Salt Life co-founder faces manslaughter, weapons charges.
Hutto
JACKSONVILLE — The co-founder of the Salt Life brand has been charged with manslaughter in the death of a Lake City teen.
Michael Troy Hutto, a 54-year-old multi-millionaire who now lives in Wellborn, was arrested by state troopers at Baptist Medical Center South in Jacksonville on Friday in connection to a murder investigation in Riviera Beach.
In addition the manslaughter charge, Hutto also faces a charge possession of a firearm —both on warrants from Riviera Beach — according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Department of Corrections.
On Thursday, 18-year-old Lora Grace Duncan, of Lake City, was found deceased in the Singer Island Hilton during a well-being check by authorities, according to the Riviera Beach Police Department and Columbia County Sheriff’s Office.
Duncan was found dead with a single gun shot wound, according to Palm Beach media reports.
Duncan was a 2020 graduate of Columbia High School.
According to the CCSO, Duncan’s parents requested the well-being check on Monday after Duncan had voluntarily left the county with a known individual, whose name was not released. It is unclear whether that known individual is Hutto or a second person is being sought.
Hutto was arrested at Baptist South where he was treated for an unknown medical emergency, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Troy Hutto, a landscape irrigation contractor, and Mike Moore, a framing contractor, both from Jacksonville Beach, started the Salt Life company in 2003 using the hand-drawn custom tattoo they shared as the company logo. They both shared a passion for surfing and the ocean, according to the Jacksonville Business Journal, and started the company with an initial $80,000 investment.
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.
The company purchase agreement also included an additional payment contingent on if sales the previous year met certain performance targets.
When the company was sold, the small start up had grown to $20 million in annual sales, according to reports.