By Mrs. Eileen Hunter — about the author. Posted August 11, 2026.
The complete dated chronology of State v. Hunter — built for journalists, researchers, attorneys and readers who need the case at a glance. Every entry comes from filed, unsealed records: the trial transcript, clerk’s minutes, sworn affidavits, forensic reports, and the published opinions. Deeper treatment of each subject is linked throughout.
Before the murders
| 2000-12-30 | A Monroe Police report documents Glen Dale Nelson firing two shots at Tony Hunter — the man later alleged to have received his jailhouse “confession.” The two were later placed on each other’s enemies lists in prison. (MPD OCA report; 2022 application.) |
2001 — the murders and the informants
| 2001-03-10 | Levi “Chico” Williams and two eleven-year-old boys, Jeremy Staten and Chavez Staten, are found fatally shot at 221 Greenwood Drive, Monroe. The case page reconstructs the night from the record. |
| ~2001-03-17 | The murder weapon — a .22 caliber semi-automatic — is recovered by Monroe police about a week after the killings, discarded on a median at a busy intersection. Nothing ties it to Mr. Hunter. The forensic record. |
| 2001-05-04 | Mr. Hunter is arrested and held at the Ouachita Parish Correctional Center. No physical evidence connects him to the scene. |
| 2001-06-12 | A KTVE television broadcast publicly names Mr. Hunter in connection with the case. Every informant statement comes after this broadcast — and after reward money was publicized. |
| 2001-06-20 | Sherry Hines gives investigators a statement relaying an account she attributed to Glen Dale Nelson. She is never called at trial. |
| 2001-07-20 | Vaccara Comanche contacts investigators offering information on “several” homicides and gives two recorded statements — one about Greenwood, one about an unrelated case. The informants page. |
| 2001-07-23 | Christopher Wiggins pleads to forgery: ten years. With five prior felonies including manslaughter, he faces life if the State files a multiple-offender bill. It never does. |
| 2001-07-26 | Glen Dale Nelson swears an affidavit recanting his earlier implication of Mr. Hunter in a different homicide — saying he gave false information “so [he] could go home.” |
| 2001-08-02 | Investigators seek out Wiggins — he did not come forward — and take his statement. |
| 2001-08-20 | Clarence Kennedy asks to speak to a deputy and gives his recorded statement. |
2002 — the pleas and the indictment
| 2002-01-30 | The Gene Screen forensic report is dated: it excludes Mr. Hunter from the scene, the victims, and the weapon. |
| 2002-02-02 | The State receives the report. |
| 2002-02 | Within weeks, Kennedy pleads to reduced first-degree robbery: 25 years with 20 suspended — a suspension La. R.S. 14:64.1 forbids — and his burglary charge is dismissed. At trial he testifies he received nothing. The disclosure claims. |
| 2002-02-20 | Comanche is sentenced: ten years (firearm) plus five consecutive (probation revocation). |
| 2002-03-05 | Comanche’s drug charge is dismissed — the minute entry citing a conviction and sentence in a case not yet sentenced. |
| 2002-04-15 | Comanche is sentenced on five burglaries (six years, concurrent). The habitual-offender bill is filed the same day. On the record, the judge says he was “kind of bought and paid for on this” and corrects the felony count the jury would later never hear: “You’re not a two-time felony offender.” |
| 2002-10-17 | Mr. Hunter is indicted for the Greenwood homicides. |
| 2002-11-25 | Comanche’s habitual-offender bill — potential life exposure — is dismissed without prejudice, thirty-nine days after the indictment. |
2004–2006 — trial and direct appeal
| 2004-11-19 | A jury convicts Mr. Hunter. He is sentenced to three life terms plus 49½ years. The State’s case: three jailhouse informants; no physical evidence. |
| 2005-06-29 | The Second Circuit affirms, describing the informants’ testimony as “the only evidence that directly linked Tony Hunter with the crime.” State v. Hunter, 907 So. 2d 200, 204. |
| 2006-03-10 | The Louisiana Supreme Court denies review. 925 So. 2d 507. |
2007–2014 — post-conviction, round one
| 2007-05-31 | First post-conviction application denied. |
| 2009-07-14 | Second application (Brady/Kyles claims) denied. A federal habeas petition is later dismissed as time-barred, leaving those claims without federal merits review. |
| 2012-01 | Nelson swears an affidavit calling the informants’ accounts “a jailhouse conning scheme organized by my friends Vaccara Comanche and Clarence Kennedy.” |
| 2012-12-19 | Trial prosecutor Michael Ruddick swears he did not call Nelson because Nelson “was totally unreliable.” |
| 2013-05-29 | Third application denied. |
| 2014-03-29 | Wiggins tells a defense investigator Mr. Hunter never confessed to him. |
| 2014 | Comanche, using the jail phones at Ouachita, directs a methamphetamine conspiracy; he is later convicted federally and sentenced to 151 months. U.S. v. Rogers, 708 F. App’x 178 (5th Cir. 2017). |
2022–2023 — the factual-innocence application
| 2022-05-07 | Jody Rucks — the man Kennedy placed in the room — swears he was asked to join a scheme against Mr. Hunter and refused. |
| 2022-07 | Wiggins tells a defense investigator he was asked to wear a wire, refused, was then asked to say he heard a confession — and that he has carried guilt about his testimony. |
| 2022-09 | Professor Robert M. Bloom of Boston College Law School is retained; his declaration is sworn December 21, 2022. His analysis. |
| 2022-12-30 | Application for post-conviction relief based on factual innocence is filed (La. C.Cr.P. art. 926.2). |
| 2023-02-01 | Denied. The Second Circuit denies writs June 1, 2023; the Louisiana Supreme Court denies November 21, 2023. |
2025–2026 — the current filings
| 2025-03-27 | Counsel obtains Comanche’s sentencing transcripts, clerk’s minutes and habitual-offender records — the documents behind the current claims. |
| 2026-02-27 | Nelson, in a recorded interview with counsel (certified transcript), again denies the confession ever happened. |
| 2026-03-26 | New application for post-conviction relief filed. |
| 2026-04-29 | Denied. Motion to reconsider filed June 4; denied June 9. |
| 2026-07-09 | Supervisory writ application filed in the Second Circuit — PENDING. The appeals page. |
Every entry above is cited to the record in the linked pages. If any date or fact here is wrong, our corrections policy applies — tell us, with a source, and we will fix it in public.