SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah man who was spared execution this fall after developing dementia during his 37 years on death row died Wednesday of apparent natural causes, according to the state’s Department of Corrections.

Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was set to die by firing squad in September, but the Utah Supreme Court blocked the impending execution in August after his attorneys argued his dementia had become too severe. A judge had scheduled a new competency hearing for mid-December to reevaluate his mental state.

Menzies was convicted of abducting Maurine Hunsaker in 1986 from a convenience store near Salt Lake City where she worked and killing her. The body of the 26-year-old mother of three was discovered two days later.

“Maurine Hunsaker was a cherished wife and mother whose life wa

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