Aaron Gunches' execution set for March 19

PHOENIX - On Wednesday, Arizona is scheduled to carry out the state's first execution in more than two years.

Aaron Gunches will be put to death by lethal injection on March 19 for his role in a 2002 murder.

The backstory:

Prosecutors said Gunches fatally shot his girlfriend’s ex-husband, Ted Price. The victim’s body was later found in a desert area.

Gunches was pulled over by the Arizona Department of Public Safety near the California border in 2003 and shot a trooper twice, according to authorities. The trooper survived thanks to a bulletproof vest and bullet casings from the shooting scene matched the ones found near Price’s body.

As for Gunches, he ultimately pleaded guilty to kidnapping and killing Price and to the attempted murder of the DPS trooper, and was originally sentenced to death in 2008. In 2010, however, the Arizona Supreme Court found an error in the sentencing proceeding, and remanded Gunches’ case for new sentencing. He was sentenced to death again in 2013.

Aaron Gunches

Dig deeper:

In November 2022, Gunches filed a request for his own death warrant with the state's Supreme Court, but he later withdrew that request, stating that he did not know that Mayes, who won election for Arizona Attorney General that same month, had stated her intentions of "pausing" executions in Arizona.

After she took office as Attorney General, Mayes tried to withdraw a request for Gunches' death warrant that was filed by her predecessor, Mark Brnovich. The court, however, refused the request. While a death warrant was ultimately granted, Governor Katie Hobbs said her administration would not carry out an execution, and a review of the state’s death penalty protocol was conducted.

The review ended in November when Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs dismissed the retired federal magistrate judge she had appointed to examine execution procedures.