A San Angelo Menace Wreaks Havoc Across Texas

On April 16, 2014 Robert Rendon, 31, of San Angelo set fire to a residence in the 1300 block of State Street, which endangered two lives inside the home. Then a few days later, on the 19^th, he shot a Fredericksburg police officer and then led police on a high speed shoot out chase through several counties to San Antonio. It wasn’t until Rendon rolled his vehicle near I-10 and Ackerman Road that he was arrested and taken into custody to the Bexar County Jail until his trial.

Although Rendon is facing two life sentences and more in San Antonio and other counties, the San Angelo Fire Marshal's office also wants to prosecute Rendon for his actions in San Angelo; however, that may not happen. Karla Steppe with the San Angelo Fire Marshal's office said the case was originally presented to Assistant District Attorney Bryan Clayton, but based on the circumstances, he chose not to pursue the case because the charges Rendon is being held and tried for in Bexar County outweighed those of the arson.

 “It is the express interest of the Fire Marshal’s office that those charges be pursued, but from speaking with the District Attorney’s Office, it doesn’t sound like the charges will be pursued,” Steppe expressed. “I received a complaint and a warrant for his arrest on December 29, 2014. After he was placed under arrest in San Antonio, he was in the Bexar County Jail, and that is where he stayed until his trial.”

Steppe stated she has stayed on top of Rendon's case, including the incidents that occurred outside of San Angelo.

“To give you a little bit of an idea of the time frame, I’ve got my calendar and some articles that I’ve printed," she explained. "Now, I don’t have any first-hand knowledge of the incidents in Fredericksburg or in San Antonio, but what I did is follow him while I was working on my case. Naturally, I was investigating him so I was keeping up with what he did. The fire here was on a Tuesday morning, about 5:30 a.m. Then on the 19^th, which is Saturday, I had looked online and I found through KENS5 San Antonio that they had reported a Fredericksburg police officer had been hospitalized in San Antonio following an officer involved shooting earlier Saturday morning.” 

For his actions in April of 2014, Rendon was charged with the following:

• One charge of attempted capital murder of a police officer for the Fredericksburg shooting
• Three counts of attempted capital murder of a police officer
• One count of evading with a vehicle
• One possession of methamphetamine

Rendon also had two existing warrants which were issued in 2013 by Tom Green County for parole violation for possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine) and evading arrest with a vehicle. He had already plead guilty to a second-degree felony drug case and was sentenced to nine years in prison by the 391^st District Judge Tom Gossett in 2007.

The San Angelo man has also been arrested several times in the area for various charges ranging from drug offenses to thefts and more since 2001.

On Dec. 19, Rendon, was handed two life sentences for the shooting of the Fredericksburg police officer last year that ended in a high speed chase that involved shooting at other law enforcement through several counties, and he will be eligible for parole after serving 30 years.