Coachella Valley murder convict accused of killing convicted rapist at state prison
Jesus Reyes
LANCASTER, Calif. (KESQ) – A man convicted of a murder in the Coachella Valley was accused of killing a convicted rapist Sunday night at California State Prison, Los Angeles County, in Lancaster.
The incident happened Sunday at approximately 7:15 p.m., according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
CDCR officials said staff reported seeing Kenneth M. Wilson, 30, attack inmate Renee A. Rodriguez, 51, in the dayroom. Staff responded, quelling the attack by utilizing “chemical agents and non-lethal weapons.”
Officers immediately initiated life-saving measures on Rodriguez and activated 911. Rodriguez was transported to an outside medical facility, where he was pronounced dead.
Two improvised weapons were recovered at the scene, CDCR said.
The death is being investigated as a homicide. The Los Angeles County Coroner will determine Rodriguez’s official cause of death.
Wilson has been placed in restricted housing pending an investigation by the LAC Investigative Services Unit and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Wilson was sent from Riverside County in Feb. 2020. He, along with another man, were convicted of the murder of Ryan Sniffin, 20, of Joshua Tree, after a botched drug deal in the La Quinta cove in Jan. 2015.
Kenneth Wilson (2015)
Wilson was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder with an enhancement for being armed with a firearm
Rodriguez was most recently received from Los Angeles County on May 7, 2001. He was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for rape with force/violence/fear of bodily injury. While incarcerated, he was convicted twice of possession/manufacture of a deadly weapon by an incarcerated person, an in-prison offense by a second striker, sentenced by Monterey County on Oct. 8, 2008, to four years, and by Fresno County on May 13, 2014, to two years.