July 17, 2022 — Picking up someone else’s cell phone led to alleged murderer “Precious Roy” Larry’s drug bust in Ohio 14 years ago, per police and court documents. The 44-year old Larry is facing a first-degree homicide case in Oakland County Circuit Court in relation to the shocking broad-daylight slaying of popular jewelry-store owner Dan (Hutch the Jeweler) Hutchinson last month in Oak Park, Michigan, less than a mile from the Detroit city limits.
Hutchinson, 47, was shot to death behind the wheel of his GMC Denali luxury SUV on the afternoon of June 2 in the parking lot of a pawn shop he had recently purchased at the corner of Greenfield and Miller Roads Rappers, pro athletes and reputed drug dealers were loyal patrons of Hutchinson’s jewelry store located in Oak Park off Greenfield Road. Miami hip-hop mogul Rick Ross made a habit of displaying his newest Hutch the Jeweler custom-made diamond chains, watches, bracelets and designer eyeglasses on his social media accounts as soon as he arrived in Detroit and went shopping at Hutch’s Jewelry on the way to his hotel.
Police arrested Larry near the scene shortly after Hutchinson was pronounced dead at Southfield’s Providence Hospital from injuries sustained in the attack. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is awaiting trial from behind bars, denied bond by 45th District Court Judge Michelle Freidman Appell. Authorities say it was a “contract hit,” but the motive for the killing remains murky.
Some sources point to a federal drug investigation probing the trend of narcotics traffickers laundering money through largescale jewelry purchases and the belief the IRS and DEA were leaning on Hutchinson for information that he may or may have not actually known. Others speculate his purchase of the pawn shop may be the root cause of his murder.
Larry is a multiple-time convicted felon from the far Eastside of Detroit, known in the Motor City as “Precious Roy,” per sources and court files. In the 2000s, Larry went by the nickname “Mookie’ while pushing crack cocaine in Mansfield, Ohio, a working-class town located between Cleveland and Colombus, according to state-court filings.
On September 30, 2008, Larry was bit by bad luck in the form of a phone call to the cell phone of a friend, drug-dealing associate and unknowingly to him, a confidential informant for the local police and a statewide Ohio narcotics task force.
Then-Mansfield Police Department Detective Steve Blust made a call to one of his CIs and Larry answered the phone instead. Blust knew Mookie Larry to be a player in the local dope game and when Mookie let Blust know he was handling his CIs business calls for the day, Blust switched gears on the fly and pretended to be a customer.
Telling Larry, he “needed some crack,” Blust arranged for a buy to go down that evening at the E&B Market on Fourth Street. When Blust and his partner, Terry Butler, arrived for the buy, Mookie took off down an alleyway.
The next day, in the late morning of Oct 1, 2008, Blust placed another phone call to his CI’s cell phone and Mookie Larry once again picked up and acknowledged who he was. Blust asked Larry what happened the day before and Larry told him he didn’t recognize Blust and his partner when they arrived at the market. They agreed on doing the drug deal back at the market l
“I want an 8,” Blust told him, indicating he was seeking to purchase $80 worth of crack cocaine.
Larry told him, “No problem,” according to the court record.
Larry was arrested at the E&B Market that day. He tossed the bag of crack ion the ground as he attempted to flee from converging policemen.
“It was good luck, I guess,” recounted Blust, now a sergeant in the Mansfield Police Department. “We have a lot of guys from Detroit and Chicago that come in here and bring drugs and cause trouble. There were tons of cases like Larry’s in 2008.”
One of the charges included in the case against Larry was distributing narcotics in a school zone. Simpson Middle School was in walking distance of the E&B Market parking lot.
Larry was found guilty of two drug-trafficking felonies at a February 2009 trial. At the time of his arrest in that case, Larry was dodging an outstanding felony warrant out of Michigan for drug-related activity. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail and eventually had the school-zone offense tossed on appeal due to the school being closed on the day of the drug sting in the fall of 2008.
Several sources and eyewitnesses tell Deadline Detroit, Larry wasn’t the triggerman in the Hutch the Jeweler murder. Two sources say the shooter was a younger, lighter-skinned man on a bicycle, who was hit by an automobile as he tried peddling away from the scene. It’s unknown what role, if any, this individual plays in the investigation.
Oak Park Police and Oakland County prosecutors are saying that Larry is the lone culprit in the case and have charged him with a weapons offense, as well. An eyewitness says they saw Larry sitting in a car at the scene of the crime.
Oak Park PD and the DEA didn’t return calls for comment on the case. Larry’s next court hearing is on September 6.