Michael Renteria walked out of a California prison as early as Friday evening, more than 12 years after a single eyewitness put him at the scene of a 2013 Lynwood drive-by shooting he didn't commit. A judge found him factually innocent this week, clearing two attempted murder convictions that had sent him to prison for 80 years.
The shooting happened on August 23, 2013, on the 3300 block of Virginia Street in Lynwood, when a gunman opened fire and wounded brothers Juan Madrigal, then 19, and Jose Madrigal, then 18, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Both brothers survived. Renteria was arrested nearly six months later, on February 13, 2014, based on that single eyewitness identification, with no physical or forensic evidence tying him to the scene, the DA's office said. A search of his home turned up two firearms, but they did not match ballistic evidence from the crime scene, and police never recovered the weapon used in the shooting.
Prosecutors say the case amounted to mistaken identity. District Attorney Nathan Hochman described it that way, and the Los Angeles Times reports that a witness had testified Renteria opened fire on both victims. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department initially investigated the case, which went to trial with Renteria facing the two attempted murder counts tied to authorities' account of the 2013 drive-by shooting.
An Alibi That Didn't Hold Up in Court
During his original trial, Renteria presented alibi evidence showing his pickup truck was in a South Gate body shop for repairs from August 17 to August 27, 2013 — a window that covered the date of the shooting, according to the California Court of Appeal. The defense pointed to repair receipts showing $1,200 in cash work performed on the truck during that week. The alibi wasn't enough to stop his conviction, and he was ultimately sentenced to 80 years in prison.
Renteria also served time on a separate count of being a felon in possession of a weapon, tied to the firearms found during the search of his home. The Times reports he served far more time in prison than the maximum sentence on that weapons charge alone would have required.
Six Years of Reinvestigation
Renteria's path out of prison began in 2020, when his petition for wrongful conviction review reached the DA's Justice Conviction Review Unit, kicking off a six-year reinvestigation conducted jointly with the California Western Innocence & Justice Clinic, per the district attorney's office. The clinic, founded in 1999 as the California Innocence Project, has secured the release or exoneration of more than 40 wrongfully convicted individuals, according to California Western School of Law. The review unit itself has secured at least 16 exonerations since its 2015 founding, per LAist.
The DA's office and the clinic filed a joint motion to toss Renteria's attempted murder convictions, and a judge found him factually innocent. Hochman said new evidence pointed toward Renteria's innocence, and the DA's office has declined to elaborate further on that evidence, citing its ongoing investigation. That investigation, the Times reports, could result in prosecution of the real gunman.
An Apology, and a Life to Rebuild
Hochman issued a public apology to Renteria on Thursday for the length of time it took to grant him relief, acknowledging that Renteria served far more time than necessary, according to MyNewsLA.com. Attorney Amy Kimpel said the law enforcement response compounded the tragedy, describing the shooting itself as a tragedy in its own right, per the Times. Renteria, for his part, is focused on picking up the pieces of his life.
Under California Penal Code Section 4904, people declared factually innocent by a court are entitled to state compensation of $140 per day of wrongful incarceration, according to the California Victim Compensation Board. Claims are submitted through the state's victim compensation board to indemnify for lost time, though it remains unclear whether or when Renteria will pursue that process.
Part of a Broader Pattern in LA County
Renteria's case follows a similar one from December 2024, when the DA's office vacated the 2007 murder convictions of Charlotte Pleytez and Lombardo Palacios after they had spent over 17 years in prison due to flawed eyewitness identifications, according to the district attorney's office. That case, like Renteria's, involved a joint petition between prosecutors and defense advocates. Hoodline covered a similar exoneration last month out of Orange County, where a man was cleared after 18 years.
Eyewitness misidentification remains one of the primary drivers of wrongful convictions nationwide. As of June 2025, the National Registry of Exonerations reported 3,696 exonerations across the United States, representing more than 34,000 total years served by people who were wrongly convicted, according to data compiled on Wikipedia. Renteria's more than 12 years behind bars adds one more entry to that national tally — and, for now, an open question about who actually fired the shots on Virginia Street in 2013.
