Ralph Menzies
Ralph Menzies | |
---|---|
![]() Mug shot of Menzies | |
Born | Ralph Leroy Menzies April 21, 1958 Utah, U.S. |
Conviction | Capital murder |
Criminal penalty | Death by firing squad (March 23, 1988) |
Details | |
Victims | Maurine Hunsaker, 26 |
Date | February 23, 1986 |
Location | Kearns, Utah |
Imprisoned at | Utah State Correctional Facility |
Ralph Leroy Menzies (born April 21, 1958) is an American convicted murderer currently on death row in Utah for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker (February 28, 1959 – February 25, 1986), a gas station attendant whom he kidnapped before slitting her throat. Menzies was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death on March 23, 1988, and he is currently awaiting to be executed by firing squad. Menzies has since exhausted his appeals and is scheduled to be put to death on September 5, 2025.[1]
Since Douglas Stewart Carter’s death sentence was overturned in May 2025, Menzies has become Utah's longest-serving death row inmate, having been sentenced to death in 1988.[2]
Early life and criminal history
Ralph Leroy Menzies was born in Utah, U.S. on April 21, 1958. He came from a dysfunctional family. Menzies was reportedly subjected to relentless child abuse by his stepfathers: they had assaulted him, refused to give him food, forced him to sleep in a very small room with his sister for three years, and even prevented him from going to school. As a result of the abuse, the early death of his biological mother, and his sister's need to take care of their younger brother, who was in poor health, Menzies grew up without a proper caretaker or parental figure. Menzies's school records showed that he had a poor track record of attendance.[3]
In 1976, Menzies was first convicted of aggravated robbery and sentenced to a term of five years to life in prison. Two years later, on July 6, 1978, Menzies and another prisoner Johnny Ray Sloan escaped from Utah State Prison,[4] and a week later, on July 17, 1978, Menzies robbed and shot a taxi driver with a shotgun. For this crime, Menzies was put on trial, but his case was declared a mistrial after the jury deadlocked on the verdict in October 1978.[5] Subsequently, in February 1979, Menzies was given another five years to life prison term for aggravated robbery, in addition to a concurrent sentence of one to 15 years for escaping prison.[6] The ruling was upheld in 1980 after Menzies lost his appeal.[7]
Four years later, Menzies was paroled on October 9, 1984, and he was caught a year later in December 1985 for theft of Christmas decoration objects. Menzies pleaded guilty to attempted theft on February 10, 1986, and he was scheduled for sentencing on March 11, 1986. He was subsequently released on bail on February 20, 1986.[8]
Murder of Maurine Hunsaker
Disappearance and death of Hunsaker
On February 23, 1986, three days after he was released on bail, Ralph Menzies kidnapped and murdered Maurine Hunsaker.
On that day itself, 26-year-old Maurine Forschen Hunsaker (February 28, 1959 – February 24, 1986) went missing from her job at a gas station in Kearns, Utah. During the evening, Hunsaker's husband Jim called her, but she did not answer the phone. When Jim arrived at her workplace that night, he found his wife and her purse, as well as US $116 from the cash register, missing. Later, at around 11:05 pm, Jim received a phone call from Hunsaker, who sounded upset and scared. Hunsaker reportedly told her husband that she was kidnapped by someone who wanted to rob her, and she told her husband that she would be released soon. An officer who joined Jim for the phone conversation heard Hunsaker say that she was robbed. However, the phone call was cut before both Jim and the officer could ask her any further questions.[3][9]
Two days later, on February 25, 1986, near the Storm Mountain picnic area in Big Cottonwood Canyon, a hiker discovered Hunsaker's body; her throat slit and her wrists covered with ligature marks, suggesting she had been tied up, likely to a nearby tree with scuffed bark. An autopsy report showed that Hunsaker died as a result of ligature strangulation, and the slit wound had a contributory effect to her death.[3][10]
Investigations and arrest of Menzies
Subsequently, the police investigations managed to link Ralph Menzies to the murder. Menzies, who was booked on unrelated burglary charges and detained on February 24, 1986, was found to have four of Hunsaker's identification cards in his possession, after a jailer found them in a laundry hamper located in the changing room Menzies used during the screening. Furthermore, two high-school students, Tim Larrabee and Beth Brown, saw two people at Storm Mountain on the morning of February 24 after Hunsaker's disappearance; one of these people matched Hunsaker's description, and the other, whom Larrabee described as a "White male" with black curly hair and beard who aged 25 to 36, weighed approximately 170 pounds and also 6'1 tall, roughly fitted the description of Menzies.[3]
Additionally, Troy Denter, a friend of Menzies, told police that he loaned his car, a cream-colored 1974 Chevrolet, to him on the day of the murder, and Larrabee saw a car resembling Denter's on the same date he saw Hunsaker and Menzies together; Brown corroborated Larrabee's testimony after identifying the car as the one Menzies borrowed from Denter. When the police questioned Menzies after obtaining the witness testimonies, Menzies denied that he was involved in the murder. He said that on the night he borrowed Denter's car, he picked up a woman (Hunsaker, he implied) on State Street and then picked up his girlfriend, Nicole Arnold. Menzies claimed he drove around with both women in the car until they began to fight. Menzies said he dropped off Arnold first before he stopped at somewhere around 7200 West and 2400 South to drop the other woman off. Menzies stated that he returned home to talk to Arnold.[3]
The police later on searched Menzies's apartment, and they recovered Hunsaker's purse and some of the money missing from the cash register of Hunsaker's workplace. A buck knife was retrieved as well, and it was found capable to inflict the cut wounds on Hunsaker's neck after being compared to the injuries. A DNA test later confirmed that Denter's car contained Hunsaker's fingerprint.[3]
With the evidence obtained so far, Menzies was arrested and charged with the murder of Maurine Hunsaker. Sometime after Menzies was charged, more evidence linking him to the murder emerged. A cellmate of Menzies, Walter Britton, contacted the police and told them that Menzies admitted to killing Hunsaker during a conversation with him, and that Menzies allegedly claimed that slitting Hunsaker's throat gave him one of the biggest thrills of his life.[3] However, the cellmate later signed a sworn declaration retracting this testimony.[11]
The father of Nicole Arnold also discovered Hunsaker's Social Security card in his daughter's possession.[3][12]
Murder trial
Ralph Menzies eventually stood trial before a jury on February 18, 1988.[13] Menzies faced one count of aggravated murder and one count of kidnapping; Salt Lake County prosecutors sought the death penalty under Utah state law for the aggravated murder charge. Jury selection commenced on February 4, 1988.[14]
During the trial, the prosecution argued that Menzies had kidnapped and murdered Maurine Hunsaker from her workplace in the suburban town of Kearns, Utah and held her hostage at Big Cottonwood Canyon overnight, before he strangled Hunsaker and slit her throat, and sought a conviction of first degree murder, but the defense argued that Menzies should be convicted of second degree murder, a lesser charge that did not carry the death penalty, after they made arguments to dispute the elements of the charge, where the existence of a robbery or kidnapping during the course of murder was required to make it a capital crime.[15]
On March 8, 1988, following a month-long trial, the jury found Menzies guilty of first degree murder and aggravated kidnapping. Menzies waived his right to be sentenced by a jury and allowed a judge to decide on his sentence instead.[16] The defense argued that Menzies should be spared the death penalty and handed a life sentence instead, as he was mentally ill and had had an abusive childhood and should be given judicial mercy on humanitarian grounds. However, the prosecution sought the death penalty, stating that it was appropriate because Menzies had a long criminal history, there was little to no rehabilitative effect observed during his previous prison stints, and he had continued to commit robbery even after being harshly dealt with by the law.[17][18][19]
On March 23, 1988, Judge Raymond Uno sentenced Menzies to death for the murder of Hunsaker, and at the sentencing hearing Menzies chose death by firing squad as the method for his execution. His execution date was scheduled for May 20, 1988, but it was stayed pending mandatory review by the Utah Supreme Court.[20][21]
Post-conviction legal process
After his sentencing in 1988, Ralph Menzies remained on death row for more than three decades, and throughout these years, he filed multiple appeals against his death sentence. It was scheduled to be carried out at least twice but delayed due to his appeals.
On March 11, 1992, the Utah Supreme Court rejected Menzies's appeal for a retrial, finding that transcription errors caused by a reporter covering his trial did not provide sufficient grounds to reopen his case.[22]
On March 29, 1994, the Utah Supreme Court dismissed Menzies's appeal and upheld his conviction and sentence.[23][24]
A year later, Menzies received his death warrant, scheduling his sentence to be carried out via firing squad on June 2, 1995. On May 4, 1995, Menzies managed to obtain a stay of execution due to pending appeals. Hunsaker's parents expressed disappointment that Menzies would not be executed.[25]
On May 16, 1996, Menzies's request for a federal public defender was rejected by U.S. Magistrate Ronald Boyce since his state appeals were not yet exhausted at this point.[26]
Menzies was then scheduled to be executed on November 10, 2003,[27][28] but the execution date was ultimately stayed for legal reasons.[29] Another appeal was rejected on February 27, 2004.[30] Menzies's motion requesting for DNA testing was rejected in October 2004.[31] In response to the repeated delays, Hunsaker's oldest son Matt, who was ten when his mother died, lamented the long period of time that lapsed since his mother's murder and wanted justice to be served.[32]
On April 2, 2012, Menzies's appeal over alleged ineffective representation by legal counsel was turned down by the 3rd District Judge Bruce C. Lubeck.[33]
On September 23, 2014, the Utah Supreme Court rejected Menzies's appeal.[3][34]
On January 12, 2019, U.S. District Judge Claire Eagan rejected an appeal.[35][36][37]
On November 7, 2022, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Menzies's appeal for post-conviction relief.[38]
On October 18, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to allow Menzies's appeal, which exhausted all of his standard appeals.[39]
On December 23, 2023, a lawsuit filed by Menzies and four other condemned prisoners against Utah's death penalty laws was dismissed by Judge Coral Sanchez of Utah's 3rd Circuit Court.[40]
Competency hearing and motion for death warrant
First execution warrant application
On January 17, 2024, the state lawyers of Utah announced that they were seeking an execution date for Ralph Menzies, who had selected to die by firing squad. Since Menzies was sentenced to death before May 2004, he was allowed to choose between lethal injection and firing squad.[41][42] It was the third time the state sought to execute Menzies.[43]
Menzies's defense counsel argued that he should not be executed because he was mentally incompetent. Menzies reportedly suffered from dementia and did not fully comprehend why he should be put to death for his crime.[44][45][46]
An official hearing to approve Menzies's death warrant was originally supposed to commence on February 23, 2024, but ten days before the hearing, a judge cancelled the hearing and directed the state to seek an independent report on Menzies's mental competency for execution.[47] Matt Hunsaker continued to seek justice for his mother and stated he wanted closure. Matt added that his maternal grandmother died in 2021 before she could get to see her daughter's killer executed, and he inherited his grandmother's wish to continue the pursuit for justice and fought to keep his memories of his mother alive even after 38 years since Hunsaker was murdered.[48] He also urged the courts to ensure a speedy process to determine Menzies' competence and fate.[49]
Mental competency hearing
On August 7, 2024, Menzies was scheduled to undergo a competency hearing on August 12, 2024. He also underwent psychiatric evaluation.[50]
An evidentiary hearing was scheduled for November 18, 2024. On October 18, 2024, weeks before the hearing, local media reported that Menzies' counsel now alleged prosecutorial misconduct, charging that prosecutors had been communicating and coordinating with state agencies and failed to disclose this information to the defense.[51][52] On November 1, 2024, Bates denied the motion to disqualify the prosecution from Menzies's competency hearing.[53]
On November 18, 2024, Menzies's competency hearing began.[54] Judge Bates presided the hearing. The state medical experts, neurologist Ryan Green and forensic psychologist Michael Brooks of the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, submitted that Ralph Menzies was competent to be executed.[55] The five-day hearing concluded on November 22, 2024.[56]
A final competency hearing was held May 7, 2025.[57][58] On June 6, 2025, Bates officially ruled that Menzies was mentally competent to be executed. The judge ruled that despite the recent signs of deterioration of his cognitive abilities as a result of dementia, Menzies "consistently and rationally underst[ood]" the magnitude of his actions and there was no evidence that his execution would have violated the Eighth Amendment.[59][60][61]
Second motion for execution date
On June 9, 2025, Utah prosecutors filed a renewed motion to issue a death warrant. At the same time, the defense counsel filed an appeal to the Utah Supreme Court against Judge Bates's ruling.[62][63] The defense sought a second competency hearing, arguing that his mental state had rapidly deteriorated and made him ineligible for execution.[64]
Scheduled execution
Death warrant
On July 9, 2025, Judge Matthew Bates signed a death warrant, scheduling the execution date as September 5, 2025.[65][66][67]
Officials of the Utah Department of Corrections announced on July 14, 2025, that preparations were underway to facilitate the upcoming execution of Menzies by firing squad.[68]
Clemency hearing and rejection
On July 16, 2025, Menzies's lawyers petitioned for clemency from the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, as a final recourse to commute Menzies's death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.[69] A hearing was granted for Menzies but the board did not announce a date to hear Menzies's case.[70]
Utah Governor Spencer Cox expressed support for the execution of Menzies, stating that he personally believed that the death penalty was appropriate for exceptional murder cases and it should be applied only rarely. In Utah, the governor has no authority to grant clemency and commute death sentences; instead, it is the purview of the Utah state parole board to make these decisions.[71]
On August 14, 2025, before the parole board, Menzies's lawyers argued that their client should be spared from execution on account of his poor health and good behavior in prison.[72] On that same date, Menzies lost his petition for a second competency hearing, after Judge Matthew Bates denied the motion and ruled that he was "unpersuaded" that Menzies was mentally incompetent to be executed.[73]
On the other hand, Maurine Hunsaker's family urged the parole board to not commute Menzies's death sentence and asked for him to be executed. They argued that they had waited for nearly 40 years for justice to finally arrive and granting Menzies clemency would be an affront to Hunsaker and themselves, and her widow Jim Hunsaker added that Menzies was brutal on his late wife and their family and he deserved to be punished only by execution with the firing squad.[74][75] Matt Hunsaker also opposed the granting of clemency for his mother's killer, and admonished the parole board for allowing Menzies a final chance to plead for mercy on his life, given that his mother was murdered by Menzies in a brutal and callous manner; Matt also stated that he wished to see Menzies meeting his end in the execution chamber on September 5, 2025, as arranged. Matt's two younger siblings, Nicholas and Dana, who were both 18 months and six months old respectively when Hunsaker died, similarly asked the board to refuse clemency for Menzies; Dana additionally stated that she had no memory of her mother except for the court case relating to her murder and felt that the striking resemblance to her mother aggravated the heartbreak of her family throughout these decades after the death of Hunsaker.[76][77]
Ultimately, on August 19, 2025, the parole board denied clemency for Menzies, allowing his execution date to remain scheduled for September 5, 2025.[78][79]
Final appeals
On August 21, 2025, Menzies appealed to the Utah Supreme Court for a stay of execution in favour of another competency hearing.[80][81]
See also
- Capital punishment in Utah
- List of death row inmates in Utah
- List of people scheduled to be executed in the United States
References
- ^ "Judge sets execution date for Ralph Menzies for 1986 murder, despite appeal". KSL. July 9, 2025.
- ^ "Utah Supreme Court affirms ruling ordering new trial for death row inmate". Utah News Dispatch. May 15, 2025.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i MENZIES v. STATE [2014], Utah Supreme Court (United States).
- ^ "Escapees still at large". The Deseret News. July 10, 1978.
- ^ "Robbery jury deadlocks; retrial ordered Nov. 20". The Deseret News. October 20, 1978.
- ^ "Felon gets added 5 to life". The Deseret News. February 7, 1979.
- ^ "Court upholds robbery verdict". The Deseret News. July 28, 1980.
- ^ Hunsaker v. State [1993], Utah Supreme Court (United States).
- ^ "Abducted gas clerk still hasn't returned". The Deseret News. February 25, 1986.
- ^ "Evidence sought in kidnap-slaying of Kearns woman". The Deseret News. February 25, 1986.
- ^ "Ralph Menzies' cognitive decline debated during first day of commutation hearing". KSL.com. August 13, 2025.
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- ^ State v. Menzies [1992], Utah Supreme Court (United States).
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- ^ State v. Menzies [1994], Utah Supreme Court (United States).
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- ^ "JUDGE REJECTS KILLER'S PLEA FOR MORE LAWYERS". The Deseret News. May 16, 1996.
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- ^ "Death row inmate loses latest appeal with Utah Supreme Court". The Deseret News. September 23, 2014.
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- ^ Menzies v. Powell [2022], 10th Circuit Court of Appeals (United States).
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- ^ "In final bid to stop execution, Ralph Menzies' attorneys ask Utah Supreme Court to delay his firing squad death". Salt Lake Tribune. August 21, 2025.
- ^ "With execution just weeks away, Menzies' attorneys appeal to the Utah Supreme Court". Utah News Dispatch. August 21, 2025.