The crimes Verdone was sentenced for July 15 occurred Nov. 2, 2013.
Verdone had called King’s Palace and placed an order for delivery, then attacked restaurant owner Ming Gong, 43, when he arrived at the delivery address, a vacant property.
Verdone told Gong he was a policeman and handcuffed him before throwing him in the back seat of the delivery car, according to police reports. Gong later fell from the moving car near the Palm Coast Community Center. He was left with head injuries and airlifted to Shands Hospital in Jacksonville.
Verdone was caught in Hardeeville, South Carolina, after leading law enforcement officers on a car chase through Georgia and South Carolina.
At the time of his arrest, Verdone had previous arrests in Flagler County for burglary, theft, possession or display of a weapon on school property, and making or throwing a destructive device; aggravated assault and carrying a concealed weapon and issuing a forged check.
Those previous offenses meant that Verdone could be sentenced under enhanced sentencing guidelines for prison releasee reoffenders, but the kidnapping with a weapon charge itself was a life felony.
Walsh sentenced Verdone to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the kidnapping with a weapon charge and for the burglary with an assault or battery charge, with the two life sentences to be served concurrently.
Verdone was also sentenced to 30 years in prison for the robbery with a weapon charge as a prison releasee reoffender, with that sentence to be served concurrently with the others, and to time served on the battery charge. Verdone has 30 days to appeal.
For previous coverage of this case, click here.
