PLAYING WITH A REAL GUN CAN LEAD TO TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES

Salt Life co-founder arrested on manslaughter charges, police say 

 

By Melissa Alonso

 

CNN

November 9, 2020

 

A co-founder of Salt Life, the ocean-centric apparel brand, was arrested and charged with manslaughter in connection with the killing of an 18-year-old woman in South Florida, court records show.

Michael Troy Hutto, 54, appeared in court via videolink Monday in Palm Beach County, where a judge set bond at $255,000. In addition to manslaughter, Hutto is also charged with possession of a weapon during a felony.

 

Hutto was arrested October 30 at Baptist Medical Center South in Jacksonville, Florida, and booked into the Duval County jail by Riviera Beach Police and Florida Highway Patrol in connection with the killing, the highway patrol tweeted last week.

 

The parents of 18-year-old Lora Grace Duncan had called the Columbia County Sheriff's Office on October 26 to request a welfare check on their daughter, the sheriff's office said. Her father learned she was at a Hilton hotel in Riviera Beach, the arrest affidavit says, and he said Hutto was her boyfriend. Riviera Beach is about 300 miles south of Columbia County.

 

Riviera Beach police responded to the hotel October 29 and found a woman's body with a gunshot wound to the stomach, the affidavit says. The room was rented in Hutto's name, it said, with his ID, phone, wallet and belongings still inside.

 

Detectives located Hutto at the hospital in Jacksonville, where he had been taken the previous day after asking for help at a gas station while shaking and "making delusional comments," the affidavit said.

 

When detectives spoke to Hutto in the hospital, he told them he thought he hurt "Gracie" and began to cry, the affidavit said. He said they had been in the hotel room playing "as if they were shooting with their finger and a gun" when he pointed a gun at Gracie and it went off. He said he left the room and drove until he ran out of gas, the arrest affidavit said.

 

CNN has reached out to Hutto's public defender but has not heard back.

 

Hutto was one of four co-founders of Salt Life, formed in 2003 in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The brand's name was taken from a tattoo on the back of Hutto's neck, according to a 2004 story in Jacksonville Business Journal. Delta Apparel acquired Salt Life in 2013.

 

Salt Life offered its condolences in a tweet October 31.

 

"Sadly we have learned one of Salt Life's co-founders has been charged with a felony," Salt Life representatives said in the tweet. "Salt Life sends their utmost sympathies to the family and friends of the deceased. In 2013, the co-founders of Salt Life sold their entire business to the new owners."