By Mrs. Eileen Hunter — about the author. Posted August 11, 2026.
Every murder weapon tells a account of custody: who owned it, who had it, where it went. In this case, that trail is one of the strongest threads in the record — and none of it runs through Tony Hunter.
What the State said
The State told the jury the .22 caliber pistol was the weapon that killed Levi Williams and the two boys — and, through its informants, that it belonged to Tony Hunter’s world. Vaccara Comanche testified he heard Mr. Hunter say the gun was in “the same spot I been having for years,” as if it were a long-held personal possession. The prosecution’s own opening, however, conceded it had “no evidence that linked it to Tony Hunter.” (State’s opening, R. 1623–1628; Comanche trial testimony.)
What the record shows
- The recovery: on March 17, 2001 — a week after the killings — Monroe police recovered the .22 caliber murder weapon from a median off Highway 165, discarded, as the filings put it, “as if hurriedly thrown out of a car window.” (R. 207, 2063–64.)
- The trace: the serial number led to Randall Smith, who had given the gun to his son Corey Smith. Corey reported it stolen from his truck at the Library Lounge; he never filed a police report because he lacked the serial number. (R. 207.)
- The fingerprints: “there were no latent [fingerprints] on the weapon that would connect it to Tony Hunter.” (Tr. 100.)
- The note: a handwritten investigator’s note dated February 20, 2004 — disclosed with the DA’s file years after trial — recorded Corey Smith saying he had given his truck keys to his friend Keith Norman on the night of his January 11, 2001 arrest (verified by police report, 1:07 a.m.), and that he believed Norman traded the gun for drugs; the gun was missing from his glove box the next day. (Motion to Reconsider, procedural history.)
- The informants’ versions: Comanche claimed Mr. Hunter said the gun was in “the same spot I been having for years” — while it sat in an evidence locker, recovered from a public median. Wiggins named a .38 and a 9 millimeter. Kennedy heard no weapon at all. (The comparison.)
Why it matters
The gun is the one physical object that indisputably connects to the murders — and its documented trail runs from Corey Smith’s glove box through Keith Norman’s hands to a median, with no print, purchase, or possession tying it to Tony Hunter. The note pointing at another possessor became the centerpiece of the 2009 Brady/Kyles application. (Why that evidence is exculpatory.)
The other half: the 2009 application was denied without an evidentiary hearing, a federal petition was later dismissed as time-barred, and no court has ever ruled on the note’s implications on the merits. Keith Norman was never charged, and this site draws no conclusion about him — we report what the investigator’s note records Corey Smith saying, and where the courts left it. (Procedural history.)