ORLANDO, Fla. (Court TV) — A witness delivered shocking testimony in a murder trial on Monday, admitting that she had lied to the police for years about her husband’s involvement.
Demorris Hunter appears in court on the first day of his trial, April 6, 2026. (Court TV)
Demorris Hunter, 59, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and theft in the death of Theresa Ann Green, 38. Green was found in the trunk of her own vehicle, parked outside of a Walgreens, in 2002. At the time of her death, Green and Hunter lived in the same apartment building.
The night Green was last seen, she and Hunter attended a get-together at another apartment in the building, occupied by Joyce Butler and Joseph Butler. Joseph Butler testified on Monday that Hunter had reached out to him the next morning and asked him to help move the victim’s car. Joseph Butler said Hunter gave him the keys to a van to drive while the defendant drove Green’s vehicle. Joseph Butler testified that he never saw Green and had no idea she was dead in the trunk.
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Joyce Butler also testified that Hunter had come to their apartment in the morning and asked her husband for help. But she admitted she initially lied to the police, telling them that when Hunter called, he said that Theresa’s car was in Sanford, Florida. Joyce Butler told the Court she had lied because she didn’t want the police to know that her husband had been involved.
Later, in depositions, Joyce Butler conceded that her husband had gone with Hunter to drive to Walgreens that morning, but had maintained for the last 24 years that she and Joseph Butler never spoke about Green. That changed on Monday, when she testified that her husband actually told her that Hunter had said to him, “I messed up,” and expressed concern that something had happened to Green. “I told him I don’t want to hear what happened,” Joyce Butler testified. Hunter’s defense pressed her on the issue, noting her original story was, “I don’t know anything about that.”
The medical examiner ruled Green’s death a homicide caused by manual strangulation. She was found wrapped in material in the trunk of the car that Hunter had parked outside Walgreens.
Hunter has previously been convicted of two other homicides in California where he is serving a 110-year sentence. If convicted of Green’s death, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in Florida.
