LANCASTER – California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials are investigating the April 27, 2025, death of an incarcerated person at California State Prison, Los Angeles County (LAC) as a homicide.
At approximately 7:15 p.m., staff observed incarcerated person Kenneth M. Wilson attacking incarcerated person Renee A. Rodriguez 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 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 Rodriguez deceased at 7:53 p.m.
Officers recovered two improvised weapons at the scene of the attack. No other injuries were reported. Officials have limited movement in the dayroom where the attack occurred to facilitate the investigation.
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.
The Office of the Inspector General has been notified, and the Los Angeles County Coroner will determine Rodriguez’s official cause of death.
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, sentenced by Monterey County on Oct. 8, 2008, to four years, and by Fresno County on May 13, 2014, to two years.
Wilson, 30, was received 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.
LAC in Lancaster houses approximately 2,900 minimum- and maximum-security inmates, serves as a medical hub for enhanced outpatient levels of health care, and provides academic classes and vocational programs and employs approximately 1,570 people.
Renee A. Rodriguez (deceased)
Kenneth M. Wilson
