A Mexican national has been sentenced to life in prison for the horrific kidnapping, torture, and murder of an 18-year-old U.S. citizen in Tijuana.
Brian Alexis Patron Lopez, 24, was handed the maximum penalty on Wednesday in a San Diego federal court for his role in the 2020 slaying of Miguel Anthony Rendon, a San Diego high school graduate who had planned to join the Marines.
The nightmare began on May 30, 2020, when Rendon was abducted from his Tijuana hotel room. Surveillance footage captured the moment Lopez and his accomplices pistol-whipped the teen, forced him into a car, and drove him to a neighborhood where he endured over 24 hours of brutal torture.
Ransom demands, either $3,000 or methamphetamine, were sent to Rendon’s family via chilling video calls showing the bloodied and bound victim.
Despite the family’s desperate efforts to gather the money, Lopez marched Rendon to a deserted hillside and executed him with a gunshot, leaving his body amid trash.
U.S. District Judge William Hayes didn’t mince words during the sentencing, telling Lopez, “You literally walked the victim to his death… You executed him, turned around, and you left [him] with trash on the hill.”
“You executed him, turned around, walked up that hill and you left,” the judge added.
Rendon’s body wasn’t recovered and returned to the U.S. until 2022, arriving in a cardboard box.
According to the DOJ, at sentencing, a member of Rendon’s family told the Court that Lopez “didn’t just take [the victim’s] life, he took a part of mine.” She continued, explaining that “every day, I wake up with pain that will never go away.” And closed by telling the Court, “I want [the Defendant] to carry the weight of what he did for the rest of his life.”
Lopez was convicted in March 2025 of hostage-taking resulting in death, intentional killing while engaged in drug trafficking, and related charges.
He received life imprisonment plus an additional 35 years, all to run concurrently.
“Patron’s callous and blatant disregard for human life is unconscionable,” said Mark Dargis, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI San Diego Field Office, in a press release. “Today’s life sentence is the price Patron must pay for such a gruesome attack on a U.S. citizen and the pain inflicted on his family. The FBI will always work relentlessly with our law enforcement partners devoting every available resource, tool, and technique at our disposable to hold violent criminals accountable and seek justice for our citizens.”
U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon added that the sentence should be a “wakeup call” to drug traffickers and cartels who may think about harming an American.
“Here’s a wakeup call to drug traffickers and cartel members in Tijuana: You harm an American, you will face American justice,” said Gordon, “This sentence appropriately reflects the grim reality of drug trafficking in Tijuana. But, the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to secure justice for crimes against American citizens even if they occur south of the border.”
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