Matt Gwyther lost his husband, Dennis Rowley Gwyther, in May 2019. He was murdered while traveling from Salt Lake City to Idaho on I-80. The 48-year-old Jonathan Mendoza Llana was charged and filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty in Box Elder County.
However, the case slowed soon after, because of uncertainty surrounding Jonathan’s mental state. They found him incompetent to go through trial and started to undergo treatment at Utah’s State Hospital to restore his mental health.
Matt Gwyther has been waiting for the competency review hearings, however “swift justice” didn’t seem to be as swift as it seemed. He said, “Swift is a matter of years, not a matter of months or weeks.”
Three hearings have already been moved or canceled just this year, reasons behind this being delays in the evaluation reports. They were either not finished or turned in late.
Just because it is a one-day event for the court does not make it the same for the family. Matt says, “It’s revictimizing the family by making us wait yet again.”
Mental Health Staffing Shortages
Superintendent, Dallas Earnshaw, at Utah’s State Hospital in Provo says that staffing is the number one issue creating this problem. He points out that the staff is always doing extra work, and “being behind is not a symptom of not caring.” It is also shown that there has been a 22% increase in referrals from courts for mental health evaluations since 2020.
It is difficult for the hospitals to retain qualified evaluators. This is something that not just Utah, but the whole country has been struggling with. While 60% of reports meet the timeline requirements, 33% of evaluations are being turned in late, past the 30-day deadline.
For Llana’s case this is a more rare occasion for it to be delayed since it has been so long. This could also be due to the complexities of the case and the hospital/nurses wanting to be as thorough as possible.
The solution is more challenging. It has not been confirmed yet if the request for additional funding to address the mental health staffing issue has made it to the governor, Spencer Cox.
– by McKynlee Cottam (17) Escalante
Feature image caption: Matt and Dennis Gwyther. Courtesy ksl.
McKynlee Cottam – Escalante
McKynlee Cottam is a junior writer, and sometimes editor, at The Byway. She is a senior at Escalante High School. This year she’s had the opportunity to be the school’s Student Body President and Miss Garfield’s Outstanding Teen. McKynlee loves to write about things that are going on in our county and world, as well as some fun out-of-hat pieces. She enjoys playing the violin, participating in basketball, and of course hanging out with her friends. The Byway has been a fun part of her life, and she hopes to keep contributing to it for some time!