BUFFALO (WBEN) - The 21-year-old man who was charged with arson after allegedly throwing a flaming object through a City Hall window during the May 30 protest in downtown Buffalo made a county court appearance Thursday morning.
"It is alleged that on Saturday, May 30, 2020, at approximately 11:32 p.m., the defendant intentionally threw a cardboard box that was on fire through a first-floor window of Buffalo City Hall, causing damage to the walls and the floor," according to a press release.
Renford has since been indicted by a grand jury, and Thursday morning's virtual court appearance served as an arraignment on that indictment.
"In addition to the arson charge that we presented to the grand jury, the investigation after the incident in May also revealed that, prior to him throwing this cardboard box on fire through the City Hall window, about an hour before that, he was with a group of other people who broke into a convenience store on Elmwood Avenue near Summer, and he was subsequently charged with burglary in the 3rd Degree," said Erie County District Attorney John Flynn.
Based on the consent of both parties, Renford is being held in custody until the case is resolved. As the US Attorney's Office also charged Renford with some federal offenses, he has been in custody under the federal charges up to this point.
"He has not been gaining any credit at all on the state charges this entire time," said Flynn. "Today at the arraignment, my attorney asked for remand on these charges right here so that he can start getting credit for state time going forward on these charges, so we actually did Mr. Renford a little bit of a favor today."
Renford will return on November 4 for a pretrial telephone conference, and he faces a maximum punishment of 15 years on both of the charges.
