Riverside County Killer Dies On Death Row

SAN QUENTIN, CA — A condemned killer, who had been on California’s death row for more than two decades after being convicted of first-degree murder in Riverside County, is dead.

San Quentin inmate Johnny Mungia, 64, died at 9:21 a.m. Tuesday at an outside hospital.

An official cause of death is pending autopsy results, but foul play is not suspected, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Mungia was found guilty of the first-degree murder of 73-year-old Alma Franklin by a Riverside County jury and sentenced to death on April 7, 1997. He was admitted onto death row on April 14, 1997, according to prison officials.

According to court documents, pathologist Dr. Darryl Garber performed an autopsy on Franklin's body and determined she had been struck 23 times in the head and face.

Garber noted the victim had thick lacerations on the left side of her head in different directions, which indicated they were “inflicted in a frenzy almost” and that she received "a lot of blows in a short period of time."

The pathologist characterized Franklin's injuries as extremely painful and some of the most brutal he had ever seen, according to the court documents.

Mungia was the victim's neighbor and he killed her during a home robbery. In addition to first-degree murder, the jury found the killing involved torture.

The crime was investigated by the Riverside Police Department.