Friday morning, a motion for new trial was denied by Brown County District Court Judge Stephen Ellis in the case of the State of Texas vs. Che Hutchinson.
Hutchinson was convicted on charges of Delivery of a Controlled Substance and received a 50 year sentence after testimony was heard by Judge Ellis in February of this year.
Brown County District Attorney Micheal Murray reported the following information after the February trial:
First Assistant District Attorney Sam C. Moss presented evidence that Che Hutchinson delivered over 4 grams of methamphetamine to a confidential informant on November 16, 2010 in Brownwood. Early Police Detective Shawn Dibrell testified that he began the investigation into Hutchinson after his confidential informant identified Hutchinson as a distributor of methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana in Brown County. Dibrell was able to get a video recording of Hutchinson delivering methamphetamine to the confidential informant. Hutchinson was later indicted by a Brown County Grand Jury and arrested as part of an 83 defendant narcotics round-up on August 17, 2011. Dibrell testified that he arrested Hutchinson at his home in Zephyr on August 17, 2011.
Dibrell and other officers searched the home of Hutchinson and located marijuana and other narcotics paraphernalia. Among the items seized by Dibrell was Hutchinson’s cell phone. After inspecting the phone’s contents, Dibrell was able to obtain all of Hutchinson’s text messages that revealed large quantities of narcotic related text messages showing Hutchinson’s involvement in the distribution of narcotics. Dibrell was able to identify several of the person’s whom purchased narcotics from Hutchinson. His customers ranged from HPU students to friends of Hutchinson.
Dibrell interviewed Hutchinson after the August 17, 2011 arrest and learned that Hutchinson had been responsible for distributing a minimum of 457 grams of methamphetamine, over 200 grams of cocaine, and thousands of marijuana transactions. Hutchinson revealed that he received his narcotics directly from the drug cartel. Captain Tony Aaron from the Brown County Sheriff’s Office testified that in May of 2011, he arrested and interviewed a Zeta Drug Cartel member from Dallas. During this arrest, Aaron seized small amounts of narcotics but was able to seize the cell phone of this individual. Aaron testified that Che Hutchinson’s cell phone number was among the contacts in the cartel member’s phone.
Trooper Michael Sams testified that he arrested Hutchinson once in 2011 for possession of marijuana. Trooper Sams described the arrogant attitude of Hutchinson. Even testifying that during his April 2011 arrest of Hutchinson, he asked consent to search Hutchinson’s home to which Hutchinson declined but went on to tell the trooper that “he had been in this game a long time.” This type of attitude was further shown through text messages where Hutchinson was boasting that the police would never catch him. During final arguments Hutchinson’s attorney, Robert Maurer of San Antonio, asked for probation or a low sentence for Hutchinson. Prosecutor Sam C. Moss asked Judge Ellis to hand down a 50 year sentence based on the level of Hutchinson’s involvement. After considering the evidence, Judge Ellis handed down a 50 year prison sentence for Hutchinson. Hutchinson had remained out on bond since his August 17, 2011 arrest but was taken into custody on February 16, 2012 after receiving the 50 year sentence.
Hutchinson will be sent on to Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division to begin serving his time. Although he has a right to appeal; the serving of his sentence will not be delayed according to district court officials.
