Military Sharpshooter Was Charged With Shooting Wife While She Sang On Stage

David Munis, 36, right, who is suspected of murdering his estranged wife Robin Munis, 40, early Saturday July 14, 2007 in Cheyenne, Wyo. (AP Photo/Wyoming Tribune Eagle)

Fast Fact

Munis' estranged wife, Robin Munis, 40, was singing with a classic-rock and country group at the Old Chicago restaurant and bar early Saturday when a bullet pierced a plate glass door and hit her in the head, killing her.

(AP) An anonymous tipster on horseback led authorities to the remote hideout of a former military sniper accused of fatally shooting his wife while she sang in a band.

As searchers closed in, David Munis, 36, shot himself with a rifle in the chest, authorities said. Munis was found at a small camping trailer about five miles outside the search area, Albany County Sheriff's Lt. Michael Garcia said.

He was flown to a hospital and pronounced dead, ending a daylong manhunt in the Rogers Canyon area about 10 miles northeast of Laramie.

"I'm glad it's over," Garcia said. "People in the community can feel more at rest, people in Rogers Canyon can feel more at ease."

Munis' estranged wife, Robin Munis, 40, was singing with a classic-rock and country group at the Old Chicago restaurant and bar in Cheyenne early Saturday when a bullet pierced a plate glass door and hit her in the head, killing her.

On Monday night, Munis' truck was found in the mountains north of Laramie, about 50 miles west of Cheyenne. About 75 heavily armed officers searched the area Tuesday.

Sheriff's officials said they knew little about the anonymous rider who called 911 on a cell phone. But they said he didn't live in the area at the foot of the Laramie Range where he was riding around 7 p.m.

Munis was charged with first-degree murder earlier Tuesday.

The Munises were recently separated, and Robin Munis had contacted police just hours before she was shot to complain that he was making harassing calls to her cell phone.

Investigators said it was unclear whether the shot that killed her came from the restaurant parking lot, about 25 yards away, or from an open green space, roughly 100 yards off.

Witnesses told police that a pickup matching the one owned by David Munis was seen leaving the scene.

A handwritten note of about six pages, addressed to "Everyone," was found at Munis' home, police said Tuesday. "I'm calling it a near-confession," Cheyenne police Capt. Jeff Schulz said. "He does not come out and say, `I did it."' The police spokesman would not give details.

Police had suspected from the outset that Munis, a devoted hunter and outdoorsman, would flee into terrain where his training and experience could give him the advantage.

Munis has been a member of the Wyoming Army National Guard since 2003, was previously in the Army and was a 2001 graduate of the Army Sniper School at Fort Benning, Ga., according to the National Guard.

He was assigned to an infantry regiment at Ft. Campbell, Ky., according to Lt. Col. Kevin V. Arata, public affairs officer with the U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Arata said he couldn't determine from Munis' military records if he was ever in combat.

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Cops Find Singer Shooter Suspect's Truck Who is a Military Sniper

CHEYENNE, Wyo., July 17, 2007

This photo released by the Cheyenne Wyoming Police Department shows David Munis, who is suspected of murdering his estranged wife Robin Munis on July 14, 2007, in Cheyenne, Wyo. Police were using a Black Hawk helicopter to scour the Wyoming back country for the former sniper-trained soldier. (AP Photo/Cheyenne Police Department)

Quote

"I don't think a guy like that would want to go out of his way to shoot at police. But if you corner him, you've got a very dangerous individual."
John Plaster,
sniper instructor for military and law enforcement

 
(AP) Investigators located the pickup truck of a military sharpshooter suspected of killing his estranged wife as she sang at a Cheyenne nightclub. An empty handgun case was inside the truck, but the man was nowhere in sight, police said Tuesday.

The search for David Munis, 36, focused Tuesday morning on a canyon area north of Laramie where the pickup was spotted late Monday, Police Lt. Jeff Schulz said.

Robin Munis, 40, had been singing with a classic-rock and country group called Ty and the Twisters at the Old Chicago early Saturday when a bullet pierced a plate glass door and hit her in the head, killing her. Police said Monday they were securing an arrest warrant for her estranged husband, charging him with homicide.

Schulz said officers would be searching the rugged terrain by foot and a Wyoming National Guard Blackhawk helicopter would assist from the air. Knowing Munis' firearms training, the hunt had searchers on edge.

Police don't know what kind of guns Munis may be armed with, but after searching his home, they assumed he had at least one high-powered rifle with him and likely the handgun and two canteens. Schulz has said the search of the home also turned up evidence connecting Munis to his wife's death, though he did not elaborate.

Munis has been a member of the Wyoming Army National Guard since 2003, was previously in the U.S. Army and was a 2001 graduate of the Army Sniper School at Fort Benning, Ga., according to the National Guard.

"Apprehending a man with that kind of sniper skill and the weaponry he has available to him is an extremely dangerous type of proposition," Schulz said.

Robin Munis had recently separated from her husband. She had complained about receiving a harassing telephone call from her husband last Friday, police Capt. Jeff Schulz said.

Schulz said investigators were speaking to David Munis' relatives in Montana and a friend at an Army base in Kentucky with who he had been in contact. Authorities didn't specify which base, but the Munises had lived within a few miles of Fort Campbell, Ky.

Robin Munis' brother, Art Werner, declined to comment on his sister's death when reached Tuesday at their parents' home in Clarksville, Tenn. He said her funeral service had not been set.

John Plaster, a sniper instructor for military and law enforcement agencies around the country and author of "The Ultimate Sniper," said graduates of the nation's military sniper schools are trained in evading capture, but he said he would be surprised if the hunt ended in a shootout.

"A guy like that, his enemy, in his mind, was his wife," Plaster said. "I don't think a guy like that would want to go out of his way to shoot at police. But if you corner him, you've got a very dangerous individual."

The sniper training in the Army and Marine Corps is rigorous and screens out in advance any potential thrill killers or people who seem to have emotional problems, he said. Instead, military sharpshooters think of their work in terms of saving the lives of their own troops on the battlefield.

Plaster said he believes that a highly trained soldier who snapped and killed a spouse would be likely to commit suicide. "All the honor of being a solider, of being devoted to country, and so on, that's gone," he said.

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