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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 8:32 p.m., Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Indicted Kaneohe slaying suspect still at large

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Jerrico Dewon Lindsey

Courtesy of Honolulu Police Department

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Melissa Ordonez, aka Rihanna Joy Valentino

Courtesy of Honolulu Police Department

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A $2 million warrant was issued today for the arrest of a Mobile, Ala., man following his indictment on charges connected to last May's botched kidnapping and robbery which ended in the slaying of a suspected drug dealer in Kane'ohe.

Reginald "Red" Pettway, 30, who violated conditions of his probation for a drug conviction in Alabama by coming to Hawai'i in May 2007, was indicted by an O'ahu grand jury on one count each of first-degree burglary, being an accomplice to first-degree robbery, and being an accomplice to kidnapping.

Pettway, a previously unnamed suspect in the Benjamin Grajeda slaying case, was indicted today along with Jerrico Dewon "Rick" Lindsey, 28, the accused shooter, and 22-year-old Melissa Ordonez, also known as Rihanna Joy Valentino, who was charged with being an accomplice to first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery and kidnapping.

Nine of the indictment's 15 counts are directed at Lindsey. He is charged with second-degree murder; four firearm offenses related to the possession and use of a semi-automatic assault pistol with a magazine capacity of over 10 rounds; first-degree terroristic threatening; first-degree burglary; first-degree robbery and kidnapping.

Lindsey's bail is $3 million while bail for Ordonez has been raised from $1 million to $2 million by the indictment.

Charles Lee Freeman, the getaway car driver who was previously indicted for kidnapping and hindering prosecution, Lindsey and Ordonez are in custody at various local facilities.

Trial is scheduled for June but will likely be continued, according to prosecutors.

Today's indictment stated the state could seek enhanced sentencing if Lindsey, Pettway and Ordonez are convicted based on their criminal records.

Ordonez, a Maui native, was on federal probation for a drug conviction when she allegedly "orchestrated" the robbery of Grajeda with Lindsey, who she knew from Maui. Grajeda was beaten and kidnapped from his Pu'uohalai Place apartment on May 14 by three men and shot to death on Kane'ohe Bay Drive after escaping from the trunk of a car.

A police manhunt for the shooting suspects led to the arrests of Lindsey and Freeman in Hale'iwa after they abandoned the getaway car. Pettway managed to elude capture in Hale'iwa and returned to Alabama. He was recently released from custody and his current whereabouts in unknown.

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.