State of Arizona, Appellee v. Aaron Brian Gunches, Appellant

Summary

The court affirmed Gunches’s kidnapping and first-degree murder convictions and the presumptive kidnapping sentence. It held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding Gunches competent to waive counsel and represent himself, but concluded that insufficient evidence supported the finding that the murder was especially heinous or depraved under the gratuitous-violence theory. Because the erroneous aggravating-circumstance finding may have contributed to the death verdict, the court vacated the death sentence and remanded for a new penalty phase.