Maurine Hunsaker didn't see death coming.
Ralph LeRoy Menzies kidnapped her from a Kearns gas station late one night in 1986. The next morning, he strangled her.But Menzies' dance with death has lasted more than eight years and may last twice that long before he is finally executed for Hun-saker's murder, said Assistant Utah Attorney General Fred Voros. "William Andrews' appeals lasted 17 years. He was our last execution," he reminded re-port-ers.
Menzies evaded death again Wed-nesday, fending off a June 2 execution date.
Third District Judge Leslie Lewis stayed the execution so another judge can review Menzies' latest appeal. State attorneys did not object to the stay, noting that Menzies has raised new issues in his lengthy appeal that weren't raised in his two previous appeals.
But Hunsaker's parents object. They sat silently through the hearing, as they have done through each court proceeding for their daughter's killer.
When Lewis ruled, their disappointment was keen. "It's been nine years. We were hoping it would be over with," said Betty Sudweeks, Hunsaker's mother.
She is bitter about the chances Menzies is getting; chances her daughter didn't get. "Maurine had a very lovely family and a husband she adored. She had everything to live for. Mr. Menzies snuffed that out all at once. I just wish he had given her all the opportunities to live that he wants for himself."
The Utah Supreme Court has rejected two of Menzies' appeals, allowing his conviction and death penalty to stand. But Voros predicted Menzies' case could go before the Utah Supreme Court again, then to the U.S. Supreme Court, back down to the federal court, to the federal appeals court then back to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"We will then have finished a full round of state and federal appeals," he said.
Betty Sudweeks will be there for all of them. "She'll do it - as long as it takes," said Rodney Sud-weeks, her husband.
In his latest appeal, Menzies said his attorney, Brooke Wells, provided inadequate assistance in his case. Wells and state prosecutors failed to investigate his alibi for the murder. Voros dismissed that claim. "I have no reason to believe there is an alibi," he said.