Nearly five years after a San Diego teen was abducted, tortured and killed in Tijuana for stealing methamphetamine he had agreed to smuggle into the U.S., a jury on Wednesday convicted a Tijuana man on multiple charges related to the killing.
Federal prosecutors alleged that while at least five people were involved in taking the 19-year-old victim hostage, it was Brian Alexis Patron Lopez who shot and killed Miguel Anthony Rendon in May 2020. Prosecutors said Patron shot Rendon five times in the head and left his body in a ravine.
Following a six-day trial and about five hours of deliberations, the San Diego federal jury convicted Patron of intentional killing while engaged in drug trafficking, hostage taking resulting in death and conspiracy to take hostages resulting in death.
“The murder was videotaped,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mario Peia and Sasha Foster wrote in a trial brief this month. “(Patron) later showed the video and bragged about it to others.”
Prosecutors contended that while others were involved, Patron took control over Rendon’s kidnapping and fatally shot him “to up his status in the drug trafficking organization.”
Patron’s attorney declined to comment on the verdict Wednesday.
Four other defendants previously pleaded guilty to participating to various degrees in the kidnapping and killing. All four are awaiting sentencing.
Alan Lomeli-Luna pleaded guilty to a charge of intentional killing while engaged in drug trafficking, admitting in his plea agreement that “(he) and his co-conspirators intentionally killed the victim by shooting him multiple times in the head.” Lomeli-Luna maintained that he did not fire the gun, but acknowledged in his plea that prosecutors “could prove that (he) counseled, commanded, induced, procured, or caused the death of the victim.”
Prosecutors said Lomeli-Luna acted as a lookout during the killing.
Wyatt Valencia-Pacheco, Jonathan Emmanuel Montellano-Mora and Luis Armando Dorantes Rivera Jr. each pleaded guilty to a charge of hostage-taking. Dorantes also pleaded guilty to a kidnapping conspiracy charge.
According to prosecutors, Rendon, the victim, was arrested on May 27 while trying to smuggle less than a half-pound of methamphetamine into the U.S. through a pedestrian crossing lane from Tijuana to San Diego. He was quickly released from custody and received a notice to appear in court at a future date.
The next day, Rendon made an agreement with Lomeli-Luna to smuggle more than 2 pounds of methamphetamine across the border, according to prosecutors. But soon after picking up the drugs, he allegedly stole them. Prosecutors alleged Rendon later used a doctored version of the court notice he had received May 27 to try to make it appear as though he had actually been caught on May 28 and that U.S. authorities had seized the larger amount of drugs.
The defendants never believed the ruse and within hours were sending threatening messages to Rendon, according to prosecutors. Despite the threats, Rendon made plans the next day to sell the stolen drugs to an associate in Tijuana. Late that night, Patron and the other defendants learned Rendon was staying at the Motel El Parador a little south of downtown Tijuana.
Surveillance footage from the motel showed Patron and others dragging Rendon from a garage beneath his room, beating him up and then forcing him into a BMW, according to prosecutors. From there the defendants allegedly moved Rendon to an empty field where they continued to beat him, a nearby house and then the Motel Luxor.
Both at the house and at the second motel, the defendants contacted Rendon’s mother and stepfather demanding money or drugs in exchange for his release, prosecutors said. The family was in the process of gathering the money when the kidnappers cut off contact.
Prosecutors alleged that on the afternoon of May 30, an unindicted co-conspirator in the case provided Patron a revolver and told him “to do what (he) had to do.” That evening, Patron and a second unindicted co-conspirator took Rendon into a nearby ravine where Patron shot Rendon five times in the head while Lomeli-Luna acted as a lookout at the top of the ravine, according to prosecutors.
In a search warrant seeking access to Patron’s electronic devices and social media accounts, an FBI agent wrote that several witnesses attested to seeing the video of the killing, though prosecutors said they’d still been unable to acquire the video as of earlier this month.
Prosecutors also noted that a teenager who was not involved with Rendon’s kidnapping but learned about some of the details pretended to be one of the hostage takers to extort $1,000 from Rendon’s stepfather. But by that time, Rendon was already dead, according to prosecutors, who said the teen was prosecuted and convicted in state juvenile court.
Earlier this year, Patron’s defense attorney, Meghan Blanco, asked U.S. District Judge William Hayes to remove both the San Diego U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI’s San Diego field office from Patron’s case, arguing there was a conflict of interest because a local FBI agent had started dating a San Diego police officer whose brothers were involved in the case. One of the brothers was one of Patron’s co-defendants who was cooperating as a witness for the government; another had been interviewed as a witness and then deported.
The prosecution’s response was filed under seal, but Hayes quoted from it in his written decision on the matter. According to the judge, the FBI agent submitted a sworn affidavit stating that she had minimal involvement in the investigation. She said that she began dating the San Diego police officer this past November, and a month into their relationship, he disclosed that his brothers were involved in the case. The next day, the FBI agent informed her superiors, and about a month later the prosecutors informed Blanco of the potential conflict, according to the judge.
Hayes denied Blanco’s motion based on the FBI agent’s limited role in the case.
Patron is set to be sentenced in July. He faces a minimum of life in prison for two of the counts and could be sentenced to death.
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