Patrick Mungavin was 23 and living in Davis, California, when he was murdered on January 26, 1989, in a house on Kaula Drive in Fair Oaks. Investigators found Mungavin seated on the living room couch with his head tilted to one side and blood coming from his right nostril. A loaded .22-caliber handgun was recovered under his left armpit but showed no evidence of having been fired. A forensic pathologist estimated his time of death between midnight and 6:00 a.m. on January 26.

Mungavin was one of three people killed that morning; Thomas Probst and Jeanine Copeland were also found dead at the same address. Authorities later linked these killings to a broader robbery spree across California and Arizona that left six other people dead. James David Majors was charged with the first-degree murders of Mungavin, Probst, and Copeland and with first-degree robbery. The jury convicted Majors on all counts, including special circumstance allegations of multiple murders during a robbery, and he was sentenced to death. The conviction and sentence were affirmed on appeal, and Majors pursued further federal habeas review.