Man Gets 7 Years in Razor Attacks in Cars

A Ventura man who wedged industrial razor blades into the car seats of young women he saw at Simi Valley shopping centers was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison.

Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch said he wants Gary Jean Muntifering, 54, to spend a significant period of time in prison so he can be treated for psychiatric problems that led him to attack 14 women, injuring some of them, over four days in June.

Muntifering, who in 1992 was earning a $55,000 salary as quality-assurance director for a Santa Monica company, pleaded guilty to five counts of assault with a deadly weapon in August.

Deputy Public Defender Douglas W. Daily urged Storch to place Muntifering on probation and order psychiatric treatment, but the judge was unwilling to take that chance.

“Because he’s not well, he has placed the community at significant risk,” Storch said. “If he wasn’t so sick, I wouldn’t be so concerned.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Stacy A. Ratner argued for the maximum eight-year prison term and expressed relief outside court that Muntifering was caught before he progressed to more serious mutilation crimes.

In a letter to the judge written prior to sentencing, Muntifering expressed the same sentiment.

“I am thankful that I was arrested when I was as things could have gotten much worse and someone could have been seriously hurt,” Muntifering wrote.

The defendant also said he was relieved that the victims didn’t have to testify against him. “I know I could not look at them because of the shameful thing that I did,” Muntifering wrote.

Attorneys said Muntifering apparently led a normal and productive adult life until something--no one knows for certain what--caused him to deteriorate mentally and start his razor attacks on women.

According to evidence presented at an earlier court hearing, the razor blades were placed on the front seats of the women’s unlocked cars while they were shopping. Many of the women suffered cuts to their legs and buttocks when they sat on the razors after returning to their cars.

Muntifering was arrested by Burbank police after two women in that city complained of sitting on blades in their cars after shopping at a grocery store. Burbank police set up surveillance in the grocery parking lot and arrested Muntifering when they saw him looking into several cars.

Police found 53 razor blades in Muntifering’s pickup truck following his arrest, officials said.

Prosecutor Ratner said the motive for the razor attacks is not clear, but before the attacks began Muntifering had several business and social setbacks that he blamed on women.

Muntifering told a court-appointed psychotherapist that the razor attacks did not satisfy him, and Ratner said there was a good chance the defendant would have progressed to more serious crimes.

“We got lucky that we caught him at the beginning of his deviant behavior and not at the end,” she said.

Storch said he will ask state prison officials to place Muntifering on priority status to receive psychiatric treatment while he is in custody. The judge asked defense attorney Daily to let him know if that does not happen.

“We all know that he’s going to be released (after serving) half time, and it’s my hope that there be some type of significant improvement by the time he is released,” Storch said.

Muntifering was living in his vehicle when he was arrested. He said he kept razor blades in his truck so he could open packages on grocery shelves and steal the food, according to court documents.