A former Los Angeles County medical examiner investigator was sentenced Friday to 180 days in county jail for stealing items from deceased individuals during death investigations.
Adrian Muñoz, 36, of Los Angeles, also was ordered to serve two years probation and to pay $2,000 in restitution, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Munoz pleaded no contest April 10 to one felony count of grand theft and one misdemeanor count of petty theft.
“There is something especially appalling about stealing from the dead. During a time when dignity and respect should be absolute, Mr. Muñoz chose greed,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement shortly after Munoz’s plea.
The district attorney called the plea “a step toward justice, but it cannot undo the additional trauma inflicted on families who were already dealing with loss.”
Prosecutors said the case stemmed in part from a Jan. 6, 2023, death investigation in South Los Angeles, where Muñoz responded to a report of a warehouse worker who died of a heart attack while on the job.
Surveillance footage showed Muñoz removing a gold crucifix necklace from the man’s neck and placing it in his medical bag without documenting or returning the item, according to Hochman.
During a subsequent search of Muñoz’s desk, investigators recovered rare antique coins along with a receipt in the name of another man whose death Muñoz had investigated in November 2022, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The case stemmed from an investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.