On the morning of May 26, 2002, a man the residents of an Orlando apartment building knew as "Mike" knocked on a neighbor's door and asked for a favor. He gave Joseph Butler the keys to a white van and asked him to drive it behind him while he took a car to a parking lot. The car belonged to Theresa Ann Green, a 38-year-old woman who lived in the same building and had been at a party in the Butlers' apartment a few hours earlier. Butler followed. The car was left outside a Walgreens. The next day Green was reported missing, and that evening police found her body in the trunk.
"Mike" was DeMorris Andy Hunter. According to reporting on the case, he had arrived in Orlando about two months earlier, after a killing in Oakland, California, for which he was wanted. He left Central Florida soon after Green's death. He was later convicted in the Oakland case and sentenced to 110 years. Florida prosecutors did not charge him with Green's death until 2014, and his trial did not begin until 2026, almost twenty-four years after she died. In April 2026 an Orange County jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, and in August a judge sentenced him to death. Under Florida law that conviction and sentence go to the state's Supreme Court for review, and as of the August 2026 sentencing reports that review had not been decided.
Very little about Hunter's early life appears in the public record that could be found for this page. Most of it comes from the penalty phase of his Florida trial in April 2026, when his lawyers called relatives and old friends to give jurors, in the words of FOX 35's report, a chance to "see another side of Demorris Hunter."
His cousin, Alfred Costa, told the jury Hunter had been kind and playful, like an older brother. Lanice Long, a former classmate, and Chevron Long, a friend, described him as close and joyful, someone who was like family. Chevron Long said the death of Hunter's mother had affected him. A childhood friend described a difficult upbringing, according to WKMG. Florence Alexander, who knew him, called him a nice and respectable young man. Family members said they had never seen him be aggressive.
His daughter, Daerris Hunter, also testified. She told the jury she had no memories of her father outside of jail but had kept up a relationship with him. She said she loved him and wanted him to live, and as she left the stand she blew him a kiss.
His age is reported inconsistently. Florida news outlets gave it as 59 throughout the 2026 trial; Court TV gave it as 60 at the August 2026 sentencing; News 13 gave it as 49 in February 2015. No source opened for this page gives his date or place of birth.
Hunter's California record is the least clearly documented part of the case, and the sources that describe it do not agree with each other.
During the 2026 penalty phase, prosecutors in Orlando presented evidence of his criminal history, which WKMG described as dating back decades. Court TV reported that a prosecutor, John Brouhard, testified on April 13, 2026, about a conviction for the killing of Cesar Guzman, 18, in January 1985. WFTV reported that Hunter had been convicted of separate murders in California in 1985 and 2002. Court TV's reports say he had been convicted of two homicides in California. Prosecutors in Orlando called him a serial killer during the penalty phase, according to FOX 35, and said he had multiple prior murder convictions. No source opened for this page gives the place of the 1985 killing, the court that convicted him, or the sentence.
A witness in the Orlando investigation told police that "Mike" had said he had killed a friend in Oakland and had served 15 years in prison, according to an Orlando Police arrest affidavit described by FOX 35. The affidavit is the source of that account; the time Hunter actually served for the 1985 case is not documented in any source opened here.
The killing that brought him to Florida took place in Oakland in 2002. CBS Miami, with the Associated Press, reported in 2015 that Hunter was serving a life sentence for a March 2002 killing of a woman in Oakland. WFTV and FOX 35 reported that he was wanted for the Oakland murder about two months before Green's death. Court TV reported that the van's owner, Henry Fields, told police Hunter had recently come from Oakland and had confided that he committed a murder there, and that police said the victim was a longtime friend of Hunter's girlfriend. FOX 35 reported that he is serving a life sentence for killing a friend in California.
Several WKMG reports in 2026 described the California sentence as being for "the 2005 murder of another woman." One WKMG report, from April 13, 2026, said instead that he was sentenced to 110 years in 2005. Since every other source places the Oakland killing in 2002, the likelier reading is that 2005 is the year of the sentence, not of the killing. No source opened gives the Oakland victim's name, the details of the crime, or the Alameda County court record. The Florida State Attorney's Office, in each of its releases, said only that Hunter was serving a 110-year sentence for a separate murder in Oakland.
Theresa Ann Green was 38 years old in May 2002. She lived in an apartment building in College Park, a neighborhood of Orlando, and she had a 13-year-old son, Octavius Hayes. Her name is spelled Teresa in some reports, including the 2015 Associated Press account and an April 2026 WFTV story; the State Attorney's Office uses Theresa.
The sources that could be found say little else about her life. FOX 35 reported that police began looking for her after she missed work. Her son, who now has children of his own, wrote a statement for the court in 2026 that was read aloud by a representative of the State Attorney's Office. "While other children were leaning on their mothers for guidance, I was forced to navigate the most formative years of my life in the shadow of her absence," he wrote. "Every milestone I have reached since then has been bittersweet, marked by the hollowed space where she should have been standing." WKMG reported that the statement described the loss of a mother, of his children's grandmother, and of two decades of peace.
Hunter had been living in the same building for about two months. Prosecutors said at trial that Green and Hunter had been dating and that he had lied to her about his name and his past, which included violent crimes in California, according to Court TV.
The account of the night that follows is the prosecution's, drawn from witness testimony and an Orlando Police arrest affidavit, and it is the account the jury accepted. Hunter has denied killing Green.
Joyce and Joseph Butler, who lived in the building, held a party in their apartment. Court TV dates it to the night of May 25, 2002, running into the early hours of May 26; the State Attorney's Office gives May 26. Prosecutors said Green was last seen at about 2:30 a.m., when the party ended.
According to witnesses and the arrest affidavit, as summarized by FOX 35, Green became upset with a neighbor at the party and hit him. Hunter stepped in, and he and Green fell down the stairs together. Witnesses said neither was hurt. Green and Hunter then went into her apartment. A woman who had been at the party told police she saw Hunter go into Green's apartment and heard the two of them arguing.
Some hours later, Hunter came to the Butlers' door. Joseph Butler testified that Hunter asked him to help move Green's car, gave him the keys to a white van, and drove Green's Oldsmobile himself while Butler followed. Hunter left the car outside a Walgreens in Sanford, north of Orlando, and rode away with Butler. Butler told the court Hunter had said he "did something really bad," and that he did not want to hear more. Butler said he never saw Green that morning and did not know she was in the trunk. Court TV reported that the van belonged to Henry Fields.
Green was reported missing from her home to the Orlando Police Department on May 27, 2002, according to the Associated Press. Sanford police found her car at the Walgreens, and her body was in the trunk, wrapped in fabric or another material. The Medical Examiner's Office ruled her death a homicide caused by manual strangulation; FOX 35 reported that the examiner noted trauma to her neck.
Investigators identified Hunter as a suspect after collecting evidence from Green's apartment and talking to neighbors, WFTV reported. Neighbors picked him out of a lineup. FOX 35, citing the arrest affidavit, reported that a witness told police an acquaintance in Oakland had asked him to pick up "Mike" in Orlando, and that he had helped "Mike" get a job there. Orlando police checked with the Oakland Police Department and confirmed that Hunter had an active warrant.
By then he was gone. WFTV reported that he left Central Florida shortly after Green's death and that her case went unresolved for years.
How and where Hunter was taken into custody in 2002 is not described in any source opened for this page. WFTV and FOX 35 report that he has been in custody since 2002. He was returned to California, convicted in the Oakland case, and sentenced to 110 years in prison, reportedly in 2005.
The Florida case stayed open. An Orange County grand jury indicted Hunter for Green's murder in 2014, according to WKMG; other WKMG reports date the indictment to 2015. In early February 2015 he was transferred from a California prison to the Orange County Jail. On a Friday that month, the office of Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Jeff Ashton filed notice that it would seek the death penalty, News 13 and CBS Miami reported. He was arraigned on the capital murder charge on February 18, 2015, WFTV reported.
He then spent more than eleven years in the Orange County Jail awaiting trial. WKMG reported that the case was delayed by problems related to COVID-19 and later by a heart attack Hunter suffered. By the time the case came to trial, it was being prosecuted by the office of the State Attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, Bill Gladson.
Jury selection began on March 30, 2026, in Orlando before Circuit Judge Lisa T. Munyon. Hunter, then 59, had pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and theft. The prosecutors were Richard Buxman, chief of homicide prosecution for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, and Assistant State Attorney Kenneth Nunnelley.
Opening statements were given on April 6. The defense told jurors that alcohol and a chaotic fight had played a part in the night's events, that Hunter had nothing to do with Green's death, and that the Butlers were involved. It also argued that there were no signs of manual strangulation.
The first day's witnesses were Joseph and Joyce Butler, Lisa Moore, Green's son Octavius Hayes, Roy Filipucci, Douglas Thomas, Marissa Kuzma and Howard Keuhn, according to Court TV. Hayes told the court that when he came home he found the apartment in disarray.
Joyce Butler's testimony was the most contested. She had first told police that when Hunter called, he said Green's car was in Sanford. On the stand she said that had been a lie, told because she did not want police to know her husband was involved. In depositions she had admitted that her husband drove to the Walgreens with Hunter that morning, but for about twenty-four years she had maintained that she and her husband never discussed Green. On April 6 she changed that account. She testified that her husband told her Hunter had said "I messed up," and that he was worried something had happened to Green. "I told him I don't want to hear what happened," she said. The defense pointed out that her original statement to police had been "I don't know anything about that."
On April 7 the jury heard from police officers, a firefighter, an arson investigator, a K9 officer and a DNA analyst from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Kirsten Kevin. A former arson investigator testified about a van found burned in Texas, a fire he said had been set deliberately; Court TV's account does not say how the van was connected to the case or to Hunter. Two forensic pathologists disagreed about the cause of death. Dr. Gary Utz testified that Green had been strangled. Dr. Jonathan Arden, called by the defense, said the cause of death should have been classified as undetermined. Both sides rested that day.
Closing arguments were heard on April 8. After about seven hours of deliberation, according to WFTV, the jury found Hunter guilty of first-degree murder. Court TV reported that he was also convicted of theft.
The penalty phase began on April 13. A prosecutor told jurors that Hunter had put his hands around Green's throat and "squeezed the life out of her." Prosecutors called expert witnesses to describe his criminal history, among them John Brouhard, who testified about the 1985 California case, and Adria Gharati, a senior latent print examiner. Octavius Hayes's statement was read to the jury.
The defense called Hunter's cousin, his former classmates and friends, and his daughter, who described the man they knew. In closing, prosecutors asked jurors to consider Hunter's repeated violence and its effect on victims and their families, and asked how many people he would have to kill before it was enough. The defense argued that life in prison would still hold him accountable and that a person is more than the worst thing he has done.
On April 14 the jury unanimously recommended a sentence of death. Under Florida law as it stood in 2026, a death recommendation requires at least eight jurors; any aggravating factor must be found unanimously.
"These past two weeks have been grueling for the family and friends of the victim," State Attorney Gladson said. "Reliving the events that occurred on the night Green's life was taken has been nothing short of tragic."
On June 1, 2026, Judge Munyon held a Spencer hearing, the stage at which a Florida defendant facing death can present further mitigating evidence to the judge. Hunter spoke at that hearing. According to Court TV, he declared his innocence and said the case had not been properly investigated because he was already a wanted man in California. He said prosecutors had used forged documents and that witnesses had changed their stories. The judge asked both sides to file sentencing recommendations by July 1. The defense's final memorandum asked her to spare his life, arguing that the prosecution's case was largely circumstantial and left room for doubt about his guilt.
On August 4, 2026, Hunter's lawyer told the court that his client wished to speak again. Munyon declined, saying his statement had been heard at the Spencer hearing and she would take no further evidence. In her written order she concluded that "death, as recommended by the jury, is the appropriate sentence," FOX 35 reported. "Demorris Andy Hunter, you have not only forfeited your right to dwell among us as a free man," she told him, according to Court TV, and closed with "May God have mercy on your soul."
"I see no other punishment fitting for this defendant who ruthlessly took the life of Theresa Green," Gladson said after the hearing.
None of the reports opened for this page describe the aggravating factors or mitigating circumstances the judge found in her written order.
As of the August 4, 2026 sentencing reports, Hunter was under a sentence of death in Florida for the murder of Theresa Green, and no execution date had been set, WFTV reported. Florida law makes a judgment of conviction and sentence of death subject to automatic review by the Supreme Court of Florida, with a decision due within two years after the notice of appeal is filed. No source opened for this page reports the filing of that appeal or any ruling, so the Florida conviction should be treated as not yet final.
He also remains under the 110-year sentence imposed in California for the Oakland murder. Where he is being held as of October 2026 was not confirmed for this page.
Guilt in the Green case. The jury convicted Hunter, but he maintains he is innocent, and the conviction is under automatic review. The prosecution's case, as the defense described it, was largely circumstantial. Its central witnesses were the Butlers, and Joyce Butler admitted at trial that she had lied to police for years and changed her account on the stand. The defense's pathologist disputed that Green was strangled. These were matters for the jury, which accepted the prosecution's account, and they may be raised on appeal.
The number of California killings. The Florida State Attorney's Office refers to one Oakland murder. Court TV and WFTV report two California homicide convictions, and Court TV names Cesar Guzman, killed in 1985. The prosecution called Hunter a serial killer at the penalty phase. Neither the 1985 case nor the Oakland case could be checked in a California court record or a California news report for this page, so their details rest on Florida reporting of what was said in an Orlando courtroom.
The date of the Oakland case. CBS Miami and the Associated Press give March 2002; WKMG gives 2005 in several reports, which appears to be the year of the sentence.
The date of the party. Court TV places the party on the night of May 25, 2002; the State Attorney's Office gives May 26. Green was reported missing on May 27.
The burned van. A van found burned in Texas was discussed in testimony; no source opened explains its connection to the case.
January 1985: Cesar Guzman, 18, is killed in California; a California prosecutor testified in 2026 that Hunter was convicted of the killing (per Court TV).
March 2002: A woman described as a longtime friend of Hunter's girlfriend is killed in Oakland, California (per CBS Miami/AP). Hunter is wanted for the killing.
About March 2002: Hunter arrives in Orlando and moves into Green's apartment building, where neighbors know him as "Mike."
May 25-26, 2002: Party at the Butlers' apartment; Green is last seen at about 2:30 a.m. Hours later Hunter drives her car to a Walgreens in Sanford while Joseph Butler follows in a van.
May 27, 2002: Green is reported missing; her body is found in the trunk of her car that evening.
2002: Hunter is taken into custody (date and place not reported in sources opened).
2005: Sentenced in California to 110 years for the Oakland murder (per WKMG).
2014: Indicted in Orange County for Green's murder (per WKMG).
February 2015: Extradited to Florida; State Attorney Jeff Ashton files notice of intent to seek death; arraigned February 18.
March 30, 2026: Jury selection begins before Judge Lisa T. Munyon.
April 6-8, 2026: Trial; jury finds Hunter guilty of first-degree murder and theft.
April 13-14, 2026: Penalty phase; jury unanimously recommends death.
June 1, 2026: Spencer hearing; Hunter declares his innocence.
August 4, 2026: Munyon sentences Hunter to death.
As of the August 4, 2026 sentencing reports: the conviction and sentence are subject to automatic review by the Supreme Court of Florida; no ruling reported.