In February 2026, Arthur Sendejas, who was serving a prison term of 55 years to life, was exonerated of a 2012 attempted murder in Montebello, California based on evidence that he had been framed by a street gang member who was angry because Sendejas had started dating the gang member’s ex-girlfriend.
On February 26, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office’s Justice Conviction Review Unit (JCRU) and Sendejas’s defense attorney, Deirdre O’Connor, filed a joint motion to vacate and dismiss his convictions for attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm. The motion was granted more than eight years after the JCRU agreed to re-investigate the case.
At the same time, Sendejas’s conviction for attempted dissuasion of a witness remained intact, but his sentence on that count was reduced so that he could be released based on time served. O’Connor continued to challenge that conviction.
The events leading up to Sendejas’s convictions began on September 6, 2012, when police were summoned to the home of Robert Rodriguez on South Greenwood Avenue in Montebello, California. Rodriguez told Montebello police detective Paul Antista that his girlfriend, Niki Viramontes, had thrown a bottle that hit him in the head and pulled a knife on him after he threatened to leave her.
A day later, Viramontes gave Antista a contradictory version of what occurred. She said that Rodriguez had thrown a bottle at her and then shoved her into a wall. When she began to get into her car to leave, she said, Rodriguez came out with a gun in his hand and told her to leave.
On September 19, 2012, Antista executed a search warrant on Rodriguez’s home and recovered an empty nylon gun case. Rodriguez said that he kept the gun at a friend’s house because Viramontes was on probation. Antista recovered an unloaded .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol at the friend’s house.
On October 4, 2012, Rodriguez, whose brother Oscar Rodriguez was a Montebello police detective, came to the police department and reported receiving threatening telephone calls and a threatening visit from Viramontes as well as Sendejas, who had begun seeing Viramontes, and Martin Vicent. At the time, Sendejas, who was 36 years old, was married and lived with his family in Long Beach. Vicent also lived there.
Rodriguez said that on September 28, Viramontes, Sendejas, and Vicent came to Rodriguez’s home and began screaming at him and demanding that he come outside. Rodriguez said he got a call on his cell phone and falsely claimed he was not at home. Rodriguez said Sendejas shouted, “Do you know who you f------ with? This is my lady.” When Rodriguez did not come out of his house, all three left, Rodriguez said.
On Sunday, October 14, 2012, shortly before 4 p.m., police were called to Rodriguez’s home again. Rodriguez said that two men came to the gate of his driveway and yelled, “Sangra!” the name of a street gang. One of the men then fired several shots, and both fled. Rodriguez and Kristine Bazurto, who said she was near Rodriguez when the shots were fired, were not injured.
Rodriguez identified the gunman as Sendejas. Although Rodriguez at first said the other man he only knew by his nickname, “Priest,” Rodriguez later said he identified him as Vicent. He said both were members of the Sangra street gang.
Bazurto said she could not identify either of the two men.
Rodriguez’s house was located at the rear of the property. Another home, the residence of Natasha Miller, was located at the same address in the front of the property. Stephanie Fitivale was visiting Miller at the time of the shooting. Fitivale said she looked out the window and saw two men at the gate talking. One had his back to her. She said the one who was facing her pulled a bandana over his face, shouted, “This is for Sangra!” and pulled out a pistol and fired five or six shots. Fitivale said the shooter had several tattoos on his right arm.
Later that evening, Detective Paul Adams showed a photographic lineup to Fitivale. Adams reported that Fitivale identified Sendejas as the shooter, writing, “I saw this person as [sic] shooter” on the back of Sendejas’s photograph.
Adams then took the photographic lineup to Rodriguez’s home. Rodriguez identified Sendejas as the shooter as well. Rodriguez told Adams the shooting was the culmination of his problems with Viramontes.
On October 18, 2012, Rodriguez viewed another photographic lineup, and he identified Vicent as the second man at the shooting.
On November 20, 2012, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office filed a complaint for an arrest warrant against Sendejas and Vicent. The complaint alleged one count each of assault with a firearm and assault with a semi-automatic firearm; each charge had a firearm and gang allegation attached to it.
On January 15, 2013, Sendejas was arrested. The following day, Detective Antista interviewed him. Sendejas said that several weeks before his arrest, his wife, Irene, was pulled over for a traffic violation. At the time of the traffic stop, she was driving a car registered to Sendejas. The officer who conducted the traffic stop told her that there was an outstanding warrant for Sendejas’s arrest. Sendejas told Antista that when learned of the warrant, he talked to “his acquaintances,” who told him that Rodriguez was going to set him up and say that Sendejas shot at him.
When Antista asked Sendejas if the domestic violence incident between Rodriguez and Viramontes had angered Sendejas and motivated him to commit the shooting, Sendejas denied involvement in the shooting. When Antista asked Sendejas why Rodriguez would fabricate allegations against him, Sendejas said it stemmed from the fact that he was dating Viramontes.
Sendejas said that he had a phone conversation with Rodriguez in September 2012 in which the two of them did some “shit talking” back and forth. Sendejas said that he was at home watching football on the day of the shooting. When Antista asked Sendejas if he knew Martin Vicent, Sendejas said he knew Vicent, but said he was not with Vicent on the day of the shooting.
On June 13, 2013, Brian Limon, who was married to Viramontes’s sister, told Detective Adams that during a conversation with Sendejas, who had been released on bond, Sendejas said he had gotten a copy of the police report of the shooting. Limon said Sendejas claimed to have gotten the report from his cousin, “Gina,” who was a records clerk at the Montebello police department.
Adams investigated and determined that Gina Sanchez, a records clerk, had in fact accessed the police report of the shooting on several occasions.
On June 26, 2013, Limon met with Adams and other police officers. Limon suggested that he employ a ruse to get a copy of the report from Sendejas. Limon proposed that he tell Sendejas that a leader of Metro 13, a street gang to which Rodriguez belonged, wanted a copy of the report to determine whether Rodriguez needed to be disciplined for “snitching” to police.
Limon was wearing a recording device when he met with Sendejas later that day. During the meeting, Sendejas gave Limon a copy of the report and cautioned him not to let it get out of his hands.
On August 17, 2013, police searched Sendejas’s house and recovered a copy of the report.
On October 4, 2013, Limon again met with Detective Adams. Limon disclosed he had “firsthand information that Sendejas had been set up for the shooting.” Limon detailed two conversations he had had with Rodriguez. In the first conversation, which occurred weeks before the shooting, Rodriguez had told Limon about a verbal dispute he had with Sendejas, and asked Limon to help him frame Sendejas.
Limon told Adams that Rodriguez explained that he was going to stage a shooting and conspire with others to have Sendejas arrested and charged for it. Limon told Adams that he declined to help set up Sendejas. Limon said that the day after the shooting, Rodriguez had called him and said that his plan was in motion.
In a supplemental report, Adams said he asked Rodriguez if the information was true, and that Rodriguez denied it. There was no further investigation of Limon’s claim.
On October 28, 2013, a preliminary hearing was held. Fitivale testified that Sendejas was “what I chose from the lineup.” During cross-examination, Fitivale said that when she first looked at the lineup, she was unable to make an identification. She said police left the room and came back with a blown up photograph of Sendejas’s driver’s license, then asked her to view the lineup again. She said that the photograph in the number four position was the same as the driver’s license photo, so she identified him. That was Sendejas, she said.
Rodriguez testified and identified Sendejas as the shooter. He denied telling Limon that he was going to frame Sendejas.
In January 2014, the District Attorney’s office dismissed the case and refiled new charges against Sendejas and Gina Sanchez. Sendejas was charged with attempted murder, illegal possession of a firearm, attempted dissuasion of a witness, and conspiracy to dissuade a witness.
In October 2014, about a month before Sendejas was scheduled to go to trial, Fitivale told the trial prosecutor that she did not want to testify. She told the prosecutor that everything had been “fed” to her. She declared, “Everybody knows everybody’s lying, and no one is doing anything about it. [Rodriguez] is lying and [I’m] not sticking up for him anymore.”
When Sendejas went to trial in November 2014, Fitivale was called as a witness. After giving a description of the shooting consistent with her prior statements, Fitivale was asked if she saw the shooter in court. She replied, “Based off…what I saw, I don't remember. But based off the six-pack that you gave me, or picture, yes, that's how I identified him.”
Fitivale testified that when she was shown the photo lineup, she did not recognize anyone. She said the detectives asked, “Are you sure? Look one more time." Fitivale said she looked at the photos again and still did not recognize anyone. One of the detectives then left the room and returned with a single photo that was larger than the photos in the photo lineup. The detective asked Fitivale if the person in the single photo looked “more familiar,” and she said the person did. The detectives told her that the person from the single photo was in the photo lineup and to look again. As she looked, one detective said that other witnesses had identified the person from the single photo.
Fitivale testified that she determined that the photo in position number four, which was Sendejas, looked like the single photo, so she picked it. Fitivale said that she felt pressured to make an identification after she was shown the single photo and was told that other people had made an identification.
Rodriguez testified and identified Sendejas as the shooter. Limon testified about obtaining a copy of the police report from Sendejas. Asked about his statement to Adams that Rodriguez was framing Sendejas, Limon said his statement was “built on more emotion than actual facts at the time.” Limon admitted that he had signed an affidavit for the defense prior to the trial in which he said that Rodriguez asked for help in framing Sendejas. “He asked me if I would shoot up his SUV and he was going to call the police and say it was Arthur Sendejas and Niki Viramontes,” Limon said.
Detective Adams testified and contradicted Fitvale’s testimony. Adams said that he did not show Fitivale the blown up photo of Sendejas until after Fitivale had identified Sendejas in the lineup. He said he discarded the enlarged photo afterward and admitted he had not included that information in his report of the lineup procedure.
The prosecution played a recording of a phone call from Sendejas from the Los Angeles County Jail to Viramontes which the prosecution contended was an admission of guilt. During the call, Viramontes apologized that Sendejas had been charged based on the testimony of Viramontes’s ex-boyfriend.
Sendejas replied, “Yeah, but I don’t want you feeling like it’s your fault, baby. It’s not. You know what I mean? I’m a big boy. And…you know what. I knew what I was doing, you know?”
Prior to the trial and at the request of the prosecution, Antoinette Nunez, a senior lead analyst in the Los Angeles Regional Criminal Information Clearinghouse Analytical Unit, had analyzed data on Sendejas’s and Vicent’s cell phones.
Nunez testified for the defense that both cell phones had activity taking place at the time of the shooting. She said the activity was located near Signal Hill, California, a city surrounded on all sides by Long Beach, where Sendejas and Vicent lived, and was more than 20 miles from the location of the shooting. She also admitted that she had no information on who was using the phones at that time.
Kathy Pezdek, a cognitive psychologist at Claremont Graduate University, testified as an expert on eyewitness identification. She said that the circumstances Fitivale described in the administration of the photographic lineup—the presentation of a single, larger photo and police commenting that other witnesses had picked that photo—would “entirely taint” a subsequent identification.
Sendejas’s wife, Irene, testified that Sendejas was home watching football at the time of the shooting. She said that she had left their house between 4 and 5 p.m. to visit her parents while Sendejas remained home to watch two of their younger children.
Viramontes testified that the portion of the jail call was merely Sendejas taking responsibility for getting romantically involved with her while he was still married, not an admission of guilt.
On November 24, 2014, Sendejas was convicted of attempted murder, illegal possession of a firearm, attempting to dissuade a witness, and conspiring to commit the crime of attempting to dissuade a witness.
Prior to sentencing, Sendejas filed a motion for a new trial based on information obtained from Sprint, his cell phone provider. Customer service notes concerning calls that he made at 3:40 p.m. and 4:17 p.m., at the time of the shooting, showed that he had been authenticated as “Arthur Sendejas.” The defense claimed that was proof he was in possession of his cell phone at the time of the crime and was more than 20 miles away.
The motion was denied. In April 2015, Sendejas was sentenced to 55 years to life on the attempted murder conviction. He was sentenced to lesser terms on the other counts, some of which were held in abeyance until he completed the 55-to-life sentence.
Sanchez was convicted in her case and was sentenced to probation. On appeal, Sanchez’s convictions were vacated and dismissed for insufficient evidence. Sendejas’s convictions were upheld, except the conviction for conspiring to commit the crime of dissuading a witness, which was vacated and dismissed.
In 2017, the JCRU received a request from private investigator Joel Wyenn to re-investigate the case.
Subsequently, O’Connor began representing Sendejas. In 2026, O’Connor and the JCRU filed the joint motion to vacate and dismiss Sendejas’s attempted murder and weapons possession convictions. The motion contained a detailed account of the JCRU’s investigation of the case, in particular, its scrutiny of cell phone records.
The JCRU also obtained records of Facebook messages to and from Kristen Sendejas, who was Sendejas’s sister-in-law. She had taken screenshots that had locator tags showing that Sendejas was at home in Long Beach at the time of the shooting.
An analysis of Viramontes’s cell phone showed 66 texts to and from Sendejas between 9:30 a.m. and just after 9 p.m. on the day of the shooting, further demonstrating that his phone was in his possession
In addition, an examination of Sendejas’s and Vicent’s cell phones showed that on September 28, 2012—the day that Rodriguez said that they had showed up at his home and yelled at Rodriguez—neither was in Montebello.
The JCRU interviewed Fitivale, who said that she felt pressured to make an identification and that the detectives’ actions suggested who they wanted her to pick. Fitivale said she rationalized that she was picking the person that other people had picked, and that making a selection was the quickest way for her to get out of the police station.
During an interview with the JCRU, Limon expressed remorse for his testimony at the trial, recanting his account of Rodriguez asking him to help frame Sendejas.
The JCRU also reviewed Limon’s testimony in an unrelated federal prosecution of a gang member in May 2016, two years after Sendejas was convicted. In that federal trial, Limon said that Rodriguez had shot at him. Asked why that happened, Limon had said, “[H]e was upset that I exposed him in a number of lies that he was telling…how he framed Arthur [S]endejas.”
Limon said that Sendejas was in prison “based on Robert Rodriguez’s lies.”
The motion to vacate and dismiss noted that “the new evidence strongly indicates that Fitivale was pressured into identifying Sendejas in a highly suggestive photographic lineup procedure. The investigation also revealed evidence that [Rodriguez] was either mistaken or falsified his identification of Sendejas as the shooter. In combination with the new evidence supporting an alibi, the preponderance of the evidence indicates Sendejas was not the shooter.”
On February 23, 2026, a motion for a finding of factual innocence was granted, and Sendejas’s convictions for attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm were vacated and dismissed. The attempted dissuasion of a witness conviction was not vacated. O’Connor’s request that the charge be reduced to a misdemeanor and a one-year sentence was not granted. Instead, Sendejas was resentenced on the attempted dissuasion of a witness to nine years. Because he had served more than nine years, he was released immediately.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 06-15-2026
