A 36-year-old Hawthorne man was convicted by a jury Tuesday, Oct. 29, of murder for shooting to death his ex-girlfriend during a child custody exchange near the front door of the Hawthorne Police Department headquarters more than five years ago, authorities said.
After taking in a week-long trial, Airport Superior Court jurors needed less than three hours before finding Jacob Ryan Munn guilty of first-degree murder and felon in possession of a firearm for the April 7, 2019 fatal shooting of Brenda Renteria, 28, of Simi Valley, according to a courtroom clerk.
They also found true a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait, said Zara Lockshin of the DA’s office.
Munn was scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 18.
During closing arguments of trial Monday, prosecutor Karen Montoya told the jury Munn arrived 40 minutes early to a scheduled 6 p.m. custody exchange so he could “scope out the scene.” In arguing for first-degree murder, Montoya told the jury Munn took a shotgun, which he normally kept under his bed, to the station that day, backed his truck into a parking space and kept his driver’s side door unlocked for a quicker getaway.
She said Munn waited at his truck for Renteria to arrive, then ambushed her, shooting her in front of their child, her mother and sister.
Prior to the shooting, Munn had dropped off the former couple’s then-17-month-old son inside the police station. The boy was not injured.
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Munn’s public defender, Kimberly Greene, argued for voluntary manslaughter and said that Munn acted rashly and was provoked by Renteria before the shooting. She also argued Munn had become increasingly stressed and worried over a tense custody battle over their son.
Evidence presented during trial showed Munn fired one shot and missed, aimed the Mossberg shotgun at the back of Renteria’s head and fired a second time, then slammed the weapon on her body before running toward his truck and driving away.
An officer inside the station heard the gunfire and rushed outside, firing at least one shot at Munn as he fled in the truck, but Munn was not hit, police said at the time.
Officers set up a perimeter after finding his pickup truck at a Denny’s parking lot near 132nd Street and Hawthorne Boulevard and found Munn three hours later and less than a mile from the station. The shotgun was found in his truck.
Police at the time said they believed the custody exchange happened in Hawthorne because Munn had family in the area.
The shooting occurred more than a year after Munn was accused of hitting Renteria in a Temecula apartment they shared with her roommates. That assault began as an argument because Renteria “did not iron his pants for work,” according to a declaration written to obtain an arrest warrant.
The fatal shooting was the second major call in Hawthorne that day. Earlier, a military veteran who was wanted on suspicion of firing shots in a hotel parking lot engaged in a shootout with Hawthorne police that left both himself and one officer wounded.
That suspect, James Louis Boyd III, was sentenced last week to more than 59 years to life in prison after he was convicted of two counts of assault on a peace officer and shooting at an inhabited dwelling or vehicle.
