The mother of a man who was murdered by an executed death row inmate spoke out about how she didn't want him to die, but instead wanted to see him 'suffer'.
Ted Price, a dad-of-two from Utah, was just 40-years-old when he was brutally murdered by Aaron Gunches in 2002.
Ted was in the process of turning his life around - he had left his long-term partner and was studying to become a radiology technician. But when he temporarily moved in with his ex in Arizona in order to attend school and found that she was living in a drug den, he got into a fight with her that resulted in her current boyfriend driving him into the Arizonan desert and taking his life.
That boyfriend was Gunches, who was in his early twenties at the time, and he brutally shot Ted four times, leaving him dead in the desert near Mesa.
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Gunches pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2007 and was sent to death row where today (19 March), he was executed via lethal injection at the Arizona State Prison Complex in the town of Florence.
The murderer was initially set to be executed in April 2023, but it was stalled due to a review of the state's death penalty procedures.
The reschedule came as Gunches had asked the Arizona Supreme Court in 2022 to expedite his execution and skip legal processes, saying his death was 'long overdue,' but was denied.
Phyllis Price Tueller, Ted's grief-stricken mom, said in an interview prior to the re-arranged execution that she didn't want to see the 53-year-old put to death.
She said: "I feel that he wants this execution because he’s tired of being on death row."
“I don’t want him executed. I want him to suffer," she added, reports The Independent.
Despite Phyllis' strong feelings against the capital punishment in the case of her son's killer, Gunches was pronounced dead at 10:33 am this morning.
Two IVs containing pentobarbital were inserted into his arms. Eyewitnesses say the lethal injection killed him 17 minutes after being administered.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Maye said during a news conference after the execution, per AP: "The family of Ted Price has been waiting for justice for more than two decades. They deserve closure.”
Yet according to Phyllis, the only real relief has come from being liberated from the pressing situation.
"Although we’ve taken the final step in the legal process, the pain of losing Ted remains profound and cannot be conveyed in mere words," she said. "It is a relief that we no longer have to deal with lawyers, sift through documents, check prison records, or communicate with victims’ advocates or reporters."
Meanwhile, Ted's daughter, Brittney Price, said the constant pain surrounding her father's death for more than two decades has taken 'a significant toll'.
She added: "Today marks the end of that painful chapter and I couldn’t be more grateful."
Gunches reportedly didn't share any final words, and had enjoyed a double western bacon cheeseburger, two sandwiches, french fries, onion rings and baklava for his last meal.
The deputy director of the Arizona corrections department, John Barcello, said the execution went smoothly: "By all accounts, the process went according to plan without any incident at all."
Journalist Michael Kiefer of the Arizona Mirror also remarked it was 'probably the smoothest execution I've ever seen,' adding: "I think some of that came from the resoluteness of the person being executed."
Emily Puckering