PHOENIX — An Arizona man who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder was scheduled to be executed Wednesday in the state’s first use of the death penalty in more than two years.
Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, was slated to be lethally injected with pentobarbital at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. Gunches fatally shot Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband, in the desert outside the Phoenix suburb of Mesa in 2002.
Gunches is the second of four death row prisoners in the United States set to be executed this week. Louisiana executed a man on Tuesday and two more executions were scheduled in Florida and Oklahoma on Thursday. Gunches will be the first person executed in a state with a Democrat serving as governor since Virginia did so in 2017 when Terry McAuliffe was in charge.
Gunches’ execution had originally been scheduled for April 2023 but was called off after Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs ordered a review of the state’s death penalty procedures. Late last year, Hobbs fired the retired judge she had appointed to conduct the review, and the state’s corrections department announced changes in the team that lethally injects death row prisoners.
The killing
Authorities say Price’s ex-wife struck Price in the face with a phone during an argument in late 2002 at her apartment, leaving him conscious but dazed. Price’s sister, Karen Price, said her brother had threatened to report his ex to child welfare authorities for doing drugs in front of their children.
Gunches arrived at the apartment later. He asked two other women who were there with his girlfriend to put Price in a car and drive him to a bus station. But when they realized they didn’t have enough money for a bus ticket, they instead drove into the desert, where Gunches shot Price, authorities said.
Gunches was arrested in January 2003 after being pulled over by an Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper near the California state line. Gunches shot the trooper, who was saved by a bulletproof vest. Bullet casings from that shooting matched ammunition that had been found near Price’s body, and Gunches was charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping in October 2003. He pleaded guilty in 2007.
Karen Price described her brother as a kind and loving person who enjoyed watching the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks and riding his motorcycle. She said her family was devastated by Ted’s death.
Gunches tries to move up the execution
Gunches, who represented himself even though he isn’t a lawyer, asked the Arizona Supreme Court in 2022 to issue an execution warrant against him to give closure to Price’s family. He later withdrew the request. The execution was scheduled anyway but later postponed amid the review ordered by Hobbs.
In late December, Gunches asked the state’s highest court to skip legal formalities and schedule his execution as soon as possible, saying his death sentence was “long overdue.” The court refused the request and later set his execution date for Wednesday.
No reprieve expected
No last-minute reprieves are expected for Gunches, despite objections by lawyers who didn’t represent him yet still asked the Arizona Supreme Court not to issue his execution warrant. The lawyers said injecting someone with pentobarbital in large amounts has been shown to cause fluid to seep into the lungs and drown people in their own fluids.
The court rejected their request, saying it was not appropriate to use Gunches’ case to argue the merits of lethal injection. It also ruled that the necessary requirements to carry out Gunches’ execution had been met.
Last week, Gunches gave up his right to seek a reprieve from the Arizona Clemency Board.
