ORLANDO, Fla. (Court TV) — A Florida judge denied a request from a convicted serial killer to speak in court as she sentenced him to death on Tuesday.
Demorris Hunter appears at his sentencing on Aug. 4, 2026. (Court TV)
A jury convicted Demorris Hunter, 60, of first-degree murder and theft in the death of Theresa Ann Green, 38, who was strangled and left in the trunk of her car.
“Demorris Andy Hunter, you have not only forfeited your right to dwell among us as a free man, but by your actions and under the law of the State of Florida, you have forfeited your right to live, as well,” Judge Lisa Munyon said as she handed down the sentence Tuesday morning.
Green was last seen alive with Hunter, who lived in her apartment building, and fellow residents on May 26, 2002. The neighbors, who had hosted a party, said they saw both the victim and the defendant fall down the stairs after leaving; after the fall, the pair got up and went into the victim’s apartment.
Investigators found Green’s car outside a Walgreens; in the trunk, they found the victim wrapped in an unknown material. A medical examiner ruled Green’s cause of death a homicide by manual strangulation.
At Hunter’s trial, prosecutors said the victim and the defendant had been dating, but that Hunter had lied to Green about his real name and his past, which included violent crimes in California. When Hunter was eventually brought to trial for Green’s death in Florida, he had already been convicted of two homicides in California, where he was sentenced to 110 years in prison.
The same jury that convicted Hunter in April unanimously decided that he should face the death penalty. In a final sentencing memorandum filed with the court, Hunter’s defense pleaded for his life, arguing that the circumstantial nature of the prosecution’s case left room for doubt about the defendant’s guilt.
Hunter’s attorney briefly addressed the court at Tuesday’s hearing, saying his client wished to speak. “That was done at the Spencer hearing, and I will not take any further evidence at this time,” Munyon said, declining the request.
At the June hearing, Hunter addressed the court, declaring his innocence. “This case was not investigated thoroughly as it should have been because I was already a wanted man in the state of California and I came here. I didn’t do anything here that I was accused of stuff here,” he said. Hunter continued in a rambling statement, declaring that prosecutors had introduced forged documents and that witnesses had changed their stories.
“May God have mercy on your soul,” Munyon said as she ordered Hunter to be put to death.
