‘He does not deserve two seconds more’: Victim’s family makes emotional plea to execute Menzies

Ralph Menzies appears during his commutation hearing before the parole board at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City as he petitions to stop his execution by firing squad on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (Pool photo by Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune)

Matt Hunsaker did not mince words when he addressed the man who, nearly 40 years ago, kidnapped his mother, brought her up Big Cottonwood Canyon and murdered her. 

“I will be there and I will watch you get shot. I promise that,” Hunsaker said, speaking remotely on the final day of the commutation hearing for Ralph Menzies, who is scheduled to die by firing squad on Sept. 5. “Ralph, I’ll see your ass in the execution chamber in 21 days.” 

Friday marked an emotional day of testimony for the family of Maurine Hunsaker, with the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole hearing arguments for and against granting Menzies, a 67-year-old death row inmate with dementia, clemency — that means instead of a death sentence, he would serve the rest of his life in prison, without the possibility of parole. 

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The board has never commuted a death sentence and the Hunsaker family, during several hours of tearful statements, urged them to keep it that way. 

“I loved that woman with every inch of my body, soul, mind, everything. What this man did, he does not deserve two seconds more to live,” said Jim Hunsaker, Maurine’s husband. 

In total, eight of Maurine’s relatives spoke to the board on Friday, all with a similar argument — that 39 years ago, Menzies’ murder upended their family, and that their legal fight for justice and closure has dragged on far too long.  

Menzies already had a lengthy criminal history by the time he kidnapped Hunsaker, a 26-year-old mother who was working as a gas station clerk in Kearns. In 1978, while serving a sentence for aggravated robbery, he escaped the Utah State Prison and shot and wounded a taxi driver. He was sentenced again, then paroled in 1984 — in 1985, he was arrested for theft, then released on bail in February of 1986. 

Days after he was released, Menzies robbed the gas station where Hunsaker worked, kidnapping the young mother and taking her up into the Wasatch Mountains. According to testimony Friday, he told Hunsaker he would let her go — she even called her husband, telling him she would be released soon. But days later, a hiker found her body near the Storm Mountain picnic area. She had been tied to a tree and strangled, before Menzies slashed her throat. 

Much of that was recounted on Friday by Matt Hunsaker, who was just 10 years old when he learned of his mother’s murder. During his nearly 45-minute testimony, Hunsaker recalled waking up to see police at his house; being escorted to school by officers; hearing his father’s cries when he learned of Maurine’s death; and the years of turmoil that followed. 

“I’m 10 years old and I just found out my mom was murdered. She was killed by that piece of crap sitting in that jumpsuit right in front of you right now. The very guy that’s begging for mercy,” Hunsaker said.  

In the years that followed the murder, Menzies filed numerous appeals that prolonged his sentence — most recently, his attorneys tried to argue that his dementia has progressed so much that he no longer understands why he’s being executed. Per state and federal law, a government should not execute someone who doesn’t understand the reasoning behind their death sentence. 

Despite a judge ruling that Menzies does have dementia, those attempts have all mostly failed, including a recent petition to undergo a second competency exam. Although Menzies still has an appeal pending with the Utah Supreme Court, which his attorneys will argue next week, the commutation hearing marks one of his last attempts to avoid the firing squad. 

“If you don’t sentence him to death, it will be on all your heads. I’m sorry, that’s my feeling. He has been so brutal, not only to Maurine, but for me, my family, and anybody else that has to put up with him,” Jim Hunsaker said on Friday. 

Heidi Nestel, an attorney for the Hunsaker family, told the board that allowing the execution to move forward would bring closure to a family who, for decades, has lived in legal limbo. 

“The only compassionate, conclusive mercy available now is this. To finally carry out this sentence the jury and judge lawfully and unanimously decided 37 years ago to give her family the one thing they’ve never had — an end, closure, silence,” she said. “Let this long delayed sentence be fulfilled. Not out of vengeance, but out of mercy for those who have suffered quietly.” 

Attorneys make closing arguments 

Attorneys for both Menzies and the state made their closing statements on Friday, echoing many of the same arguments made in court hearings this year, and in years past. 

Menzies’ attorneys say that his terminal illness is already killing him, urging the board to simply let it run its course. His life expectancy, said attorney Eric Zuckerman, is only five to six years. 

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Zuckerman also pointed to problems with the original trial, citing an affidavit from Utah 3rd District Judge Raymond Uno, who in 2010 wrote that there likely wasn’t enough evidence of torture in the murder to actually sentence Menzies to death. Instead, Uno wrote, Menzies should have received a life sentence. 

And, the death sentence relied in part on false testimony from a fellow inmate, who told prosecutors Menzies said killing Hunsaker was “one of the greatest thrills of my life.” The inmate later admitted to making up that statement, in an attempt to strike a deal with federal authorities. 

“This is why this board exists. You have the power to act. You have the power to make sure that Utah does not execute a disabled man with dementia, which it’s never before done. You have the power to make sure that Utah does not execute a man whose sentence was obtained through perjury,” said Zuckerman. “But for perjured testimony relied on in both phases of the trial, we would not be here today. Without it, Mr. Menzies likely would not have been sentenced to death.” 

Thomas Brunker, a longtime prosecutor with the Utah Attorney General’s Office, addressed the board during the state’s final argument, telling them that while he didn’t dispute Menzies’ dementia diagnosis, they dispute the severity of his mental decline.

Brunker also said courts have pushed back on the arguments made in Uno’s affidavit — and that despite a Salt Lake County Conviction Integrity Unit finding issues with Menzies’ sentencing, it would be unprecedented to offer him clemency based on their report (the unit issued a report several years ago that found the death sentence “lacks integrity”). 

“When Menzies was sentenced to death for what he did to Maurine, a promise was made to the people of the state and, more importantly, to Maurine’s family, to vindicate the wrongs Menzies inflicted when he took Maurine’s life. That promise has remained unfulfilled for 37 years,” Brunker said. 

It’s unclear when the board will rule. Matt Hunsaker, who is currently traveling, asked them to wait until at least Tuesday to make their announcement.