LAYTON, Utah, Nov. 23, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — A sentencing date has been set for a Layton man who has pleaded guilty and mentally ill to the murder of a woman he met through a dating app.
Ethan Robert Hunsaker, 26, is scheduled for an in-person sentencing on Jan. 12.
Hunsaker called Layton police in May 24, 2020 to report he had killed a woman he met hours earlier.
“During the recorded 911 call, Ethan told dispatchers that he had just killed someone,” Hunsaker’s probable cause statement says. “”Ethan stated to dispatch he ‘did not know’ the person he had just killed, but had met the victim on a dating application called Tinder.”
The victim was 25-year-old Ashlyn Black. The two had agreed to meet at a bar, then Hunsaker took Black to his Layton residence, where he choked her and stabbed her before calling police.
First responders attempted lifesaving efforts, but Black was deceased at the scene.
“Ethan has several mental health issues,” the original Layton police statement says. “Ethan has recently thought of ways to kill and kidnap others. He stated the date was a normal date and there had been no argument with the victim that would cause him to kill her. Also expressed the desire to have police kill him.”
Hunsaker pleaded guilty and mentally ill on June 29 of this year. He underwent a court-ordered mental health evaluation, and the report was presented to Third District Judge David Connors at a Nov. 17 evidentiary hearing.
The examiner found that Hunsaker “currently suffers from Major Depressive Disorder, recurrent, with psychotic features, as well as a Generalized Anxiety Disorder,” according to court records.
The judge accepted the evaluation’s findings, clearing the way for Hunsaker’s Jan. 12 sentencing.
