West Jordan • The 25-year legal saga of condemned killer Ralph Leroy Menzies continued Wednesday in 3rd District Court, as his latest defense attorneys tried to argue the man received inadequate representation from his lawyers who handled his murder case in the 1980s.
Menzies was convicted by a jury and sentenced to die for the 1986 kidnapping and slaying of Maurine Hunsaker, a 26-year-old mother of three. At the time of the murder, Menzies had been on parole for the 1978 shooting and robbery of a Salt Lake City cab driver.
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The now 53-year-old Menzies, who was not transported to Wednesday’s hearing, took Hunsaker from the convenience store where she worked, then tied her to a tree before he strangled her and slashed her throat.
He tried to appeal his conviction and death sentence, but both were upheld by the Utah Supreme Court in 1994. Menzies filed a second appeal in 3rd District Court in 2002, which a district court judge denied. But the Supreme Court later reinstated the appeal, citing "deplorable" work by Menzies’ attorney in the first appeal.
Menzies’ attorney then left the case and the appeal was delayed as several other attorneys refused to represent Menzies because of low-pay offered in the case. In 2009, attorneys Craig Peterson and Theodore Weckel agreed to represent Menzies.
Weckel is the 15th defense attorney on Menzies’ case.
Weckel argued before Judge Bruce Lubeck on Wednesday that Menzies’ attorney at his initial trial, Brooke Wells, who is now a U.S. magistrate, didn’t effectively cross-examine witnesses, including witness Tim Larabee.
Larabee, who was 18 in 1986, was at Storm Mountain, where the victim’s body was found. At trial, Larabee testified that he saw a man and a woman walking together and identified the man as Menzies. He said he heard a scream and that Menzies left the area alone.
But Weckel tried to argue that Larabee failed to disclose that he was being physically intimate with his girlfriend at the time he allegedly saw Menzies — which raises questions on how effectively Larabee would have been able to identify Menzies.
"These facts are prejudicial and we cannot say for sure that a jury would have convicted Mr. Menzies," Weckel said.
Assistant Attorney General Thomas Brunker argued that Menzies doesn’t qualify for post-conviction relief and said attorneys for Menzies keep trying to add claims as the case moves forward.
"Everything that Mr. Menzies has said is not enough to entitle him to relief," Brunker said. "[The case] has been unnecessarily prolonged."
Lubeck took arguments on several motions under advisement and will issue an opinion at a later date.
Hunsaker’s son Matt, who was 10 when his mother was murdered, attended Wednesday’s hearing and expressed frustration with the delays in Menzie’s case.
"It’s frivolous," Hunsaker said, comparing Menzies’ attempts to find a new post-conviction relief claim to "looking for a piece of sand in a haystack." The family, including Hunsaker’s grandparents, have missed only one of Menzies’ hearings in the past two decades.
"We’re confident [that] in the end we will prevail," Hunsaker said.
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