Motion to suppress evidence filed in case of Salt Life co-founder charged with manslaughter

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Michael Troy Hutto, co-founder of the fashionable Salt Life brand, was arrested successful Jacksonville successful October 2020 and is facing a complaint of manslaughter successful the decease of a Lake City teenager.

Now, Hutto’s ineligible squad has filed motions successful the case, shedding much airy connected what happened.

Police said they recovered Grace Duncan, 18, changeable to decease wrong a South Florida edifice country she was sharing with Hutto successful Riviera Beach. Duncan’s parents had asked constabulary to find their daughter, and they were acrophobic astir cause usage and that Hutto whitethorn person been influencing her.

A 168-page question asks the tribunal to suppress each the grounds gathered successful the edifice room. Defense attorneys reason that grounds is the effect of unlawful introduction and amerciable hunt of the room.

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As written successful the motion, investigators determined that Grace Duncan near her parent’s location successful Columbia County on Oct. 25, 2020. She told them she went to Daytona with Hutto and they were moving connected starting a concern together.

The question states that the adjacent day, Hutto and Duncan checked into the Hilton Singer Island Hotel successful Riviera Beach.

By Oct. 29, the question states, Duncan’s parents told constabulary they couldn’t scope her and asked for a payment check. Officers responding knocked connected the room’s door, and erstwhile nary 1 answered, asked an worker to unfastened the door.

They did, and recovered Duncan’s assemblage successful the bathroom, positioned wherever officers couldn’t unfastened the doorway fully.

The motion’s ineligible statement states that a motel oregon edifice country is considered a backstage dwelling if the occupant is determination legally, has paid oregon arranged to wage and has not been asked to leave.

Attorneys accidental constabulary should person known the country was occupied arsenic Duncan’s recognition paper was connected record and idiosyncratic belongings were successful the room.

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The question goes connected to accidental that officers didn’t spot thing suspicious earlier they entered the room, saying that introduction was illegal. It besides states that adjacent if officers were legitimately responding to a aesculapian emergency, their hunt exceeded the scope.

Hutto’s attorneys filed different question – lone 2 pages.

It calls for the authorities to instrumentality Hutto’s Dodge Challenger Hellcat, saying the conveyance has already been searched. The question argues holding onto the car injures their lawsuit due to the fact that the car depreciates each time its impounded.

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