Second competency hearing for Ralph Menzies set for December

Related video: Attorneys for Ralph Menzies file appeal over competency ruling

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — A second competency hearing is set to take place for Ralph Menzies, an inmate who is on death row for the last 37 years.

The competency hearing is expected to take place Dec. 9 through Dec. 12. The first three days will be for witnesses. Dec. 12 will be for arguments.

The Judge in today’s hearing noted that all parties must disclose their witness and exhibit lists by Nov. 7.

Menzies was initially ruled to be executed on Sept. 5 but in August, the Utah Supreme Court stayed his execution. The state’s top court ruled that the lower district court must reevaluate Menzies’ competency before he can be executed. 

His attorneys have filed several appeals, citing that Menzies has “worsening dementia” and poor health and asked that his death sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole.

Who is Ralph Menzies?

Menzies was convicted in 1988 for the 1986 aggravated murder, kidnapping, and robbery of Maurine Hunsaker. 

On February 23, 1986, Hunsaker was abducted from the Gas-A-Mat convenience store and gas station in Kearns, Utah, where she was employed. Her husband called the convenience store and went in person when she did not pick up. When he arrived, he found that Hunsaker was missing, along with her purse.

According to documents, Hunsaker called the home phone and told her husband that she had been instructed to tell him she was kidnapped and robbed. A police officer spoke with Hunsaker, and she indicated that the kidnapper intended to release her.

Days later, on February 25, 1986, a hiker found Hunsaker deceased near a picnic area in Big Cottonwood Canyon. She had been strangled to death, according to the medical examiner, and her throat was cut. Marks on her wrists and scuffing on a nearby tree indicated that she had been tied to it somehow.

During this time, Menzies was booked into jail on an unrelated burglary charge. When officers were taking his possessions, Menzies ran away and hid in a changing room. Later, identification cards were located in the changing room’s hamper, and an officer realized that they belonged to Hunsaker.

Witnesses further connected Menzies to the disappearance and murder of Maurine Hunsaker, and some had even seen him with her on the night of her murder. In 1988, a jury found Menzies guilty, and he was placed on death row for the serious and senseless crime.