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Salt Life co-founder's shooting of teen girlfriend was 'an accident,' lawyer says after sentencing
FILE - Michael Hutto mug shot. (Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office)Michael Hutto pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2020 fatal shooting of his teenage girlfriend, which the 56-year-old Salt Life clothing brand co-founder's lawyer called "an accident that destroyed two families' lives." Hutto was sentenced to 12 years in prison after Thursday's guilty plea in Palm Beach County, Florida court for the fatal shooting of his 18-year-old girlfriend, Lora Grace Duncan, in a Florida hotel and left her to decompose. Hutto told police that he and Duncan were "playing" inside the hotel by pretending to shoot each other with finger guns when he pointed his real gun at her and "it went off," according to the probable cause affidavit. Duncan was shot in the stomach and bled out on the floor, and Hutto fled the scene but left behind his wallet and ID, the affidavit says. Hutto's attorney, Donnie Murrell Jr., said he didn't know why Hutto pulled his real gun out during the "playful" exchange, according to the Palm Beach Post. "This was an accident," Murrell Jr.