By Mrs. Eileen Hunter — about the author.
On January 31, 2012, Glen Dale Nelson — the man Vaccara Comanche and Clarence Kennedy each said they overheard talking with Tony Hunter — signed an affidavit. The application filed March 26, 2026 quotes it: “It was a jailhouse c[o]nning scheme organized by my friends Vaccarra Comanche and Clarence Kennedy to get a conviction for the state against our enemy, Tony Hunter.” (Application for Post-Conviction Relief, Statement of Facts.) (Full transcription.)
The affidavit, as transcribed from the filed scan, says the scheme was set up “so they could get help from [th]e Distr[ict] Attorney’s Off[i]ce for [their] charges,” and gives a reason Nelson did not testify: “I did not [testify] because Hu[n]ter’s a[tt]orneys nor investigator interviewed me about the t[r]iple homicide.” The Nelson file quotes it: “me and Tony Hunter have never had a discussion about the triple homicide.” (The Nelson file.)
The affidavit became the basis of Mr. Hunter’s third application for post-conviction relief, filed January 28, 2013. The Motion to Reconsider of June 4, 2026 describes that application: it “alleged, in pertinent part, that Mr. Hunter was factually innocent and that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate and present evidence regarding Glen Dale Nelson, the alleged jailhouse-confession participant.” The district court denied it on May 29, 2013, without an evidentiary hearing. (Motion to Reconsider · procedural history.)
The same affidavit was filed again in 2026 as Exhibit 1. The district court treated the Nelson materials as cumulative; the supervisory writ filed July 9, 2026 assigns that as error, stating that the 2026 Nelson interview “contains substantive facts that appear nowhere in the 2012 affidavit.” (The writ application.)
The other half: trial prosecutor Michael Ruddick swore an affidavit stating he did not call Nelson because “he was totally unreliable, and it appeared he would say anything that he thought would help him with his various legal problems.” (Ruddick affidavit, December 19, 2012.) No court has credited this affidavit; the applications presenting it were denied without evidentiary hearings. Nelson’s 2026 interview gives a further account of the trial period: he said his lawyers came to him the week the trial started “because they was like, the DA wanted me to testify,” read him Comanche’s and Kennedy’s statements, “and that’s why I took the Fifth.” (The 2026 interview · what he said in 2026.)
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