The co-founder of the Salt Life clothing brand has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with the death of his girlfriend at a Florida hotel in 2020.
Michael Troy Hutto, 56, was arrested for manslaughter in 2020 after eighteen-year-old Lora Grace “Gracie” Duncan was found dead at a hotel in West Palm Beach, Florida, having sustained a gunshot wound, WPTV reported. Hutto was later arrested for manslaughter in relation to her death.
A court record indicates Hutto pleaded guilty to manslaughter with a firearm on Thursday.
In October 2020, Duncan’s body was found in a room at a Hilton Hotel after her father requested a welfare check on the young woman, fearing Hutto had been giving her drugs “to keep her sedated,” a probable cause affidavit explained.
The affidavit goes on to say a patrol unit “observed a female’s body on the floor by the bathroom door” after entering the room, which had been rented in Hutto’s name. The woman had suffered a “gunshot wound to the stomach,” per the affidavit.
The day before, a sergeant from St. John’s County Sheriff’s Department had found Hutto “twitching, making delusional comments, and crying while his eyes were rolling to the back of his head,” after the man had entered a BP station and asked for help, prompting an employee to contact law enforcement, per the affidavit.
He was taken to Baptist Hospital, where officers interviewed him the next day after Duncan was found, per the affidavit, which indicates that he said at one point, “Oh my God, I think I hurt my Gracie.”
Based on a conversation between Hutto and detectives, the affidavit says he claimed the two had been “Playing as if they were shooting with their finger and a gun” until he pointed the gun at her, “at which time, it went off and shot her.”
Hutto was arrested and later released on a $250,000 bond, WFLA reported.
However, this bond was revoked in 2022 after he was accused of stalking two of Duncan’s friends, per the outlet.
WPTV noted that Judge Cymonie Rowe sentenced Hutto to 12 years in prison after he entered his guilty plea Thursday.
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