By Mrs. Eileen Hunter — about the author. Posted August 8, 2026. Last updated August 9, 2026.
The claim
Two of the three witnesses — Vaccara Comanche and Clarence Kennedy — testified that they overheard Mr. Hunter confess. Neither said he heard it in a cell or across a table. Both said they heard it through a window, with Mr. Hunter outside on the recreation yard and Glen Dale Nelson inside a Pod 10 cell.
Comanche testified the conversation lasted about ten minutes, and that Mr. Hunter “had to kind of shout so Glen Dale would be able to hear him.” (Comanche statement, July 20, 2001; trial testimony.)
Everything the State proved about Mr. Hunter’s presence at 221 Greenwood Drive passed through that window.
What the record shows about the window
Before trial, the defense asked the jury to see it. Counsel filed a Motion for Jury to View the Ouachita Correctional Center, arguing that because of “Mr. Hunter’s isolation from the general population and the construction of the Correctional Center… it is improbable that the witness[es] heard what they claim they may have heard.” The motion described the window as a “protective double-plated glass window.”
The trial court deferred ruling on the motion, “depending on the evidence elicited at the time of testimony as to whether this would be relevant.” There is no indication in the record that the court ever ruled. The jury was never taken to view Pod 10. (Motion for Jury View; trial record.)
No guard corroborated it. Captain Harris testified that he checked the jail logs and records and spoke with officers, and that “none of the guards from our facility” could corroborate having seen Mr. Hunter “talking to anybody at the window.” Captain Baker testified that cameras covered the entire recreation yard and that six to nine deputies were responsible for supervising it. (Trial testimony of Captain Harris and Captain Baker.)
No inmate outside the group corroborated it. No inmate other than Comanche and Kennedy testified to having seen or heard the conversation. (Trial record.)
The yard logs were never produced. Captain Baker testified that the administration kept a record log of the times inmates were on the yard. Neither the records nor testimony about them was produced at trial. (Trial testimony of Captain Baker.)
The 2022 affidavits
In December 2022, two men who had been housed on Pod 10 — Willie Campbell and Keith Davis — swore affidavits. Both stated they did not know Mr. Hunter and had no interest in his case, and volunteered only to answer questions about the pod.
Campbell swore that “if a person in the yard were to attempt to speak to a person in Pod 10, the two people could not communicate quietly or even discretely. Everyone, including Security and others nearby could hear,” and that the “glass in the window is really thick. You can’t hear through the glass…. It would be impossible to fully understand one another if one person is in the yard and the other in Pod 10…” Davis swore that “if a person in the yard were to attempt to speak to a person in Pod 10, it would be impossible to have a quiet conversation. Everyone, including Security and others nearby could hear,” that the “glass in the window is thick,” that “[y]ou can’t hear through that glass,” and that “[i]t would be impossible to fully understand one another if one person is in the yard and the other in Pod 10.” (Affidavits of Willie Campbell and Keith Davis, December 2022, Exhibits E and F to the application for post-conviction relief filed December 30, 2022.)
Jody Rucks — the inmate Clarence Kennedy named at trial as asleep on the bunk beside him during the conversation Kennedy claimed to overhear — swore that he “would, and could never have slept through an argument loud enough to be heard through the window in that area,” and “can’t even imagine being able to hear anything outside.” He also swore he was asked to join a scheme against Mr. Hunter and refused; that account is set out on the jailhouse informants page. (Affidavit of Jody Rucks, May 7, 2022, Exhibit C to the application for post-conviction relief filed December 30, 2022.)
What was never done
A Motion for Subpoena Duces Tecum to obtain the architect’s window specifications was filed on September 8, 2022 and denied on October 26, 2022. (Motion and Order, 4th JDC.)
The other half
The Second Circuit affirmed. It did not disturb the jury’s acceptance of the informants’ accounts, holding that the defense had full cross-examination rights and that the jury heard the witnesses’ prior convictions and their potential for favorable treatment. State v. Hunter, No. 39,664-KA (La. App. 2 Cir. 6/29/05), 907 So. 2d 200.
No court has yet made a finding that the conversation was acoustically impossible. The affidavits above are sworn statements offered in post-conviction proceedings; they have not been credited by a court, and the applications in which they were offered were denied.
Our view
The site’s own analysis.
In our view this is the most testable claim in the case, and it has never been tested. A jury view was requested and never ruled on. An acoustic expert was never retained. The architect’s window specifications were subpoenaed and the subpoena was denied. The yard logs that would have shown whether Mr. Hunter was outside at all existed, and were not produced.
A measurement would settle it in an afternoon. Twenty-four years on, nobody has been permitted to take one.