Utah husband DeWayne McCulla admits to trying to kill his wife in front of her family to ‘ease her suffering’ in hospice
A Utah man admitted that he tried to kill his terminally ill wife in hospice care in front of her family to “ease her suffering” during his battle with cancer.
DeWayne McCulla, 46, pleaded guilty to attempted manslaughter on Thursday after he accepted a deal from prosecutors for choking his wife, Arenda McCulla, 47, according to court documents.
Arenda McCulla had been diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma breast cancer in 2020.
In October 2021, the cancer had spread to Arenda’s neck, brain, lungs, and liver, and she was considered terminal, according to a GoFundMe page set up by her son, Anthony Ryder.
Despite undergoing multiple rounds of radiation in a last-ditch effort to battle the fatal sickness, she was placed in hospice care at her home in La Verkin, a small town in southwest Utah.
Arenda McCulla suffered from “radiation burns that caused open sores and blisters in her throat making it impossible to eat,” her son posted in an update on Dec. 14, 2021, six days before his mother’s death.
DeWayne McCulla and six family members were sitting by Arenda’s side on Dec. 20, 2021, when he began choking her, according to a probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by The Post.
The distraught husband needed to be pulled off of his terminally ill wife by several family members, who reported to investigators that she was “gasping for air” while being choked.
Arenda died from her long battle with the illness the next night.
“She didn’t die with dignity,” Ryder told KSL in December.
Ryder filed a police report in 2022 regarding McCulla’s actions and an investigation was launched.
A La Verkin police officer recounted in the arrest affidavit that McCulla admitted to attempting to end his wife’s life while she was in hospice.
“During the conversation with DeWayne McCulla, he admitted to placing his hand over the victim Arenda’s neck in an attempt to ease her suffering as she was dying from cancer and was on hospice,” detectives wrote in the court documents.
“He said he put his face up against hers and put his one hand around her neck next to her carotid artery and pushed just hard enough to help her suffering and make her pass away quicker.”
The husband admitted to investigators that family members pulled him away, but “he would do this again because he loved his wife.”
In December, McCulla was charged with attempted murder and was facing up to 15 years to life in prison if found guilty, according to state law.
However, he pleaded guilty to attempted manslaughter — a third-degree felony — on Thursday in Utah’s Fifth District Court, according to court documents.
McCulla now faces up to five years in state prison. His sentencing hearing is set for Dec. 12.
Ryder told KSL that he opposed the plea deal.
He plans to address the court during the sentencing hearing.
