A convicted Los Angeles County rapist was allegedly killed by a fellow inmate over the weekend amid a surge of prison violence that has claimed the lives of over a dozen incarcerated men in California this year.
State prison officials said Renee Rodriguez, 51, died at California State Prison-Los Angeles County on Sunday after staff saw fellow inmate Kenneth Wilson attacking him in the day room at 7:15 p.m. Staff used chemical agents and nonlethal weapons to intervene and attempted to perform lifesaving measures, but Rodriguez was pronounced dead at an outside medical facility, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Wilson was placed in restricted housing while the prison and the L.A. County district attorney’s office investigate the attack.
Rodriguez’s death was the second suspected homicide of the weekend and the fifth reported this month. It’s also the 13th suspected homicide inside state prisons this year — a number that puts California on track to more than double the 24 inmate homicides reported last year, despite efforts by prison officials to curtail the violence.
In March, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or CDCR, began cracking down at 11 high-security facilities, including in Los Angeles County. At the time, there had been seven suspected homicides reported in the first nine weeks of the year.
From March 8 until April 11, inmates had their movement restricted and phone calls and visits revoked at high-security yards at Calipatria State Prison, Centinela State Prison, California Correctional Institution, High Desert State Prison, Kern Valley State Prison, California State Prison-Los Angeles County, Mule Creek State Prison, Pelican Bay State Prison, California State Prison-Sacramento, Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and Salinas Valley State Prison, according to the department.
“We recognize that modified program creates a hardship for loved ones during those limited times, but when a surge of violence at CDCR institutions threatens employees and incarcerated individuals, increased safety measures must be our priority,” department press secretary Terri Hardy said in a statement.
While these restrictions were in place, staff conducted extensive searches of all housing areas and confiscated over 850 contraband items, including 166 improvised weapons, 159 phones and 65 hypodermic needles, according to CDCR.
Still, the violence continued.
Suspected inmate homicides were reported on April 4 at Mule Creek State Prison, April 5 at California Correctional Institution and April 8 at Salinas Valley State Prison. An inmate was also allegedly killed on March 14 at Wasco State Prison, a facility that was not part of the crackdown.
On Saturday, two weeks after the restrictions ended, William Couste died at High Desert State Prison in Lassen County after he was allegedly attacked by fellow inmate Rodger Brown in the prison yard, according to CDCR.
Brown is serving a life sentence for a second degree murder charge he acquired while incarcerated. He has also been convicted for corporal injury on a spouse, battery on a non-prisoner while in prison and possession of a deadly weapon while in prison, state prison officials said.
Several other inmates suspected in killings this year are also serving life sentences, highlighting an ongoing problem in the prison system where inmates who feel they have nothing left to lose by incurring more time attack fellow inmates.
David Gomez, whose alleged involvement in the Jan. 15 prison death of Mario Campbell is being investigated, once told a psychologist that the 2005 murder of his cellmate in Sacramento was a “freebie” because he was already serving life, the Monterey County Weekly reported.
Gomez’s alleged co-conspirator in the attack, Cody Taylor, is also currently serving a life sentence for the prior murder of an inmate, according to CDCR.
Authorities say Tyler Yates, another inmate serving a life sentence at the Sacramento lockup, is also being investigated for his alleged involvement in two suspected homicides this year.
Last year he was convicted of first-degree murder while in prison.
Times staff writer Matthew Ormseth contributed to this report.
