October 19, 2022 — The seconds preceding Dan (Hutch the Jeweler) Hutchinson’s contract slaying last spring were chaotic, with Hutchinson interacting with multiple people who had emerged suddenly right before he was shot to death behind the wheel of his GMC Yukon Denali pulling out of an Oak Park, Michigan pawn shop parking lot back in May, according to a review of police reports related to the homicide. Just an hour earlier, Hutchinson and his wife were at meeting with their attorney, the man police and prosecutors suspect green-lit the murder in a scheme to steals millions from the Motor City’s easy-going jeweler to the stars.
Although prosecutors in Oakland County have charged three people in Hutchinson’s shocking still-unfolding murder conspiracy in the past three and a half months, — one of them being the alleged shooter –, the unnamed lawyer remains at large and uncharged. The 47-year old Hutchinson was pronounced dead on arrival at Southfield, Michigan’s Providence Hospital in the early afternoon hours of June 3, 2022.
Hutchinson owned Hutch’s Jewelry in Oak Park, an urban-chic staple in the spending habits of Detroit’s high-end hip-hop, athlete and entertainer crowd. Oak Park and Southfield are the first two suburbs north of Detroit’s city limits on the near westside. His wife, Marissa, was next to him in the front passenger’s seat of the luxury SUV when he was killed on the property of the Pay Benny pawn shop the couple had recently purchased on Greenfield Road, down the street from Hutch’s Jewelry store.
Last month, Fox2 TV in Detroit reported that an unnamed local lawyer ordered Hutchinson’s murder in a plot to steal his estate via a fraudulently drafted will and trust. Sources claim the police and prosecutors believe the attorney earmarked $5,000,000 of Hutchinson’s estate for himself in a will he allegedly drafted in the months before Hutch the Jeweler was slain.
The Hutchinsons left a morning meeting with this lawyer at his office in Southfield on June 3 around noon and headed to the temporarily-shuttered Pay Benny pawn shop they had bought on Greenfield, located between 8 and 9 Mile Roads, to lock up the building in the midst of renovations. They went inside and spoke to a lightning contractor as he prepared to leave for the day and secured the premises once he left.
The following five minutes consisted of a confusing sequence of events, with questions of what was happenstance and what was planned still lingering:
At around 12:30, the Hutchinsons departed the building and got into Hutch the Jeweler’s SUV. As he was pulling out of his parking space and preparing to turn back on Greenfield Road, a man named Clarence Lewis exited a white minivan parked nearby and approached Hutch to discuss DJ equipment. Hutch put his car into park, lowered his window and told Lewis the pawn shop was closed at that time and would re
open shortly.
At 12:33, a friend of Hutch’s, Alex Sakellaris, arrived in the parking lot in gray-colored Mercedes, pulled his vehicle next to the Hutchinsons in their Yukon and began talking to them. Sources says Sakellaris wanted to discuss some rare coins he wanted appraised.
At 12:35, prosecutors say “Precious” Roy Larry drove a motor scooter in between the Hutchinson’s SUV and Sakellaris’ Mercedes and unloaded 14 shots into Hutch the Jeweler’s face, head and neck at point-blank range. Lewis was by the passenger’s seat window when the gunfire erupted. Sakellaris chased after Larry in his car and struck him with the front end of his Mercedes on a nearby side street. Police apprehended Roy Larry, the man left bleeding with a broken leg on a neighborhood front lawn, by way of Sakellaris leading them to him. Larry was officially arrested for suspicion of murder at Providence Hospital, the same hospital Hutch the Jeweler was pronounced dead hours before.
Neither Sakellaris nor Lewis have ever been implicated as suspects in the case. Precious Roy Larry’s brother Darnell and a 32-year old Commerce Township, Michigan resident named Angelo Raptoplous were indicted as Precious Roy’s co-conspirators early last month. All three have pleaded not guilty to the charges and are being held without bail awaiting trial.
Darnell Larry, 57, has a prior murder conviction in which he served 25 years in prison for. Raptoplous has no criminal record. Prosecutors accuse Raptoplous of liaisoning for the alleged attorney mastermind in the conspiracy with the Larry brothers. Precious Roy Larry did two years in state prison out of Ohio for drug trafficking in the 2000s. Both Larry brothers hail from Detroit’s Eastside.
Police suspect the lawyer in question has also sought to murder Marissa Hutchinson and possibly other members of the Hutchinson family to cut his links to the crime. In the months prior to Hutch the Jeweler’s murder, him and Marissa were approached by the attorney to invest in a horror movie starring Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Terrence Howard, per sources, but the Hutchinson’s turned down the request.
Over the past three decades, Hutch’s Jewelry, has become known for outfitting Detroit’s rich and famous — most prominently, the area’s rapper and athlete crowd — in customed-made diamond-studded chains, Cartier eyeglasses, rings, bracelets and Olde English D pendants. The business was started by Hutchinson’s parents at the now-defunct Northland Mall in 1990.
A number of out-of-state celebrities became dedicated customers of Hutch the Jeweler’s and often showed off his custom-made pieces on their social media accounts. Best-selling Miami rapper Rick Ross is one of the jewelry store’s most loyal patrons.
This article was originally posted here