Gang Member Convicted of Murdering Officer

A 23-year-old gang member was convicted Wednesday in the fatal shooting of a Pomona police officer last year--the first time that city saw a peace officer killed in the line of duty.

The Pomona Superior Court jury deliberated less than four hours before finding Ronald Bruce Mendoza guilty of the first-degree murder of Officer Daniel Fraembs. The jury also found three special circumstances in the crime, making Mendoza subject to a possible death sentence.

The same jury will hear evidence in the trial’s penalty phase beginning Monday.

The verdict was read before a courtroom packed with police officers and Fraembs’ friends and relatives. Cheers broke out after the jury left the courtroom.

“I saw a lot of teary eyes,” Police Chief Rick Shaurette said. “There was a strong, strong sense of relief.”

Fraembs, 37, was shot in the face after stopping Mendoza, a girlfriend and a second gang member on May 11, 1996.

As Fraembs searched the second man, Mendoza approached the officer by using the woman as a shield, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Arnold. Mendoza pushed the woman away and fired a .45-caliber handgun once from about 2 1/2 feet away, striking Fraembs in the head.

Arnold said Mendoza, on parole for various juvenile offenses, killed the officer because he feared being sent back to the California Youth Authority. Mendoza was carrying a gun, a violation of his parole terms that would have sent him behind bars for more than two years, Arnold said.

At the time of the shooting, “the defendant knew he was going to be searched next,” Arnold said.

Arnold, who belongs to a special unit of prosecutors handling assaults against peace officers, said he was “overwhelmingly pleased” with the swift verdict. “This is a smart jury,” he said.

On Wednesday, the jury found three special circumstances in the crime: the killing of a peace officer, killing while lying in wait and killing to avoid arrest.

Fraembs was on the Pomona force for about three years, after working as a jailer in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

His murder, the only one of an on-duty officer in Pomona in its 109-year history, stunned a community that is no stranger to crime. City officials plan to erect a memorial, complete with a waterfall, at the police station in the next year to honor Fraembs.

Mayor Eddie Cortez, who was present when the verdicts were read, said Mendoza should “pay the ultimate price” for his crime.

“It was a very cowardly act,” Cortez said. “I think the verdict brings a completion to the healing in our community.”

Times special correspondent Richard Winton contributed to this story.