On Monday, Deleon Haynes, a former student at San Tan Charter School, became the first Gilbert Goon to be charged as an adult in one of the gang’s many attacks. Haynes, 19, was sentenced to three years of supervised probation for taking part in the August 2023 beating of Richard Kuehner’s 16-year-old son that resulted in nearly $15,000 in medical bills. The teenage victim was so traumatized by the group attack he’s left the country to finish high school. Haynes has not been named a suspect in the October 2023 murder of Preston Lord.
Judge Sam Myers told Haynes that the only thing keeping him out of prison is his lack of a criminal record. Let’s hope he’s learned his lesson. He may have as he appears to be the only Gilbert Goon who has expressed any remorse for the group’s countless assaults. Haynes told the judge he’d fallen into the trap of going along with his friends instead of making his own decisions. “I know I made a horrible choice that night, and I know this is not the life that I want to live,” he said.
It’s a far cry from the braggadocious Snapchats, texts, and statements allegedly made by Gilbert Goon Talan Renner after Lord’s killing. They include: “I might have hospitalized that kid. I hit him pretty hard.”; “Oh, I put this kid on life support.”; “I got in a fight, a big group fight and I accidentally killed a kid. I guess I’m just too strong.”; and an exclamation of his thrill that Lord had a closed casket funeral.
After these incredibly disturbing statements, Renner’s charter school, American Leadership Academy (ALA), not only allowed him to play in a high school football game but even named him ‘player of the game.’ How can such an action be interpreted as anything other than the school’s approval of Renner? He had allegedly murdered a child, degraded his dying body, had it recorded for his later viewing pleasure, and repeatedly bragged about it––all before ALA chose him as a representative of school excellence.
ALA tried to claim they were unaware of the allegations. This defense doesn’t hold water considering police had served a search warrant for Renner’s DNA and cell phone a week before the game while he was on school property. Additionally, the opposing team’s coach said he received numerous phone calls from parents concerned about their children playing against an alleged violent criminal. As we know from the New Orleans’ Saints scandal of 2012, football is notorious for players using the guise of the game to purposely injure others.
If parents of students at other schools knew, ALA cannot claim ignorance unless they’re willing to admit they pay zero attention to their student body. Assuming they occasionally interact with students, there’s also no way they were unaware of the problematic behavior exhibited by Renner and the other Gilbert Goons. Indeed, Renner’s father, Travis Renner, allegedly bragged about donating to the school and using his money in other ways to get his violent sons, Talan and Kyler, out of trouble. Kyler has also been charged in multiple violent attacks related to the Goons and Travis himself was arrested on drug charges earlier this year.
Yet when Travis and his ex wife arrived at the police station they were given special valet parking. It’s hard to understand why police would give special treatment to an alleged murderer’s parents, especially considering they’ve previously arrested one of the parents as well.
It seems like area schools and the police are unwilling to hold the Gilbert Goons, who were officially classified as a criminal street gang last month, accountable. Will Lord’s family ever get justice for his murder? Or is Haynes’ slap on the wrist for a related violent attack a harbinger of what’s to come?
