PROSECUTOR: Deputy District Attorney Megan Eixenberger, Homicide Unit
Robert Munoz was convicted by two separate juries of a 2016 first-degree murder and a 2019 second-degree murder. The juries also found true the allegation that Munoz used a deadly weapon in the commission of the murders.
On January 13, 2016, Sacramento sheriff’s deputies responded to a hospital after staff notified them that Ruben Ambrus had been transported with a life-threatening stab wound. Deputies spoke briefly to the victim, who reported he was assaulted at Carmichael Park. The victim succumbed to his injuries several days later. Detectives located a witness, who said she was with Robert Munoz on the day of the homicide. She stated the two were on the park walkway when they passed the victim. The witness continued on the walkway, but Munoz did not. He later caught up to her and took her bike to flee the scene. She later learned Munoz assaulted the victim and believed he did it because the two had a prior altercation with the victim. On December 18, 2019, Sacramento sheriff’s deputies responded to 911 calls reporting a deceased man, Robert Santillano, on Marconi Avenue. The autopsy showed the victim had been stabbed approximately nine times. Homicide detectives learned from witnesses that Munoz was in an argument with his girlfriend when the victim yelled at him so he would leave the girlfriend alone. Munoz then stabbed the victim multiple times, killing him.
A Court trial will be held for a multiple murders special circumstance and allegations that Munoz has two prior strike convictions for robbery.
Munoz faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sentencing is set for July 19, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. in Department 26 before the Honorable Benjamin Galloway.
