The mother of a man murdered by an Arizona death row inmate says she doesn’t want his killer executed this week but wants him kept alive to “suffer.”
“I feel that he wants this execution because he’s tired of being on death row,” Phyllis Price Tueller, Ted Price’s mother, said in an interview ahead of Aaron Gunches's execution on Wednesday. “I don’t want him executed. I want him to suffer.”
Gunches, 53, murdered her son in 2002 and was convicted of the crime in 2008.
To Karen Price, her 40-year-old brother was on the verge of turning his life around when Gunches murdered him. The Utah native was pursuing an education to become a radiology technician after going to school in Utah, where he was from, and recently left his long-term partner.
He was enjoying his fresh start reconnecting with friends after living in Arizona. “He was enjoying it,” Price told USA Today. “We were thrilled for him.”
But to further his education, Ted Price decided it would be a good idea to attend an institution back in Arizona where he could finish his education faster. That decision would require him to move back in with his ex-girlfriend who was dating Gunches at the time.
She agreed the two could live together. The pair had been in a serious relationship and Ted Price had become a stay-at-home father to her two children for 10 years. When Ted Price arrived back in Arizona, he discovered his ex had started living in a home for drug addicts.
She’d developed a methamphetamine habit and in one instance took the drug with her 14-year-old daughter in front of her son. “Ted did not involve himself with those kinds of activities and he probably showed up and was like, ‘What the heck like, this is not acceptable,’” his sister Karen said.
“It makes sense that he would be willing to protect those kids, even though the relationship wasn’t the best.” She thinks her brother might’ve threatened to call Child Protective Services, upsetting his ex. The two got in a fight and Gunches later became involved. He drove Ted Price into the desert near Mesa and shot him four times.
Gunches’s execution is scheduled for 10 a.m. on March 19 via lethal injection at a prison facility in Florence, Arizona, 23 years after the murder.
He pleaded guilty to the crime and waived his right to a clemency hearing. Since his trial, he’s advocated for his death.
For Karen Price, Gunches’ execution is not enough. “We wanted that man in solitary confinement,” she told the outlet. “He ought to suffer.”
“He ought to be the most miserable human being on the face of the Earth for what he did to our brother, and we wanted that for him.”
Ted Price’s family described him as a quiet and kind person. “He treated everybody with kindness,” his other sister, Sheila Banaszek said. “When he had a chance to reinvent himself, he chose the medical field because he wanted to help people.”
Gunches will be the first person killed by Arizona since 2022. In 2023, Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs paused executions pending a review of the state’s execution procedures by an independent commissioner. Hobbs reversed the decision in 2024, three days after President Donald Trump won the presidential election.
Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general to assist states in executing inmates on death row. Karen Price doesn’t believe the execution will bring her closure.
Throughout the years, her family has tracked Gunches’ status and became frustrated when he was moved to better conditions, the outlet reported.
She said the majority of the family are looking forward to putting Gunches behind them. “We want to be done with him, to not have to think about him anymore, to not have to get any calls from victims advocates,” Price continued. “We just want to be done.”
