{"id":261691,"date":"2026-04-10T21:35:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T21:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/261691\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T21:35:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T21:35:06","slug":"ex-la-county-medical-examiner-investigator-who-admitted-to-stealing-from-bodies-faces-jail-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/261691\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-LA County medical examiner investigator who admitted to stealing from bodies faces jail time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LOS ANGELES – A former investigator for the Los Angeles County <\/a>Medical Examiner has admitted to theft after being caught on camera stealing personal items from the bodies of people whose deaths he was assigned to investigate.<\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

Adrian Mu\u00f1oz, 36, entered a no-contest plea on Friday to one felony count of grand theft and one misdemeanor count of petty theft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The charges follow a 2023 investigation that revealed Mu\u00f1oz leveraged his position of trust to pilfer belongings from the deceased.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In one specific instance on January 6, 2023, Mu\u00f1oz was sent to investigate the death of a warehouse worker in South Los Angeles <\/a>who had suffered a heart attack. Surveillance footage from the scene showed Mu\u00f1oz taking a gold crucifix necklace from the man’s neck and hiding it in his medical bag.<\/p>\n

Further investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department <\/a>led to a search of Mu\u00f1oz\u2019s desk, where officials discovered rare antique coins and a receipt belonging to another man who died in November 2022\u2014a case that Mu\u00f1oz had also handled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the terms of the plea, Mu\u00f1oz is expected to serve 180 days in county jail, undergo two years of formal probation, and pay restitution to the victims’ families.<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

District Attorney Nathan Hochman<\/a> issued a searing statement regarding the breach of ethics: “There is something especially appalling about stealing from the dead. During a time when dignity and respect should be absolute, Mr. Mu\u00f1oz chose greed. Today’s plea is a step toward justice, but it cannot undo the additional trauma inflicted on families who were already dealing with loss.”<\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

Mu\u00f1oz is scheduled for formal sentencing on June 5.<\/p>\n

In addition to jail time and probation, he is required to permanently resign from the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) certification, ensuring he can no longer serve in a law enforcement or investigative capacity in California.<\/p>\n

The Source: This report is based on official statements and case filings from the Los Angeles County District Attorney\u2019s Office and the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crime and Public Safety<\/a>Los Angeles County Fire Department<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES – A former investigator for the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has admitted to theft after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2042,48,52,51,22996,47,50,49,100,1768],"class_list":{"0":"post-261691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-crime-publicsafety","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-lacofd","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","15":"tag-los-angeles-news","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-organization"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}