Convicted Of Murder As Teen, David Hunter Is About To Be Released From Prison

Milan murder victim Freida Busteed's grandson believes Hunter is going free too soon.

David Lewis Hunter. Photo by Indiana Department of Corrections.

(Ripley County, Ind.) - A man convicted of murder in Ripley County when he was 16 is about to be released from prison.

David Lewis Hunter will finish serving his prison sentence on March 28, now at the age of 44.

Hunter was convicted for the November 1991 murder of 73-year-old Freida Busteed.

According to court records, Hunter was just a teenager when he broke into Busteed’s home in Milan. When confronted by Busteed, he bludgeoned her repeatedly with a lamp. Her body was discovered two days later by her son and daughter-in-law.

Police arrested Hunter two days later. His hair and fingerprints were found at the scene. Busteed’s blood was on his clothing.

Hunter was sentenced to 60 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in 1993. In exchange for a guilty plea to murder, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a rape charge.

Jim Busteed, of Versailles, is Freida’s grandson. He says he was very, very close to his grandmother.

“It was a tremendous loss. It still is,” Busteed tells Eagle Country 99.3 three decades later. “It’s been 30 years but it is almost like yesterday.”

The grandson was surprised to receive a call from the Ripley County Prosecutor’s Office last week informing him that Hunter would be getting released in a matter of days, just 28 years after the murder.

Indiana’s good time credit law means Hunter only had to serve half of his sentence as long as he was a good inmate while in prison. Busteed says the family knew that could only mean 30 years in prison, but Hunter is getting out even before that.

“He was supposed to get 80 years. In Indiana you only have to do half your time, which would have been 40. I thought surely by then I could live and forgive. Then they only gave him 60. Now, for a murder they are letting him out for good behavior early? I don’t get it,” shares Jim.

The additional good credit time comes from the 2 1/2 years Hunter spent in jail prior to pleading guilty and being sentenced.

Hunter has been at the Indiana Department of Corrections’ Marion County Work Release Center leading up to his return to freedom. Busteed says he was not aware that Hunter has been on work release.

Asked if he would say anything to Hunter if he were to see him as a free man, Busteed says he wouldn’t.

“You just can’t dwell on this stuff your entire life or you waste the rest of your life. I don’t want to waste another minute on that idiot – my thoughts or my dreams or any part of it. I don’t want him taking up any more of our time ever.”