Always Laughing: How Demorris Hunter Hid a Serial Killer Behind a Friendly Face

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Everyone who knew Demoris Hunter described him the same way.

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Nice, respectable, always laughing.

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He was the guy parents were glad to have around.

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He was also a convicted killer who murdered two women across two states, stole the identity

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of a Washington D.C. executive to fund his life as a fugitive and left the 13-year-old boy

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waiting 24 years for someone to answer for his mother's death.

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At the 2026 trial, when lawyers called witnesses to talk about who Demoris Hunter was as a person,

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they all reached for the same words.

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He was respectable, who was very nice, always laughing.

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His cousin Alfred said that he was like an older brother, never aggressive, a day in his

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life.

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His childhood friend, Lenees, talked about how they'd been close ever since the seventh grade,

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the warmth in him.

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His neighbor Florence said he was a regular fixture in her home, the kind of young man parents

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were actively glad to have around their kids.

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None of these people were wrong, that version of Demoris Hunter was real, and the people

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describing him knew him very well.

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He was also a man who, by the time that testimony was delivered, had shot three people before

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he turned 19, served 13 years at Folsom Fort, walked out on parole, and then murdered two

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more women across two states in the span of about three months.

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Both of these people lived inside the same body at the same time, and figuring out how that

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works is basically the entire story.

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Demoris Andy Hunter was born April 18, 1966 in Oakland.

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Oakland in the late 60s through the 70s was a city under real economic strain.

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Industrial jobs were disappearing, communities were contracting, and the crack epidemic was

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still building towards something that was going to hit neighborhoods like Hunters, especially

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Hart.

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His friend, Chevron, who was essentially family to him, said the loss of Hunter's mother during

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his youth left a wound that never really closed, and plenty of people lose apparent young

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and managed to get through life without hurting anyone else.

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That's absolutely true.

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Something else was running in Hunter at the same time.

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January 1985, Hunter is 18 years old and shoots and kills Cesar Guzman on the streets of

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Oakland.

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Guzman is also 18.

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The following month brings two more separate shootings.

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He shot Eric Wright, who survived, but was left paraplegic and later died from complications

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in 1986.

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He shot Adolphus Williams with a sawdoth shotgun and Williams survived.

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Three shootings and roughly six weeks, two people eventually dead from them.

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The plea deal handed him 24 years.

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He served 13 at Folsom State Prison and walked out in November 1997.

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13 years for shooting three people and killing two of them, right?

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And I understand the logic of plea deals I do.

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Court systems are overloaded.

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Resources are finite.

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Things are complicated.

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13 years, though, for that body count.

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He returns to Oakland and for five years, nothing publicly surfaces.

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And here's what's strange.

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The people who knew Demoris Hunter from his Oakland years were not performing when they

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described him.

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His cousin Alfred said he was like an older brother.

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Playful, never once aggressive and all the time that Alfred knew him.

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His childhood friend, Lenise, talked about how close they had been and the warmth that

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he always carried, always laughing.

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His neighbor Florence said that he was a regular presence in her home and the kind of young man

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that parents were actively happy to have around their kids.

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And all of that was real.

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That version of Demoris Hunter existed and the people describing him did know him very

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well.

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He just also had another mode entirely that activated the moment that he felt his freedom

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was being pulled away from him.

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March 26, 2002.

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Demoris Hunter was assaulting his girlfriend inside an Oakland residence.

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A neighbor heard it and came outside.

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Her name was Avorah Denise Huntley.

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She was 41 years old.

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She stepped in and tried to stop what was happening.

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And that takes a particular kind of nerve and I want to acknowledge that because what she

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did was exactly what people hope will happen when someone nearby is in danger.

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Someone step in and try to stop what's going on.

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Hunter then turned on her.

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He hit and kicked her and then he left the scene.

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He walked to a nearby apartment.

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While he was gone, Avorah did exactly what she was supposed to do.

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She called the police and stood outside on the street waiting for them to show up.

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Before they got there Hunter came back carrying a 380 caliber semi-automatic pistol.

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He found her still standing there and asked her one question.

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Are you going to have me arrested?

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She told him yes.

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He aimed the gun at her chin and fired.

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As she fell, he fired a second time in her neck.

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The first bullet severed her spinal cord.

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The second cut through a major artery.

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Witnesses identified Hunter as he fled.

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Avorah Huntley died because she refused to walk back inside and mind her own business.

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She did everything right.

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Demoris Huntler understood his position very clearly.

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He was a paroli wanted for murder.

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Coming back to Folsom was not some vague hypothetical.

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He had already been there.

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He knew exactly what it meant.

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That awareness seemed to push him toward a level of operational thinking that is, in the

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worst possible way, impressive.

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He stole the complete financial identity of a man named Michael Barry, the chief operating

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officer of the Independent Women's Forum in Washington, D.C.

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Barry was a legitimate, well-regarded executive with strong credit and a clean record, which

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made his identity extremely useful.

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Hunter opened as many as 15 new credit cards using Barry's information and accumulated

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over $12,000 in charges.

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He used those cards to fund life on the run.

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He sent flowers to women under Barry's name.

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He apparently attempted to purchase a home.

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In 2002, this was much easier to sustain than it would be now, obviously.

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Real-time credit monitoring, biometric identity verification, interstate data showing

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anything close to real-time, none of that existed the way that it does today.

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A determined person, with a little bit of knowledge, could walk around in someone else's

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financial life for a long time before the walls closed in.

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The real Michael Barry was living a specific nightmare through all of this, because Hunter's

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face was appearing on America's most wanted, tied to Barry's name and financial information.

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Creditors and law enforcement kept showing up at Barry's actual life, threatening him with

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a rest.

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An entirely innocent man repeatedly treated as a suspect, because a fugitive killer had

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put his identity on and walked out the door.

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Hunter rode that window all the way to Orlando, Florida.

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By May 2002, Demoris Hunter had settled into the college park neighborhood of Orlando

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under a false name and he moved into an apartment building where he met Theresa and Green.

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Theresa was 38 years old, a secretary at Florida Hospital, and the single mother of a 13-year

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old son named Octavius Hayes.

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She was known in that building, she was a part of that community.

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Memorial Day weekend, the night of May 25th, into the early hours of the 26th.

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Demoris Hunter and Theresa both attended a neighborhood party at the apartment of their

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neighbors Joyce and Joseph Butler.

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Around 2.30 that morning, witnesses saw both of them leave together.

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On the stairs, they stumbled and fell.

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Nobody was seriously hurt, but it sparked an argument.

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What happened after that was the center of a mystery that lasted over 24 years.

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The prosecution's position was that Demoris Hunter followed Theresa into her apartment and

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then strangled her to death.

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Then wrapped her body and placed it in the trunk of her own car, then drove it to a Walgreens

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parking lot in Sanford, Florida and left it there.

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Theresa's son Octavius had spent the night with friends that night.

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When he came home the next morning, he said he knew immediately that something was wrong

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the moment he walked through the door.

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His mother's purse was on the bed.

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Her gold watch was sitting on the bathroom sink.

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A wall was damaged.

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He was 13 years old and he testified to exactly what that morning felt like at the trial in

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2026 when he was in his late 30s at that time.

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The fact that he could still describe every detail with that kind of precision tells you

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exactly what that morning cost him and kept costing him for the next two and a half decades.

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The hours after that party ended, Demoris Hunter went back to the Butler's apartment and

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handed Joseph Butler a set of keys to a white van.

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He asked Butler to follow behind him while Hunter drove Theresa's car to Sanford.

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Butler did it.

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When he asked Demoris why the car was being left there, Demoris told him I did something

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really bad.

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The butlers kept that to themselves for 24 years.

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Joyce admitted during the 2026 trial that she had lied to protect Joseph from being implicated

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and helping dispose of the vehicle.

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24 years of silence.

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Octavius Hayes went from 13 to 37 in the space of that silence.

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Demoris Hunter was caught on February 23rd, 2003 in Houston, Texas.

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Federal agents working a warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution tracked him down.

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He tried to run, a K-9 officer named Monroe Gage caught him, a man who had evaded serious

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accountability across two decades and two states was taken down by a dog in a parking lot.

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He was extradited to California first, where in 2005 a jury convicted him of Ivorahuntli's

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murder and sentenced him to 110 years to life.

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Florida didn't bring him back until February 2015.

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Then came the delays, defense attorney changes, a heart attack hunter suffered inside Orange

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County jail, and then of course the pandemic that froze the courts nearly entirely.

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The trial didn't happen until 2026.

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During the penalty phase, Demoris's daughter testified that even with her father behind

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bars her entire life, he had been a meaningful presence for her.

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And she asked that the jury spare him.

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His elderly neighbors talked about his life, his cousin talked about how playful he was.

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That version of Demoris Hunter made one last appearance.

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The jury came back 12-0.

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Death.

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Formal synancing is scheduled for June 2026.

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Ivorahuntli did a noble thing, stepped in when she didn't have to.

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She protected someone with her life.

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Teresa Green's son grew from a child to a middle aged man waiting for something that resembled

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an answer.

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Michael Barry spent years defending himself from accusations connected to someone else's

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crimes.

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12 people looked at 40 years of all of that and decided they had heard enough.

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, bingeable true crime stories.

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Hello.

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From Joe, I'm the host, and here's an email, Subject.

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My dad listens now to.

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Hey, Joe, I recommended your podcast to my dad thinking maybe he'd try one episode.

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Bad idea.

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Now, he texts me theories like he's working cold cases from his recliner in Jacksonville.

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You accidentally created a retired detective.

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Melissa in Jacksonville, Florida.

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And Melissa, thank you for listening.

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Thank you for sharing the podcast with your dad.

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And I'm sorry, every dinner conversation now is going to be awkward.

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It's going to be a little bit weird.

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I don't think there's any coming back from that.

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You guys are going to be sitting at a nice fancy restaurant one evening, having a nice family

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meal and he's going to start bringing up cold cases and serial killer files and whatnot.

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That's the new normal for you, Melissa.

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And I apologize.

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I feel like it's kind of my fault.

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Even though it's not, this one's on you completely, but I still feel like I shoulder some of

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the blame on this.

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So my bad.

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Hey, if you're a new listener to the podcast, welcome, put your feet up.

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And like Melissa's dad, sitting the recliner become a retired detective, an amateur online

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sleuth.

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Make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening right now.

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Also go to 10minuteMurder.com.

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You'll find links to all the things 10 Minute Murder.

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And if you're an OG listener and you've been listening for a long time, you've listened

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to all of the episodes.

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You've been sharing this podcast with your friends and your family.

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You've been rating and reviewing it, whatever that's possible, engaging with the content that

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I put on social media.

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That's really important too.

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I know I never mentioned that.

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But that's a big part of helping this show grow.

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All of those things that you OG listeners are doing, I see it and I appreciate it and

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I love you for it.

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And that's going to do it.

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That's your episode for today.

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Thank you again for listening to 10 Minute Murder.

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See you next time.

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[Music]