Man Gets Life in Prison for Parents’ Deaths
A 35-year-old man who beat his parents to death inside their Mission Viejo home and later showed up in a waiting room of a San Diego hospital was sentenced Friday to life in prison.
Richard Mingus was arrested in La Jolla on Feb. 23, 2001, after Orange County sheriff’s deputies found the bodies of his parents. Police said Mingus had beaten them with a blunt instrument and stolen their car.
Members of the nearby Mount of Olives Lutheran Church alerted police after failing to see Ray, 69, and Pauline Mingus, 74, for several days.
Authorities later found their car in the parking lot of Scripps Clinic and Green Hospital in La Jolla and Mingus sleeping in a chair in the lobby.
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