A man from Arizona who was put to death refused to offer any last words when he received the fatal injection for killing his girlfriend's ex -Army.
Aaron Gunches, 53, was declared dead at 10.33 am on Wednesday. He did not resist when the deadly injection was administered.
In 2007, Gunches argued guilty of the kidnapping and murder of his girlfriend Ted Price of November 2002.
He shot Price dead in a desert after he threatened to report her to children's welfare authorities for using drugs for their children.
According to the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Rectry (ADCRR) Deputy director John Barcello, when Grunches was asked if he wanted to say last words, he shook his head and replied 'no'.
But he enjoyed a final meal of onion rings, a spicy gyro, a barbecue -gyro, baklava and a double Western bacon cheeseburger with fries.
“The process went according to plan, without any incident,” said Barcello.
Sitting on a stretcher, covered with what looked like a white onesie and complicated with a sheet, Gunches looked straight ahead while the deadly dose was administered.
Aaron Gunches, 53, was declared dead at 10.33 am on Wednesday. He did not resist when the deadly injection was administered
GUNCHES pleaded in 2007 at the kidnapping and murder of his girlfriend Ted Price (photo) of November 2002 (photo)
According to Barcello, the prisoner won a few heavy breaths and left a snoring type sound after the deadly injection.
He was arrested in January 2003 after he had been persuaded by an Arizona Department of Public Safety Trooper near the State Line in California.
Gunches shot the trooper, which was saved by a bulletproof vest. Bullet-om shells of that shooting corresponded to ammunition that was found near Price's body, and Gunches was accused of murder of the first degree and kidnapping in October 2003.
He argued guilty of murder in the first degree in 2007.
Price's daughter, Brittney Price, said in an explanation that “the pain of reviving the circumstances around my father's death has taken an important toll from my family and me for more than two decades.”
He shot Price dead in a desert after he threatened to report her to children's welfare authorities for using drugs for their children
Price's family (sister Karen depicted) described her brother as a friendly and loving person
“Today the end of that painful chapter marks and I can't be more grateful,” she said.
Grunches, who represented himself, although he is not a lawyer, asked Arizona's Supreme Court in 2022 to publish an execution warrant against him to close Price's family. He later withdrew the request.
At the end of December the highest court of the state asked to skip legal formalities and to plan his execution as quickly as possible, and said that his death penalty was 'long too late'.
Gunches is the second person to be executed in the US this week in the US Louisiana, performed a man on Tuesday, and two more executions were planned in Florida and Oklahoma on Thursday.
