Bunnell, FL – A Palm Coast man will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars for ordering Chinese food and then using a gun to take the delivery driver’s vehicle over 18 months ago.
24-year-old Giuseppe Verdone, Jr. learned his fate Wednesday afternoon during a sentencing hearing in front of 7th Circuit Judge J. David Walsh, one where he chose not to speak.
Walsh sentenced Verdone to life in prison without parole on 2 separate counts and 30 years in prison each on 2 other counts. Another count was vacated by Walsh due to double jeopardy concerns brought forth by Verdone’s attorney during the hearing.
A Flagler County jury convicted Verdone nearly a month ago on all the counts he faced in the November 2013 incident involving the owner of the King’s Palace restaurant on Palm Coast Parkway.
The 6-person jury took just under an hour to find Verdone guilty of robbery with a weapon, kidnapping with a weapon, battery, burglary with assault/battery and armed burglary.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office says Verdone was arrested the day after the carjacking in South Carolina with a 15-year-old Palm Coast girl sitting in the car with him.
Detectives say Verdone lured 43-year-old Ming Gong to a vacant home on Bayside Drive in Palm Coast by placing a delivery order over the phone and then tied him up and took his car.
Gong told FCSO at the time that Verdone described himself as a law enforcement officer before handcuffing him and placing him inside of the vehicle.
Detectives believe Gong was thrown by Verdone from the moving vehicle near the Palm Coast Community Center soon after he was tied up and suffered serious head injuries. He was airlifted to Shands Hospital in Jacksonville, where he underwent surgery.
Gong has since recovered, per Hathaway.
After Gong jumped out of the vehicle, detectives believe Verdone met up with the girl and fled north in Gong’s car towards Georgia, where authorities in Liberty County say they spotted his vehicle the following Sunday morning and tried to pull it over.
The ensuing chase crossed into South Carolina, where Verdone and the girl were taken into custody in the town of Hardeeville.
The girl was not charged because FCSO believes she wasn’t actually involved in the attack or in the car theft.
Prior to this conviction, Verdone served nearly 10 months of a 23-month sentence in 2012 for burglary and grand theft, according to Florida Department of Corrections records.
Giuseppe Verdone, Jr. (mugshot courtesy Flagler County Jail)
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