A state judge sentenced to 10 years in prison yesterday the woman who arranged the robbery and abduction of her drug dealer boyfriend who was later gunned down in the middle of Kaneohe Bay Drive.

Melissa Ann Ordonez, 24, must serve at least three years and four months before she is eligible for parole because she has a prior federal drug conviction. Ordonez will get credit for the time she has been in custody since her arrest in April 2008.

However, she also faces additional federal prison time because she was on federal probation at the time she committed her crimes.

Ordonez pleaded guilty to being an accomplice to burglary, robbery and kidnapping for her role in the events that lead to the May 14, 2007, execution-style murder of 27-year-old Benjamin Grajeda.

The state agreed to the 10-year prison term and to seek no more than the three-year, four-month minimum as part of a plea agreement. However, prosecutors did not want her to testify in the murder trial.

  Ordonez Sentenced for Two More Years

 

Melissa Ordonez accepts responsibility for murder and takes on two more years of jail time.

[ Watch ]

 

“;She's given so many different lying statements to the police, and it would just cause a mess as far as evidence for the jury,”; said Darrell Wong, deputy city prosecutor.

The jury found Jerrico Lindsey, 28, guilty of murder without hearing from Ordonez.

Wong said the state granted Ordonez a plea deal because it did not feel she was involved in the murder. She had arranged for Lindsey and two other men to steal Grajeda's drugs and money but not to kill him, he said.

The other two men are William Lee Freeman Jr., 37, and Reginald Pettway, 31.

Freeman was also sentenced to 10 years in prison yesterday for kidnapping and hindering prosecution. Pettway was sentenced in October to 10 years in prison for robbery and kidnapping.

Both men pleaded guilty to the crimes and testified against Lindsey in trial.

Lindsey will be sentenced later this month.