Hutch's Jewelry murder: Dan Hutchinson's wife testifies about relationship with lawyer, business practices
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - Dan ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson's wife took the stand during her late husband's murder trial Friday to testify about the couple's relationship with the lawyer accused of plotting his killing.
Testimony wrapped up around 4 p.m. Friday and court will resume Monday, May 20. FOX 2 has a full recap of the day's testimony here.
Friday testimony
Roy Larry is accused of shooting Hutchinson, a well-known Oak Park jeweler, on June 1, 2022. Hutchinson's attorney, Marco Bisbikis, allegedly hired Larry to commit the murder after authorities say he wrote himself into Hutchinson's will and trust.
Marisa Hutchinson said that she was not aware that Bisbikis had written himself into the documents, which were drawn up less than two months before Dan was killed.
"We trusted that he (Bisbikis) knew our wishes," Marisa said during her testimony.
She noted that because of that trust, she did not read the document word-for-word.
"It was ‘sign here, sign here, sign here,’" she said.
Marisa, who testified with immunity, also described the business relationship the Hutchinsons had with Bisbikis and shared some details about how they ran their businesses.
According to Marisa, the couple would bring Bisbikis cash that he would then be responsible for on their behalf. She shared these details previously during a court hearing.
She also detailed how they didn't report all cash transactions because cash sales over $10,000 require businesses to file tax forms. Some customers didn't want to provide the information necessary for these forms, such as Social Security numbers, so the business honored the customers' wishes and did not report.
According to her testimony Friday, millions of dollars that weren't reported to the IRS were stored in a safe at Hutch's Jewelry before being brought to Bisbiki's law office.
After Dan's murder, Marisa said Bisbikis continued to give her business advice, tried to help her with the case, and said he was working to figure out who killed Hutch. Bisbikis also allegedly began offering $20,000 for information about Dan's murder, Marisa said.
Marisa said he even told her that another man who was later charged in the murder, Angelo Raptoplous, was holding people in a basement to interrogate them about Dan's murder.
In addition to Bisbikis, Raptoplous, and Roy Larry, two other men, Darnell Larry and Philip Sumpter were charged in connection with the murder.
Raptoplous and Darnell Larry both pleaded guilty to solicitation to murder and agreed to testify against Bisbikis and Roy Larry as part of their plea deals to avoid life sentences.
During the trial Thursday, a witness testified, and video of the shooting was shown in court.
"So many shots - that's all I know. So many, so loud, it was frightening," witness Clarence Lewis said.
Lewis told the court he spotted a man riding a bike and wielding a gun.
The jury was shown the e-bike that Larry was allegedly riding when he shot and killed Hutchinson. They were also shown security footage from a nearby business where a man on a bike open fires into a black-colored SUV.
The footage also shows a Mercedes take off after the gunman. The driver was a friend of the Hutchinson family named Alex Sakellaris.
"My man was riding down - he was chasing after him and then when he got to a certain point ‘bam’ and my man fell on the ground," Lewis said.
