Lamont Hunter Released From Death Row on Plea Agreement Amid Review of New Evidence

On June 15, 2023, Ohio death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Lamont Hunter (pic­tured) was released after serv­ing near­ly 18 years for alleged­ly caus­ing the death of his 3‑year-old son, Trustin Blue. To obtain his free­dom, he plead­ed guilty to less­er charges of invol­un­tary manslaugh­ter and child endan­ger­ment. Prosecutors agreed to offer a plea deal after Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Christian A. Jenkins set bond for Mr. Hunter and dis­missed pros­e­cu­tors’ request to deny his bond.

Mr. Hunter was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 2007 on charges of aggra­vat­ed mur­der, child endan­ger­ment, and rape in the death of his son who suf­fered fatal injuries after acci­den­tal­ly falling down the stairs. In his appeal, his attor­neys argued that new­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence cast doubt on the prosecution’s the­o­ry that Mr. Hunter caused Trustin’s injuries. In March 2023, the pros­e­cu­tors agreed to a new tri­al and vacat­ed his cap­i­tal con­vic­tions because the deputy coro­ner who ini­tial­ly ruled the death as homi­cide changed her opin­ion in a 2021 depo­si­tion. Based on her review of evi­dence that she was not pre­vi­ous­ly giv­en at tri­al, she tes­ti­fied that the cause of death was unde­ter­mined and the injuries she had attrib­uted to sex­u­al assault were acci­den­tal­ly inflict­ed at the hospital.

During last week’s hear­ing, Judge Christian A. Jenkins imposed a sen­tence of time served that was agreed upon as part of the plea deal. Mr. Hunter’s attor­ney, Erin Barnhart, said, ​“Trustin was in his care. He acci­den­tal­ly fell down the stairs. Lamont knows that, in a way, he’s respon­si­ble − he was the care­giv­er. But he nev­er harmed Trustin. He loved Trustin.” Assistant Prosecutor Seth Tieger appre­ci­at­ed Mr. Hunter’s account­abil­i­ty by stat­ing ​“that went a long way with us.”