Deidre Hunt is a Florida inmate serving life in prison for two 1989 murders in Daytona Beach: the videotaped execution of 19-year-old Kevin Ramsey at a shooting range, and the killing of 18-year-old Bryan Chase inside the home of her boss and lover, Konstantinos “Kosta” Fotopoulos, during a botched plot to kill his wife. She originally received two death sentences after pleading guilty in 1990, making her one of the youngest women ever sent to Florida’s death row. Those sentences were vacated by the Florida Supreme Court in 1995 after her defense attorney was found to have a serious conflict of interest, and a 1998 jury retrial ended with life sentences instead of death.
Who Deidre Hunt Was Before the Murders
Hunt was 21 years old at the time of the killings. Her mother, Carol Hunt, testified at sentencing that she had been unstable and had physically abused Deidre throughout her childhood. Hunt was raped at 11 by a neighbor, rejected by her biological father, and worked as a teenage prostitute in New Hampshire.
She arrived in Daytona Beach in the summer of 1989 after a former boyfriend abandoned her there with no money. Her defense attorney later called her a “lost waif.” She took a job bartending at Top Shots, a pool hall on the Daytona Beach Boardwalk owned by Fotopoulos, who was then 30 and running several Boardwalk businesses with his wife Lisa, including a gift store, a snack bar, and the Joyland Amusement Center. Hunt became his girlfriend. Prosecutors would later argue that Fotopoulos dominated her through violence and psychological manipulation, burning her with cigarettes and cultivating a fake persona as an Israeli assassin and CIA operative.
The Videotaped Killing of Kevin Ramsey
On or about October 20, 1989, Fotopoulos and Hunt lured Mark Kevin Ramsey to the Strickland Shooting Range in Volusia County. Ramsey reportedly had knowledge of a counterfeiting operation Fotopoulos was running and had tried to blackmail him.
At the range, Ramsey was tied to a tree. Fotopoulos set up a video camera and directed Hunt to shoot. Using a .22-caliber pistol fitted with a silencer that Fotopoulos supplied, Hunt fired three shots into Ramsey’s chest, then grabbed his hair, pressed the gun to his temple, and fired again. Fotopoulos recorded all of it. Prosecutors said he then finished Ramsey off with a single shot from an AK-47.1FindLaw. Fotopoulos v. State Ramsey’s body was not found until November 7, 1989.
The 57-second tape, filmed at night by handheld flashlight, captured no gunshots because of the silencer, only footsteps, Fotopoulos’s off-camera voice urging Hunt to “come closer,” and three soft groans from the victim.2Orlando Sentinel. Hunt Weeps as Crowd Sees Video of Execution Prosecutors said Fotopoulos made the recording specifically to lock Hunt into the next stage of his plan: killing his wife.3Los Angeles Times. Sentence Is Death in Videotaped Murder
The Plot Against Lisa Fotopoulos and the Killing of Bryan Chase
Fotopoulos wanted his wife dead for money. Lisa was the daughter of Augustine Paspalakis, a wealthy Greek immigrant who had died in 1987. Investigators believed Fotopoulos was after roughly $700,000 in life insurance and control of her inherited wealth, especially as she was reportedly trying to divorce him.4Orlando Sentinel. On Boardwalk, Some Would Kill for Money1FindLaw. Fotopoulos v. State
Using the Ramsey tape as leverage, Fotopoulos pressed Hunt into arranging a hit on Lisa. Hunt recruited 22-year-old Teja James and his roommate Yvonne Lori Henderson, 20. Investigators later counted at least five failed attempts, including a Halloween-night plan to stab Lisa at a nightclub that was called off because the venue was too crowded, a November 1 attempt to shoot her at work, and one botched effort foiled when the would-be killer’s car broke down.5UPI. Police Say Hit Men Missed 5 Times
After the failures, Hunt recruited 18-year-old Bryan Chase for $5,000. On November 4, 1989, Chase entered the Fotopoulos home on North Halifax Avenue and shot Lisa once in the head. She survived. Fotopoulos then shot and killed Chase inside the house and told police he had woken to an intruder and acted in self-defense during a burglary. Investigators quickly saw through the story: Chase had been killed to silence him, and the burglary was staged.6Daytona Beach News-Journal. Notorious Daytona Beach Killer Kosta Fotopoulos Will Remain on Death Row Lisa Fotopoulos recovered and later remarried.
Within days, Hunt, Fotopoulos, James, and Henderson were all under arrest. Police recovered the Ramsey videotape from the Fotopoulos home after Lisa and her mother gave consent to search.1FindLaw. Fotopoulos v. State
Guilty Plea and Two Death Sentences
Hunt was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of solicitation to commit murder, one count of conspiracy, and one count of armed burglary. In 1990 she pleaded guilty to all of it. On September 13, 1990, she received two death sentences for the murders of Ramsey and Chase, plus six concurrent life sentences.7Tampa Bay Times. Woman Gets Two Death Sentences
During the sentencing hearing, Circuit Judge James Foxman allowed prosecutors to play the Ramsey videotape in slow motion over defense objections. Hunt wept as it was shown.2Orlando Sentinel. Hunt Weeps as Crowd Sees Video of Execution
Why the Death Sentences Were Thrown Out
In 1995, the Florida Supreme Court overturned Hunt’s death sentences after finding that her defense attorney, Peter Niles, had a serious conflict of interest. One month before advising Hunt to plead guilty in a capital case, Niles had struck a $5,000 deal with the tabloid television show A Current Affair.8Orlando Sentinel. Deidre Hunt Won’t Return to Death Row
Niles misrepresented the nature of a prison visit to Hunt, to prison officials, and to the court, bringing a television crew into the jail under the pretense that it was part of a court proceeding. Hunt did not know she was being filmed for a tabloid show until the cameras started rolling.9Tampa Bay Times. The Selling of Deadly Deidre A Florida Bar investigation found that he had lied to his client, the prison, and the legal profession. The Florida Supreme Court suspended him from practice for one year in 1994.10Florida Supreme Court. Florida Bar v. Niles, Case Nos. 81,060 and 81,145 Because of Niles’s misconduct, the court let Hunt withdraw her guilty plea entirely and go back for a new trial.
The 1998 Retrial and Life Sentence
Hunt’s retrial took place in a St. Augustine courtroom in 1998 after being moved from Volusia County. Her defense team, led by attorney Carey Haughwout, argued that Hunt was a battered woman under Fotopoulos’s control and put on a mental health expert who testified she was insane when she killed Ramsey.11Orlando Sentinel. Deidre Hunt: Deadly or a Victim? The defense also detailed her childhood abuse and the effects of being raised by a mentally ill parent.
The jury convicted her on all counts. On May 7, 1998, Circuit Judge Edwin P.B. Sanders sentenced Hunt to two consecutive life terms for the murders of Ramsey and Chase, with no possibility of parole for 50 years, plus six additional life sentences on the remaining counts.12Tampa Bay Times. Convicted Killer Dodges Death In sparing her from a second death sentence, Judge Sanders cited her abusive childhood, her age at the time of the crimes, her mother’s mental illness, her history of being raped as a child, and her remorse and cooperation with law enforcement after the murders.
As of the most recent available records, Hunt is incarcerated at Homestead Correctional Institution in Florida.13The Ledger. History of Women on Florida’s Death Row
Where Kosta Fotopoulos Stands
Fotopoulos was tried separately in October 1990 and convicted on all counts, with Hunt testifying against him. The jury recommended death by an eight-to-four vote on each murder count, and the trial court sentenced him to death on November 1, 1990, finding the crimes “cold, calculated and premeditated.” The Florida Supreme Court affirmed on direct appeal in October 1992.14Florida Legislature Commission on Capital Cases. Inmate Details: Konstantinos Fotopoulos
He has pursued multiple rounds of post-conviction relief, including a federal habeas petition on which a U.S. district judge briefly granted a new sentencing hearing in 2007 before the Eleventh Circuit reversed in 2008, and a challenge based on Hurst v. Florida that the Florida Supreme Court rejected in 2018 on the ground that Hurst did not reach sentences imposed as early as 1990. He also tried to use Hunt’s resentencing to life as “newly discovered evidence” entitling him to the same treatment; the courts rejected that argument. Fotopoulos remains on Florida’s death row.6Daytona Beach News-Journal. Notorious Daytona Beach Killer Kosta Fotopoulos Will Remain on Death Row