A convicted serial rapist housed at Larned State Hospital will be eligible for another parole hearing this fall, according to the Kansas Prisoner Review Board.
Charles Curtis Hunter, 51, is an inmate in maximum level custody at LSH, operated by the Kansas Department of Corrections. He is eligible for a parole hearing in November for possible release in December.
Hunter was convicted for battering a youth center officer in 2005 in Pawnee County, while serving a life sentence for multiple convictions for rape and aggravated burglary, all committed in Lawrence in December of 1978 when he was 16 years old. He was sentenced in 1982 and has been in prison since then.
Hunter was first eligible for a parole hearing after 15 years, and parole has been denied repeatedly over the years.
After years of maintaining his innocence, Hunter was able to get DNA testing done on two of the rape kits in his case in 2010, with assistance from the New York-based Innocence Project. The tests did not exonerate him.
Hunter is the only Department of Corrections inmate with a conviction from this area who is eligible for a parole hearing in November. Four other maximum-security Larned inmates are coming up for parole hearings. They are:
• Jessie Lavon Jones, 46, at Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility, with Wyandotte County convictions for first degree murder, aggravated battery, burglary and theft over $150 in 1987 and 1988;
• Johnny Loren Dover, 40, at LSH for committing second-degree murder in Neosho County in 1991;
• Bradley Ray Boan, 63, at LSH for crimes committed in 1977 and 1981 in Wyandotte County, including first-degree murder, aggravated assault and two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer; and
• Edrick Ladon McCarty, 30, also known as “Stuff,” at LSH. His 1998 and 1999 Sedgwick County crimes include first degree murder, aggravated robbery and three counts of battering a juvenile detention officer.
The Prisoner Review Board will hold public comment sessions for these inmates on Oct. 21 at City Hall in Kansas City; Oct. 23 at the Finney State Office Building in Wichita; and Oct. 25 at the Landon State Office Building in Topeka. Written comments may be mailed to: Kansas Department of Corrections, Prisoner Review Board; Landon State Office Building; 900 SW Jackson St., 4th Floor; Topeka, KS 66612-1220.