Sentenced To Life Without Parole, RivCo Murderer Kills Again: CDCR

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — A murderer, who was sentenced five years ago in Riverside County to life without the possibility of parole, is now accused of fatally attacking a fellow inmate.

Kenneth Michael Wilson, 30, is accused in Sunday night's deadly attack on 51-year-old Renee A. Rodriguez at California State Prison, Los Angeles County, in Lancaster.

According to a news release Monday morning from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, prison staff saw Wilson attack Rodriguez at about 7:15 p.m. The violence took place in a prison dayroom, and staff at the facility broke up the encounter using chemical agents and non-lethal weapons, CDCR reported.

Rodriguez was taken to the prison’s triage and treatment area and then transported to an outside medical facility, where a Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedic pronounced him dead at 7:53 p.m. Sunday, according to CDCR.

No other injuries were reported.

During a prison investigation of the incident, officers found "two improvised weapons at the scene of the attack," CDCR reported. It's unclear who the weapons belonged to.

Rodriguez, 51, 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.

Wilson was received into the prison system from Riverside County on February 28, 2020. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder with an enhancement for being armed with a firearm. He was also sentenced by Riverside County to four years for possession of drugs/paraphernalia/alcohol in jail/prison as a second striker; four years for battery on emergency personnel as a second striker; four years for first-degree robbery and criminal threat to cause great bodily injury/death; and three years for second-degree robbery, all to be served concurrent with the first sentence.

In January 2020, an Indio jury found Wilson guilty of first-degree murder in the Jan. 30, 2015, shooting death of Ryan Sniffin, 20, of Joshua Tree. The murder stemmed from a botched drug deal in La Quinta, prosecutors said.

Wilson did not act alone. According to prosecutors, Jesse Keith Cottom shot and killed Sniffin, who was trying to buy cocaine from Cottom at the time. Prosecutors contended that Wilson provided Cottom with the gun and was present when the shooting occurred.

Deputy District Attorney Anne-Marie Lofthouse told jurors during her opening statement that Cottom and Wilson went to the purported drug transaction in the La Quinta Cove neighborhood with a carefully crafted plan "and with a clear motive: money.''

Lofthouse contended that Cottom, Wilson and another man, Miguel Ramirez, devised a scheme to fill two sandwich bags with baking soda in an attempt to pass the substance off as cocaine.

The bad deal led to a shooting. When sheriff's deputies responded to the scene, they found Sniffin on the ground with a single gunshot wound to the neck, according to prosecutors. He died at Desert Regional Medical Center, according to the Riverside County Coroner's Bureau.

Prosecutors contend Sniffin was shot with a .38-caliber revolver, although the weapon was never recovered.

Wilson's attorney, John Patrick Dolan, claimed in a trial brief that Wilson was not present when Sniffin was shot.

California State Prison, Los Angeles County, in Lancaster, houses approximately 2,900 minimum- and maximum-security inmates.