Salt Life Co-Founder Michael Hutto Pleads Guilty To Killing Lora Grace Duncan’ A clothing company founder pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Thursday for fatally shooting his teenage girlfriend inside a Florida hotel room. Defendant Michael Troy Hutto, 56, maintained that he killed Lora Grace Duncan, 18, as an accident while they were pretending to shoot each other with a finger and gun, according to the probable cause affidavit in 2020. Riviera Beach police said he fled the scene.
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Salt Life Co-Founder Michael Hutto Pleads Guilty To Killing Lora Grace Duncan
The charge was manslaughter with a firearm. He will receive 79 days credit for time served.
Riviera Beach police previously said they responded to a welfare check on Oct. 29, 2020 at the Hilton Hotel on North Ocean Boulevard after Duncan’s father said he could not reach her for more than 48 hours. The father said Duncan was with her boyfriend, Hutto. He made an allegation that they believe Hutto was giving her drugs and keeping her sedated. When the father last spoke to her, she sounded out of character and maybe on drugs, he said.
He was able to track her down through her cell phone to the hotel, where staff helped police open the room.
“When patrol units arrived, there was a strong odour of decomposition from the hallway,” police said. Officers found Duncan dead by the bathroom door. She had a gunshot wound to her stomach.
“The body was covered in blood and there were live rounds observed on the floor,” police said.
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