Son Held in Killing of Mission Viejo Couple

The son of a couple found bludgeoned inside their Mission Viejo home was arrested Friday in connection with the killing, police said.

Richard Mingus, 34, is being held without bail at the Orange County Jail. The district attorney is expected to file murder charges Monday.

Police arrested Mingus early Friday after several hours of questioning.

Orange County Sheriff’s deputies found Ray and Pauline Mingus, 69 and 74, beaten to death inside their Matias Drive home about 11:30 a.m. Thursday.

Members of the nearby Mount of Olives Lutheran Church had not seen the couple for several days and grew concerned when they dropped off their children at the home and there was no answer. Ray, a former aerospace engineer, and Pauline were retired and cared for four children in their home.

The couple were beaten with “blunt instruments,” said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, who said the weapon had not been found.

Amormino said he received a call from a woman who may have known the younger Mingus, and told authorities where to find him. Police found the parents’ car, a 2000 white Honda, in the parking lot of Scripps Clinic and Green Hospital in La Jolla about 11 p.m. Thursday, and Richard Mingus sleeping in a chair in the hospital’s front lobby. It was unknown what he was doing at the hospital.

Neighbors said the son had a rocky relationship with his parents and had been asked to move out several years ago. Divorced with a son of his own, he had been living in San Diego, but recently moved back in with his parents, several neighbors said.

Richard Mingus hopped from one job to the next, from office positions to cafeteria, roofing and clerical work, according to neighbors and court reports.

According to court records, Mingus was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in San Bernardino in March 1987. He was imprisoned and paroled, according to state corrections records.

In July 1992, Mingus pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery, extortion and grand theft, admitting that he stole property worth more than $400 from his father, and had forced him to write him checks to cash, according to court records. At the same time he pleaded guilty to holding his mother captive on Dec. 28, 1991.

Mingus was given a suspended prison sentence, five years’ probation, and ordered to spend 259 days in jail. Given credit for 258 days, he was released within a day.

Mingus was soon back in trouble. In the summer of 1993, a series of drug tests ordered as part of his probation showed he tested positive for cocaine, methamphetamine and THC, the essence of marijuana.

In September of the same year, he was hospitalized after overdosing on methamphetamine, and told authorities he was suffering from depression. The Probation Department recommended prison, and Judge Richard M. Aronson sentenced him to four years. State corrections records show he was paroled and imprisoned five more times before being discharged in February 1996.

Neighbor Edward James Archibald said this week that in 1986 Mingus once tried to run him over as Archibald worked on his car.

“He was just one of those troubled teens,” Archibald said of Mingus, who was just 20 then.

Another neighbor, Sara Haynes, 21, said “there were times when you could hear them arguing, but Richard was a very mellow guy. . . . He was always in and out of the house. He’d be there for a week, leave and then come back.”

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Times staff writer Jack Leonard contributed to this report.