Naples Daily News

May 9, 2000

BONITA, Fla. - Apologizing but maintaining that he had no recollection of committing the crime, a Bonita Springs man was sentenced to life in prison Monday after pleading no contest to an April 1999 homicide.

Franklin Boyd, 44 - stabbed 19 times with a screwdriver
Brian Alpress Hunt, 51 - life in prison

Killer drifter eyed in four deaths

Police Say Man Would Erupt in Murderous Rage

23 Abril 1999

FORT MYERS, Fla. (APBnews.com) -- A homeless drifter who spent four years in a Florida jail for manslaughter has now been accused of committing three murders across the country -- and may even be linked to more, police said.

Brian Alpress Hunt, a 49-year-old homeless man who last resided in the Delaware state penal system, is being held on a count of first-degree murder in the Lee County Jail for the brutal screwdriver stabbing and bludgeoning of another drifter on April 18, police said.

While being questioned on the Florida murder charge, Hunt allegedly confessed to killing two other homeless men in Nashville, Tenn., while he was staying there in the summer of 1996.

Sudden rages

Hunt was allegedly an acquaintance of each of the men, with whom he lived on the streets and in city lots. But in each case it appears that a sudden rage drove him to kill, officials said.

"He appears to get angry with [his victims]" said Lee County Sheriff's Department spokesman Larry King. "Usually he accuses them of stealing something."

That's what happened in Sunday's murder in Bonita Springs, King said, explaining that Hunt became convinced that Franklin C. Boyd owed him $15 dollars. Hunt allegedly went to a makeshift shelter the man was sleeping in and woke him up.

Hunt grew so mad during the argument that he choked Boyd, stabbed him repeatedly with a screwdriver and, finally, crushed his skull with a cinder block, King said. Hunt then turned himself in.

Skeletal remains found

While in custody he told police where to find the bodies of two other men he said he killed in Nashville, said King.

Police there said they found the victims' skeletal remains by railroad tracks near downtown. One body was found Wednesday, the other Thursday.

Hunt gave police the identities of the men, who were beaten to death. Police are now searching for next of kin and dental records to confirm the names.

Killed man with wine bottle

King also said that authorities in Delaware are also investigating to see if Hunt may be behind the death of a homeless man there. Hunt, who has not admitted to any Delaware killings, had been a fugitive from a prison work-release program when he was arrested in the Boyd killing.

He was convicted of manslaughter in Lee County in 1992 for the beating death of an acquaintance whom he smashed in the head with a wine bottle. He served part of a four-year term.

Hunt is being held without bond pending a court appearance. No formal charges have been lodged against him yet in Nashville, pending the completion of the police investigation.

Brian Hunt

April 23, 1999

A man accused in a Lee County murder is now linked to two deaths in Tennessee. Brian Hunt was arrested over the weekend, accused of stabbing a homeless man in Bonita Springs. Police in Tennessee found two bodies over the past two days in an area where Hunt used to live. Hunt has a lengthy record. He served four years in jail for killing a man in Lee County in 1992.

A homeless man accused of killing a Bonita Springs man last weekend and who served time for killing another Lee County man in 1992 is now a suspect in two slayings in Tennessee and is being investigated for a possible connection to a homicide in Delaware. While in the Lee County Jail earlier this week, Brian Alpress Hunt, 49, drew two maps that led Nashville police to the skeletal remains of two men who were apparently beaten to death in summer 1996 in separate incidents, authorities said.

The revelation comes less than a week after Hunt was accused of stabbing Franklin C. Boyd in the chest 19 times after an argument over money and then beating him over the head with a cement block. Both victims are believed to have been homeless and may have been killed months apart. Authorities weren't releasing the names until they had a chance to notify relatives.

Aaron said that before Hunt's statement to Lee investigators, police were not aware the men had been missing.

In 1992, Hunt was charged with using a wine bottle to beat to death Jacko Poppele, a 44-year-old Bonita Springs man. He was convicted of manslaughter and was sentenced to four years in prison.