Since May, three prisoners have been executed
Convicted killer Aaron Gunches took care of his girlfriend’s ex-husband in the Arizona desert two decades ago and now he wants the state to put him permanently on ice.
Gunches was sentenced to die for the shooting death of Ted Price and has languished on death row ever since.
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Now, he wants to die by lethal injection. All his appeals have been exhausted and he’s demanding the state’s Supreme Court issues his death warrant.
“So that justice may be lawfully served and give closure to the victim’s family,” Gunches wrote in his affidavit.
In December 2002, Gunches kidnapped Price following a fight at his girlfriend Katherine Lecher’s house and drove him to the Salt River Reservation near Mesa.
According to court papers, Price had visited his ex-wife Lecher in November 2002. But after about 10 days, the former couple started fighting.
Lecher hit Price with a telephone. That same night, Gunches arrived at the house and asked his girlfriend’s roommate to drive the two men to the bus station.
But instead of the bus station, Garcia drove them to the desert and then feigned getting something out of the trunk. When Price got out of the vehicle, Garcia said she heard POP! POP! POP! and watched as Price fell to the ground.
She then heard another POP! and saw Gunches standing over Price’s lifeless body. Garcia then drove the pair back to the house and they disposed of Price’s belongings in a nearby dumpster.
His body was discovered several days later. He had been shot three times in the chest with another bullet lodged in the back of his head.
Gunches was later captured following a massive manhunt in which he shot a cop twice in a roadside gun battle.
Representing himself in court, he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and first-degree murder.
If Gunches gets the big adios, it will be the first time Arizona executes a killer since 2014 when Joseph Wood’s execution was botched. In that execution, it took two hours and 15 injections to kill the man.
Afterward, the state suspended executions until May 2022. Since then, three prisoners have been executed.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
