Arizona executes a man who murdered his girlfriend's ex-husband

An Arizona man who kidnapped and murdered his girlfriend's ex-husband has been executed, the second of four prisoners scheduled to be put to death this week in the US.

Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, was lethally injected with pentobarbital at the Arizona State Prison Complex in the town of Florence, John Barcello, deputy director of the Arizona corrections department, told news outlets. He was pronounced dead at 10.33 am Wednesday local time.

Gunches fatally shot Ted Price in the desert outside the Phoenix suburb of Mesa in 2002. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2007.

Aaron Brian Gunches has asked an Arizona court to schedule his execution for earlier than officials had planned.

The prisoner did not have any final words, Barcello said. He took a few heavy breaths and let out a snoring-type sound.

“By all accounts, the process went according to plan without any incident at all," Barcello said.

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 lethal injection was administered through IVs inserted into Gunches' arms, according to news media representatives who witnessed the execution. In the state’s two previous executions, the IV had been inserted into the prisoner’s femoral artery.

“This is probably the smoothest execution I’ve seen, and I think some of that came from the resoluteness of the person being executed,” said journalist Michael Kiefer of the Arizona Mirror, who has witnessed two executions and covered another nine.

Arizona's lethal injection room. (Photo courtesy Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry)

He said Gunches was pronounced dead 17 minutes after the injection was administered.

Troy Hayden of 12News KPNX said he saw no signs of pain on Gunches’ face. “There wasn’t wincing or anything like that,” Hayden said.

For his last meal, the prisoner had a double western bacon cheeseburger, two sandwiches, french fries, onion rings and baklava for dessert.

Gunches is the second person executed this week in the US Louisiana executed a man on Tuesday, and two more executions were scheduled in Florida and Oklahoma on Thursday. Arizona is the first state with a Democratic governor to execute someone since 2017, when Virginia did so under then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

“The family of Ted Price has been waiting for justice for more than two decades," Arizona Attorney General Kris Maye said at a news conference following Wednesday's execution. “They deserve closure.”

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 realised 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.

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