5th suspect in jeweler’s murder to stand trial
Ohio man faces life in prison for conspiracy charge
A fifth man linked to a 2022 plot to kill a celebrity jeweler in Oak Park was ordered on Thursday to stand trial on a conspiracy charge after a judge determined there was enough evidence to connect him to the murder.
Phillip Sumpter, 59, of Columbus, Ohio can now be tried on one charge of conspiracy to commit murder after Oak Park District Court Judge Michelle Appel determined there was probable cause to move the case forward. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Sumpter is one of five people linked to the murder of jeweler Dan Hutchinson. Four other co-defendants have already been bound over stand trial in Oakland County Circuit Court. A trial for two of the defendants is set to start next month in Pontiac.
Prosecutors allege that attorney Marco Bisbikis and Angelo Raptoplous hired Darnell Larry, Bisbikis’ friend and employee, to kill Dan and Marisa Hutchinson so they could take control of the millions of dollars in the Hutchinsons’ trust accounts. Larry testified that he was told Bisbikis wanted the Hutchinsons killed because they were going to testify against him in a possible federal indictment.
Assistant Prosecutor John Skrzynski said Sumpter texted Larry, who has testified against the four others in the case, to ask where he was just before noon on April 19, 2022. Larry said he met with Sumpter on 8 Mile Road in Livonia and they spoke about killing Marisa and Dan Hutchinson, and Sumpter allegedly agreed to kill them.
Sumpter sent Larry several photos of the Livonia location where the Hutchinsons were to be signing closing documents for a property in Livonia, saying “found them.”
Larry testified that he and Sumpter were asked by co-defendants Raptoplous and Bisbikis to kill the Hutchinsons, Skrzynski said Thursday. Larry was supposed to run into their vehicle from behind and kill them, he testified, but he did not do so.
He testified that he did not want to kill the Hutchinsons that day, saying “that’s why (Sumpter) was there.”
But after Sumpter and Larry noticed there was a police station near the location in Livonia, Sumpter determined it was a suicide mission and they called it off, Skrzynski said Larry testified.
Sumpter’s attorney, Melissa Krauskopf, said because Larry did not intend on committing a murder April 19, there was no conspiracy. She said Larry’s testimony was short on details, like if Sumpter had a weapon or means to commit a murder, and that prosecutors made a lot of assumptions about Larry’s testimony.
“How can one have a conspiracy when there are not multiple participants agreeing to engage in this behavior?” Krauskopf said Thursday. “There is no evidence to show Mr. Sumpter was going to do a first-degree murder that day.”
Sumpter did not have any further involvement with the plot. Larry instead recruited his cousin, Roy Larry, to be the trigger man in the murders. Roy Larry shot Dan Hutchinson June 1, 2022, outside of the pawn shop he and Marisa had recently bought, killing him. Marisa was injured, but was not killed.
“Mr. Bisbikis and Angelo ordered me to kill the Hutchinsons,” Darnell Larry said during his testimony in Bikbikis, Raptoplous and Roy Larry’s preliminary examination. “These people, they was a game to him. I had no problem with them.”
Bisbikis, Raptoplous and both Larrys are charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to murder, solicitation of murder and a felony firearms charge.
Darnell Larry agreed to testify against his co-defendants in exchange for a plea deal to solicitation to commit murder with a minimum of six years in prison. He was supposed to be sentenced last year, but it was postponed and a new date has not been set, according to court records.
Raptoplous pleaded guilty to one count of solicitation to commit murder, but a sentencing date has not been set, according to the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office and court records.
Bisbikis and Roy Larry are set to go to trial May 13.