An Arizona death row inmate who has complained his execution was ‘long overdue’ gave up his final chance to delay his capital punishment.
Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and first-degree murder in 2004 after gunning down his girlfriend’s ex-husband Ted Price near Mesa, a Phoenix suburb, two years prior.
He was sentenced to death during his 2008 trial – a conviction upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court in a 2016 appeal hearing.
Gunches, who is not a lawyer, waived his right to an attorney and opted to represent himself from the start.
He had been begging for his execution process to be expedited for years.
The killer was first scheduled for a lethal injection in April 2023, but it was called off when the newly elected Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs halted all death penalties following three ‘botched’ procedures in 2022, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).
‘We need to take some time to assess how the death penalty has worked, and make sure that this is done legally and correctly,’ Attorney General Kris Mayes said at the time.
‘Ted Price’s family and friends have waited two decades to see justice and to find closure,’ Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in June 2024, when her office filed a death warrant for Gunches.
Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, said his execution was ‘long overdue’ forwent his final chance to plead for a lesser penalty or postpone his capital punishment
Ted Price was murdered by Gunches in 2002 after he got into an alleged altercation with his ex-wife, Katherine Lecher
Kathrine Lecher (pictured recently) allegedly got into a fight with Price before Gunches killed him
‘I have been patient as the AG and the governor have delayed again and again. But it’s been long enough. I am not willing to wait any longer.’
In November 2024, Mayes and Hobbs announced they would be pursuing warrants for executions once again.
Mayes is ‘confident that executions can now proceed in compliance with state and federal law,’ she wrote in a statement.
This would make Gunches the first Arizona inmate to be put to death in two years.
Gunches once more pushed to schedule his death, writing a letter to the Supreme Court late last year, claiming his execution was ‘long overdue.’
On February 11, an execution warrant was finally filed.
The document declared the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (ADCRR) will administer a lethal injection to Gunches at Arizona State Prison Complex-Florence on March 19.
Gunches did not participate in a March 10 hearing before the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency – which noted he waived his right to ask for a sentence commutation or a reprieve.
Gunches will be the first Arizona inmate to be put to death in two years, since the governor only started allowing them again this year
Arizona death row prisoners who committed crimes before November 23, 1992 can chose between lethal injection or the heavily disputed gas chamber
According to a filing from February 20, Gunches had already asserted he would not be attending the hearing. He had a brief virtual meeting with the board to confirm a clemency waiver from 2022.
‘My position has not changed,’ he wrote in the filing.
The ADCRR said they would contact the DailyMail.com ‘when or if’ Gunches is ready speak out.
Details surrounding Gunches’ case – specifically his choice to waive an attorney – have been deemed controversial by adversaries of the death penalty.
In November 2002, Price had been visiting his ex-wife – and Gunches’ girlfriend at the time – Katherine Lecher. He had been staying at her Mesa home for about 10 days.
The pair got into a heated altercation, with Lecher allegedly striking Price over the head with her telephone before kicking him out.
After being struck, Price ‘remained conscious but appeared dazed and unresponsive,’ according to an appeal from the Maricopa County Superior Court.
Gunches came over to her apartment that night and asked one of Lecher’s roommates, Jennifer Garcia, to take Price and him to the bus station in his girlfriend’s car.
Marci Kratter, Gunches’ court-appointed attorney, expressed her frustration while watching Gunches do nothing to defend himself
When the three of them arrived at the bus stop, Gunches claimed he did not have enough money for a bus ticket and instructed Garcia to drive down a dirt path into a dark and secluded area.
Gunches got out of the car and began rummaging through the truck and Price followed.
Garcia then heard three gut-wrenching bangs and saw Price fall to the ground. After hearing another gunshot, she saw Gunches standing by Price’s body with a gun at his side.
She later told police the cold-blooded killing ‘happened fast,’ according to court documents.
Gunches got into the car, and Garcia drove back to to the house – stopping to dispose of Price’s belongings in a dumpster. The victim’s body was found several days later.
Lecher’s other roommate, Michelle Beck, told investigators Gunches admitted to her that he killed Price.
Lecher declined to comment when reached by the DailyMail.com.
Price’s sister Karen claimed her brother was killed because he threatened to report Lecher to child welfare authorities for doing drugs in front of her children.
‘Ted wasn´t going to stand for that,’ Karen told the Associated Press.
Attorney General Kris Mayes said the reason death penalties were paused was because the process had to be re-evaluated
A 50-person manhunt was launched to track down the killer – during which Gunches shot and mildly injured an officer that pulled him over in January 2003.
He was subsequently arrested in La Paz County for shooting the cop. Along with the charges relate to Price’s death, Gunches also pleaded guilty to attempted murder for attacking the officer.
Even though Gunches admitted his guilt, his murder case still had to go to trial because the prosecution was seeking out the death penalty.
Acting as his own lawyer, Gunches did not push back on his sentencing in 2008.
But the Arizona Supreme Court demanded that Gunches’ trial was redone, and he was resentenced.
The prosecutor originally alleged the crime was committed in ‘an especially heinous or depraved manner,’ but the Arizona Supreme Court disagreed and argued Price died right away, so his death did not fall into that category.
But the 2013 verdict was exactly the same.
‘Do what you’re going to do,’ he told Maricopa County jurors while they were deciding on giving him the death penalty, the Arizona Mirror reported.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs halted all death penalties following three ‘botched’ procedures in 2022
‘This seems like you’re committing suicide by jury,’ the judge responded.
Marci Kratter, Gunches’ court-appointed attorney, expressed her frustration while watching Gunches do nothing to defend himself.
She told the Arizona Mirror: ‘He did nothing to help himself. Absolutely nothing.
‘Gunches and I would get into fights every day of his trial. It should never have been a death trial.’
Kratter pointed out that Gunches never underwent a mental capacity test and claimed he was ‘not right in his head.’
But in 2016, the Supreme Court affirmed Gunches’ second death sentence.
‘Gunches does not claim that the trial court erred in finding him competent to stand trial,’ a 2016 court document reads.
‘We review a trial court’s determination that a defendant has knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waived counsel for an abuse of discretion.
On March 19, the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (ADCRR) with administer a lethal injection to Gunches at Arizona State Prison Complex-Florence
‘The court, however, expressed its concern that Gunches was not attempting to avoid the death penalty.
‘Against the strong advice of the court and counsel, Gunches nonetheless insisted on representing himself.’
Arizona, which has 112 prisoners on death row, last carried out three executions in 2022.
Clarence Dixon was the first of the three, being put to death on May 11, 2022. The ADCRR personnel had difficulty inserting the IV, resulting in a bloody and visibly painful death, according to the DPIC.
After being unable to find a vein in his arm for about 25 minutes, staffer performed a ‘cutdown procedure’ to insert the line in his groin.
‘I would classify it as a botch, recognizing that not everyone would agree with that. But things did not go right,’ Michael Radelet, a University of Colorado-Boulder sociologist and death penalty researcher, said at the time.
Frank Atwood was executed on June 8, 2022 and reportedly helped those carrying out the procedure find his vein.
Arizona Republic reporter Jimmy Jenkins attended the execution as a witness and recounted his ‘surreal’ experience’ watching Atwood die.
Three Arizona death row inmates were executed via lethal injection in 2022 after an eight year hiatus
He recalled it took the staff about 40 minutes to insert an IV and ended up having to cut into Atwood’s femoral vein.
The final 2022 death sentence was carried out on November 16 on Murray Hooper.
The convicted killer’s last words were ‘can you believe this?’ as officials spent more than an hour looking for a vein. They eventually inserted a catheter into his femoral vein to complete the execution – being told that it would ‘hurt less.’
Before those three, the state took an eight-year hiatus from carrying out death penalties due to clumsily administered lethal injections and trouble obtaining the needed drugs for these kinds of procedures.
The final straw for Arizona was the execution of Joseph Wood on July 23, 2014, which took about two hours.
Doctors and government officials watched the convicted killer let out hundreds of blood-curdling ‘snorts and gasps’ for 117 minutes as two doses of the deadly drug coursed through his veins.
‘Arizona has a history of mismanaged executions that have resulted in serious questions and concerns about ADCRR’s execution protocols and lack of transparency,’ Hobbs said in a 2023 statement when she appointed Ryan Thornell as Death Penalty Independent Review Commissioner.
Thornell’s job includes reviewing the quality of the drugs used and ensuring staff is properly trained to carry out procedures.
Arizona stopped carrying out death sentences after the botched execution of Joseph Wood in 2014
Another significant change is that larger teams will be there to insert the IV, as this step has caused trouble in the past.
Arizona death row prisoners who committed crimes before November 23, 1992 can chose between lethal injection or the heavily disputed gas chamber, which was refurbished in late 2020 and was last used in 1999.
Pictured: A chair used as part of a firing squad execution carried out in South Carolina in February
Those who refuse to pick a method or committed their crime after the designated date are automatically given the lethal injection.
The Arizona Legislature is considering a law changing the state´s method of execution. If approved by lawmakers, the proposal would ask voters in 2026 to replace lethal injection with a firing squad.
The proposed ballot measure would keep lethal gas as one of Arizona´s two execution methods for those whose crimes occurred before the November 1992 date.
