Man Convicted of Holding Woman Captive During Robbery Last Year

Photo courtesy of SMPD

By Bay City News Service

A Redwood City man could face life in prison after he was convicted of numerous felony charges Wednesday for holding a 66-year-old woman captive in her San Mateo home for 24 hours while robbing her last year, San Mateo County prosecutors said Thursday.

Late Wednesday morning, a jury returned a verdict finding 21-year-old Hugo Heduardo Munguia-Hernandez Jr. guilty of 20 counts related to the March 17, 2014, attack in a quiet San Mateo neighborhood, according to the district attorney’s office.

The victim had gone out of her home on Edinburgh Street in the Aragon neighborhood for groceries and returned 30 minutes later to find Munguia-Hernandez burglarizing her house.

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He attacked her, assaulting her with a stun gun to her neck, face and arms, prosecutors said. Munguia-Hernandez then bound and gagged her with a sock, threatening her with a handgun and saying he would kill her and her family and burn the house down if she reported the attack, prosecutors said.

He left her tied up with a bag over her head in a bedroom closet for hours. While she was held captive, he came and went from the house, taking her TV, wallet and jewelry with him. He used her ATM card to withdraw cash four times, prosecutors said.

Meanwhile, the woman spent the night bound to the chair in a hallway with the bag over her head. The next day, Munguia-Hernandez made her take off her clothes and shower to remove the tape marks from her face. After he finally left, she managed to get free and call the police.

Police arrested Munguia-Hernandez 12 days later after releasing surveillance photos of him taken at the Bank of America where he made the cash withdrawals. Once investigators searched his home, they found the stun gun he used to assault her and some of the property he stole, prosecutors said.

He did not know the victim and it was by chance he had decided to burglarize the home shortly before she returned from the store, according to prosecutors.

The jury returned guilty verdicts Wednesday for kidnapping with intent to rob, robbery of an inhabited dwelling, six counts of burglary, dissuading a victim by force or threats, criminal threats, assault with a stun gun, false imprisonment, extortion, four counts of identity theft, theft from an elder, grand theft and possession of stolen property, prosecutors said.

He was acquitted of one count of kidnapping with intent to extort. Munguia-Hernandez faces a possible sentence of life in prison without parole when he’s sentenced on Sept. 9.