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Hutto
WEST PALM BEACH — A millionaire manslaughter suspect from Wellborn will remain in custody in Palm Beach County.
Troy Hutto was denied bond in a hearing Monday morning by a Palm Beach County judge a week after his bond was revoked in the case for allegedly stalking two women in Suwannee County.
Judge Cymonie Rowe denied the request from Hutto’s attorney for a new, reduced bond with conditions Monday in the case against Hutto for the October 2020 shooting death of Lake City teen Grace Duncan in a Singer Island hotel.
“The court stands by its order,” Rowe said after hearing sworn testimony from Hutto himself as well as arguments from Donnie Murrell, one of Hutto’s attorneys. “The court finds that defendant is intimidating witnesses in these proceedings and otherwise obstructing the judicial process by stalking witnesses in these proceedings.
“Because the court finds that defendant is obstructing the judicial process by stalking witnesses, the court further finds that no conditions of release will reasonably prevent the obstruction of the judicial process.”
Hutto, 56, who answered yes and no questions from his attorney, was willing to have conditions placed on his release, including the wearing of an ankle monitor. In requesting the hearing for a $15,000 bond, Hutto’s attorney’s also mentioned weekly reporting to the Suwannee County DOC probation office.
“The court found that Mr. Hutto was intimidating witnesses. That’s my concern is the witness intimidation factor,” Rowe said to Murrell on Monday, referring to her decision on Dec. 12 to revoke Hutto’s $250,000 bond. “How can an electronic monitor prevent what the court has found to be the issue?”
Murrell’s solution was restricting Hutto to his ranch in Wellborn, although he also was hopeful for looser guidelines to allow Hutto to go to doctor appointments as well as grocery shopping with his wife, Stephanie, who Hutto testified does not drive.
Assistant State Attorney Courtney Behar said the state objected any conditions that included Hutto’s release, adding he has the financial ability to accommodate for those needs.
“There’s also the concern of the continuation of the behavior listed in those petitions,” Behar said. “Just because he’s at home doesn’t mean he can’t cyberstalk. There’s great concern for the danger of the community.”
In October, Suwannee County Judge Lin Williams granted injunction of protection to two women against Hutto for stalking.
The women — Lisa Powers and Autumn Howell — both work at the Lake City gym where Duncan worked out and Hutto was a member. Both women have been listed as state witnesses in the manslaughter case.
Hutto, despite being trespassed from the facility, continued to frequently drive through the gym’s parking lot, according to both women’s petitions.
Powers also claimed Hutto was sitting outside a car wash she frequents in Live Oak, while Howell said she ran into him at Walmart and a gas station in Wellborn, where he asked if he knew her and offered to walk her outside.
“I am afraid of Troy,” Howell wrote in the petition. “I am afraid to go anywhere alone, I don’t go anywhere alone because of this.
“I just want him to leave me alone.”
In both petitions, which were originally filed in March 2021 with temporary injunctions in place while hearings were delayed multiple times, the women said Hutto owns guns and keeps them in his car and his backpack as well as his house.
“I am afraid of what will happen if I don’t get any protection from Troy,” Powers wrote in her petition.
Powers had also filed for protection against stalking from Hutto in December 2020 after he allegedly threatened to kill her during an October 2020 phone call. That petition, though, was denied within days for failing to allege facts sufficient to support the injunction.
Hutto is the co-founder of the popular Salt Life logo and brand. The brand was sold to Delta Apparel in 2013 for $15 million in cash as well as two promissory notes worth $22 million.
That same year Hutto purchased 21 acres of property in Wellborn. An adjoining 6.59-acre parcel was purchased in 2019.
He is no longer affiliated with the company.