Sentence of defendant in notorious carjacking murders is reduced

PROVIDENCE – A federal judge has shaved about 4½ years off the sentence of one of the defendants in the infamous carjacking murder of a young couple in 2000.

U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith on Friday agreed to reduce the sentence of Raymond Anderson, 43, based on changes in the federal sentencing guidelines that lowered his sentencing range. The amended guidelines, which changed the way in which a person’s prior criminal history is calculated, took effect Feb. 1.

Anderson had asked the court to release him on time served from the 30-year sentence he is serving for the deaths of Amy Shute, 21, and Jason Burgeson, 20.

Smith instead agreed to reduce by three years the sentence Anderson is serving for conspiring with four others in the fatal carjacking. In addition, the judge trimmed 16 months from the 53-month sentence Anderson is serving for assaulting a corrections officer at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility.

Anderson previously had a 2032 release date.

‘Actions necessary to survive in prison’

Anderson argued that his prison disciplinary record should not be held against him because his actions were necessary to survive as a known cooperator. He emphasized, too, that he had earned a GED, is working and has completed other classes.

“So please don’t judge me on the things I had to do in order to survive. See me beyond the hole I am crawling from,” Anderson wrote to the court.

Federal prosecutors argued that Anderson’s full sentence should remain in place, given the heinous nature of the crimes and his significant prison record.

They noted that it was Anderson who ordered Shute and Burgeson to exit their carjacked SUV once they reached Button Hole Golf Course in Johnston, and that he removed jewelry from Shute just before the couple was shot execution-style.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Zurier dismissed Anderson’s testimony against his co-conspirators as “anemic, vague and self-serving” and “minimally effective.”

Execution-style murders

Anderson – along with Harry Burdick, Kenneth Day, Gregory Floyd and Sammie Sanchez – robbed and carjacked Burgeson and Shute during a crime spree early June 9, 2000, in downtown Providence.

They encountered the couple outside the Arcade. There, they stole Burgeson's Ford Explorer with the couple inside and headed to an area in the Button Hole Golf Course that was under construction.

Kenneth Day urged that they kill Burgeson, of Lakeville, Massachusetts, and Shute, of Coventry, because they had seen his face. Floyd fired the gun, killing Burgeson and Shute as they clutched each other with shots to their heads.

The men split $18 in change taken from the couple.

Anderson, Burdick, Floyd and Sanchez pleaded guilty in agreements that spared them the death penalty. Day was acquitted in federal court but was then found guilty in state court. He was sentenced to four consecutive life-without-parole sentences.

Floyd died in prison in February 2021.

`This wears away our souls'

Burgeson’s sister, Kellie Surdis, implored the U.S. Sentencing Commission last year to keep grieving families in the forefront as they recommend changes to federal sentencing guidelines under the First Step Act.

“I will tell you, this wears away our souls,” Surdis said.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Defendant in notorious carjacking murders gets his sentence reduced