Man Given Death Penalty in Officer’s Slaying

Closing a painful chapter for the Police Department, a judge sentenced a gang member to death Friday for the slaying of the first officer in the department’s history to die in the line of duty.

Pomona Superior Court Judge Alfonso Bazan agreed with a jury’s recommendation of the death penalty for Ronald Bruce Mendoza, 23, who was convicted in August of first-degree murder in the death of 37-year-old Officer Daniel Fraembs.

In May 1996, Fraembs was shot in the face after stopping Mendoza, who was walking with a woman and a man. Mendoza, on parole for burglary and beating up a school police officer, shot Fraembs because he feared being sent back to prison, prosecutors said.

Pomona police officers were in the courtroom again Friday as they have been throughout the trial.

Capt. Joseph Romero told the judge, “The only thing I can say to you, your honor, is that we shall continue to do our job in Danny’s memory as professionals to uphold the law.”

Fraembs was born in Hong Kong but was abandoned on a beach before he was a year old. A police officer found him, and he was adopted and raised by an Ohio family. Fraembs joined the department in 1993 after working as a jailer for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and serving in the Marine Corps.