Prosecutor Lauds Police Work : Youth, 17, Convicted of Fatally Knifing Friend

A 17-year-old Buena Park youth was convicted Thursday of stabbing a young neighbor to death in a case the prosecutor said was developed through good work by Buena Park police.

Brent Mundy, who was 16 at the time, told police that his neighbor, Walter Croninger, 16, had slipped and fallen on a steak knife in the kitchen of the Mundy home on Dec. 18, 1984. The two boys and two 13-year-old girls who were truant from school were the only people in the house. Mundy’s mother had gone to work.

One of the girls told police a few days later that Mundy had stabbed Croninger with a knife other than the steak knife found next to Croninger. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Brent Romney said both girls had told so many lies about what happened that no charge was filed against Mundy.

Six months later, however, Buena Park police persuaded Croninger’s sister, for her own peace of mind, to call the girls and ask them what happened. Police taped the calls and turned them over to prosecutors.

Romney said that while the girls still did not give complete information, his office was convinced that it had enough evidence to charge Mundy with second-degree murder. The tape-recorded statements were part of the evidence considered by Superior Court Judge Philip Schwab, sitting as a Juvenile Court judge.

The prosecution contended, based on a statement by one of the girls, that Croninger, whose blood had an alcohol content of .20 of 1% (twice the level presumed by law to constitute drunkenness), had made a mess in the kitchen trying to fix grilled cheese sandwiches and had angered Mundy. Croninger held up a steak knife and drunkenly waved it at Mundy. Mundy took a knife from a drawer, the prosecution contended. The two squared off and Croninger was stabbed twice, the prosecution said.

Mundy contended at his trial that he had fought in self-defense. But Romney argued that Mundy was in no danger from his friend and was responsible for the “mutual combat” by going after a knife himself.

Romney also attacked Mundy’s credibility by showing that he had first lied to the police.

Mundy will return to Schwab’s court on Jan. 23 for sentencing. The normal California Youth Authority commitment for second-degree murder is six years, Romney said.