Salt Life co-founder claims he was play fighting in shooting
At a hotel on Singer Island, things went terribly wrong when the co-founder of the popular clothing brand Salt Life said he held up a gun in the middle of a “play” gun fight and shot his girlfriend, a police report released Monday states.
Micheal Hutto,
54, whonolongeris affiliated with the clothing company, told police that he and Lora Grace Duncan, 18, were planning to drive the Keys when they decided to stop midway and go to the beach, police said. Theycheckedinto the HiltonHotel.
He said they were pretending to shoot each other using with their fingers in the hotel room and that as his girlfriend sat on the bathroom counter he picked up his real gun and it went off, police said.
Without calling for help, Hutto drove offinaDodge
Challenger Hellcat, grabbinghis backpackbut leaving behind his wallet and cellphone at the hotel, his arrest report says.
He made it as far as St. Augustine before running out of gas, according to his arrest report. Hutto is from Wellborn, Fla., which is about 75 miles west of Jacksonville. Duncan lived in neighboring Lake City. In Hutto’s arrest report, police say Duncan’s father referred to Hutto as his daughter’s girlfriend.
He was arraigned in Palm Beach County Monday morning. Bond forwas set at $255,000.
Duncan’s body was found Oct. 29in the Hilton Hotel. Shesuffereda single gunshot to the stomach. She had been dead a day.
Duncan’s father asked police to go to the hotel, concerned that he had not been able to reach his daughter for days. He said
whenthey last spoke several days earlier, his daughter seemed out of sorts.
Burton Duncan told police he though this daughter’ s boyfriend, Hutton, was giving his daughter drugs, police reports state. Duncan told police he tracked her cellphone to the Hilton Hotel.
Surveillance video shows Hutto leaving the hotel in a green and black Dodge Challenger Hell cat.
Police across the state were told to look out for Hutto and his car. That’s when police in North Florida contacted Riveria Beach Police to say the man they were looking for had been hospitalized in Jacksonville after a possible overdose.
Court records say police were called to a BP gas station in St. Augustine after a Hutton entered it saying he needed help on Oct. 28. Records say Hutto seemed delusional and his eyes were rolling in the back of his head. Hutton was taken to the hospital.
Lawenforcement officers went to the hospital to speak with Hutto. He blurted out, “I think Imay have hurt my Gracie,” when they asked if he knew why they were there, police said.
On Oct. 30, Hutton was led from the hospital in handcuffs. He was wearing blue medical scrubs.
Hutto, who sold his share of the clothing company several years ago, had been previously arrested in the Jackson villearea, accusedof putting on a pair of shorts and a shirt over his own clothing and attempting to walk out of a store before getting caught. Records don’t indicate what brand of clothing itwas.