Recommended for parole 20-plus years after murder, ex-Tuolumne man dies before release

A former Tuolumne County murderer who in July was deemed suitable for parole died less than a month later during the review process.

Edwin Vincent Munis, 71, died as family members were preparing to submit letters to the governor asking that he overturn the decision by the State Board of Parole Hearings, the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday.

Munis was convicted in 1997 of strangling his 52-year-old wife, Wilma, the year before and dumping her body in a canal.

On Sept. 5, 1996, an Oakdale Irrigation District ditch tender found the body floating in the canal near South Stearns Road and Warnerville Road outside of Oakdale. Edwin Munis later was arrested after witnesses placed the two of them together in Oakdale in her burgundy Lincoln Town Car, which was when she was last seen, the DA’s Office said.

The day after her body was found, the Town Car was found on a canal access road just below Tulloch Reservoir, about three miles from the Munises’ home.

Evidence at trial revealed prior acts of domestic violence, including choking, and established that the staged crime scene was an attempt by Edwin Munis to make it appear his wife had committed suicide by jumping into the canal.

The moment Munis was declared guilty of first-degree murder in a Stanislaus County courtroom, The Bee reported, he didn’t react in the least. But the couple’s son, Vincent, who was 27 at the time, began sobbing uncontrollably in the gallery.

Outside the courtroom, unable to control his pain and anger, he told The Bee, “I knew he did it. I know who he is. I’d seen him do it before — choke her. He went way too far — way too far. He deserves what he gets. There was no doubt.”

District Attorney Birgit Fladager, who was the prosecutor during the 1997 trial, attended the July parole hearing and argued against Munis’ release based on his lack of remorse and failure to accept any responsibility. He continued to maintain that his wife’s death was a suicide.

During her closing argument in his trial, Fladager painted Munis as a man smitten with another woman. She told jurors his affection for a Bay Area woman was the catalyst for his decision to murder his wife.

This story was originally published August 27, 2018 at 10:19 AM.