Ralph Leroy Menzies is pictured during a competency hearing in Third District Court in West Jordan, Utah, on November 18, 2024. Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune/AP 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 and killing 26-year-old mother of three Maurine Hunsaker near Sal

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