Why the State Called Its Own Central Figure “Totally Unreliable”

By Mrs. Eileen Hunter — about the author.

The State’s theory required Glen Dale Nelson: he was the man to whom Tony Hunter allegedly confessed through the jail window. Yet the State never called him. Years later, trial prosecutor Michael Ruddick explained under oath: 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; the Nelson file.)

The courts knew him too: in State v. Stokes, the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed Nelson’s exclusion as a witness, noting the district judge “totally discredited the testimony of Nelson.” So the jury convicted on two men’s claims about a conversation whose only other participant was a man both sides considered unusable — and who has sworn, in 2012 and again in 2026, that it never happened.

The other half: Nelson’s unreliability cuts against his recantations exactly as it cut against his usefulness to the State — which is why this site publishes his statements with their full history rather than adopting them. No court has held a hearing on any of it.