Man’s Ex-Wife Always Believed Him Innocent

A woman who dated Kevin Lee Green in high school and later became his first wife said Sunday she never doubted his innocence and stood by him during his wrongful conviction for second-degree murder and 16-year imprisonment.

Tina Marie Hunger said the two kept in touch by letters and telephone while Green was in various California prisons, serving time for bludgeoning his second wife on Sept. 30, 1979, in the couple’s Tustin apartment and killing their unborn child.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald freed Green on Thursday after DNA tests showed that Gerald Parker, a convicted rapist, was responsible for the crime. Green, 38, maintained that he went out for a cheeseburger during the attack and saw a black man loitering around their apartment complex. Green is white.

“I always thought he was innocent,” said Hunger, 36. “Some people around here ridiculed him for what others said he’d done. But anybody who knew him well knew it was impossible for Kevin to do something like that.”

She added that she “did the best I could by standing by him after his conviction. We’re all extremely overjoyed and thanking God for his release because it took a miracle to get him freed.”

Green and Hunger had a daughter, Desiree Sunshine, 16, who apparently was born while he was in prison. Hunger said the family wants to protect the teen’s privacy and declined to provide additional details about her.

Hunger, who is not married, said Desiree and Green broke down and cried when they saw each other on Friday, upon his arrival at nearby Holts Summit, where Green’s parents, Frank and Sharen, live. The girl has been staying with Green’s parents.

“She’s always known that her daddy was innocent. She’s had a tough row to hoe all these years without her daddy around. He’s tried to be there for his daughter all this time the best way he could. They didn’t forget each other.”

Hunger said Green had seen his daughter on previous occasions during his incarceration, but declined to provide additional details.

On Saturday night, Desiree, armed with her first driver’s license, picked up her father and cruised around Jefferson City, the Missouri capital.

“She was showing Daddy the town because everything’s changed since he’s been gone,” Hunger said. “But it was actually a time for the two of them to be alone and make up for lost time.”

Hunger declined to provide any details about her marriage to Green, but court records show they were living in Tustin while Green was stationed at Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station.

They were married from June 1977 until March 1979. The day his divorce became final, he married Dianna D’Aiello, whom he was accused of beating after they were married six months and she was nine months’ pregnant.

The baby was delivered stillborn by caesarean section when D’Aiello was rushed to the hospital following the beating. D’Aiello named the dead baby Chantal Marie because she liked the French name.

Though she suffered massive head injuries and was comatose for a month after the attack, D’Aiello testified that Green had beaten her. The jury found Green’s alibi unbelievable.

Green married a third time in 1985 while in prison. This weekend, he was reunited with his third wife, Darlene Green, as well as his parents, sister and other relatives.