Talbot Green murder of Joanne Penney planned from a prison cell

Joanne Penney was shot when she opened the door at an address targeted by the organised crime gang

A convicted murderer has been found guilty of orchestrating the shooting of a woman in south Wales from his prison cell.

Renaldo Baptiste used a hidden "prison phone" to supply the gun that killed Joanne Penney in Talbot Green in March 2025.

Baptiste is one of four more people convicted for their part in the murder of Joanne Penney, who was caught up in a turf war between two drug gangs operating in south Wales.

At the end of a second trial following the shooting in Talbot Green, Rhondda Cynon Taf, in March 2025, a jury also found Cardiff women Donna James and Laura John guilty of assisting an offender.

Molly Cooper, from Leicester, was convicted of acquiring ammunition for a firearm.

Five others were convicted of Penney's murder as part of a drugs turf war, at a previous trial earlier this year.

A total of 11 members of the organised crime gang, who have been convicted during the two trials, in connection with Penney's murder will be sentenced at a later date.

Renaldo Baptiste, Laura John, Donna James and Molly Cooper have been found guilty of offences relating to the murder of Joanne Penney

Penney died after being shot through her heart by Cardiff drug dealer Marcus Huntley, who had travelled to Talbot Green with his friend Jordan Mills-Smith, along with Melissa Quailey-Dashper, to carry out a revenge attack.

Quailey-Dashper, from Leicester, was paid in crack cocaine to knock on the door, which was opened by Penney.

Joshua Gordon, a Leicester drug dealer, was in a nearby car. Huntley admitted his guilt; Mills-Smith, Quailey-Dashper and Gordon were found guilty by the first trial's jury.

Baptiste was jailed in 2022 for a minimum of 25 years for murdering a man who used to work for his drugs supply business.

He told the second Talbot Green trial that he became involved with Gordon to make money by acting as "a middleman [by] stockbroking" for him if Gordon ran out of drugs.

He told jurors that he sourced drugs from prison using his "prison phone".

He admitted being part of an Organised Crime Gang (OCG) known as Rico, and sourcing drugs for Huntley and Mills-Smith, who sold crack and cocaine in south Wales.

The pair branched out and targeted Talbot Green, but another OCG was already selling drugs in the area. When the Cardiff pair placed a dealer at 10 Llys Illtyd in Talbot Green to sell drugs, the rival dealers took offence.

Huntley took a selfie with the pistol the day before the murder

They "confronted and humiliated" members of the Cardiff gang, prompting Huntley's group to discuss obtaining a gun and ammunition to "send a message".

Huntley contacted Baptiste to discuss the sale of a.38 Smith & Wesson pistol and "10 sweets", slang for bullets.

In other messages between them, Huntley told Baptiste: "Leg shots only."

Baptiste replied with a laughing emoji.

Baptiste claimed that "leg shot" meant a half-gram quantity of cocaine and had nothing to do with guns.

He denied knowing that Huntley had obtained a handgun, a converted starter pistol and said he had nothing to do with arranging it.

Different gangs used 10 Llys Illtyd in Talbot Green to sell drugs

The trial heard that, after the shooting, two cars drove back to Leicester, and panic set in with a series of frantic WhatsApp group calls on the evening of 9 March 2025.

In his evidence, Baptiste told the court that Mills-Smith had phoned him.

"He didn't say who had done the shooting or who had been shot," he said.

"I didn't know someone had died until I read it online."

The jury heard that the first group call began at 22:05, with the last of five calls ending at 02:54 the following morning.

In that period, the group spent a total of four hours and four minutes on group calls.

The next day, Huntley tried to cover his tracks, burying the starter pistol and ammunition in a park near his home in Cardiff, and travelled to Leicester.

He was arrested on a National Express coach a few days later by armed police.

Marcus Huntley, Jordan Mills-Smith, Joshua Gordon and Melissa Quailey-Dashper along with Kristina Ginova (not pictured) were found guilty of murdering Joanne Penney at trial earlier this year

Mills-Smith fled Wales to his father's home in Suffolk, but he needed the help of his mother and girlfriend to pay for a coach ticket to London.

When arrested, his mother, Donna James, who denied assisting an offender, told the police that she "found out afterwards" and that she had "nothing to do with this".