Michael Hutchinson

Michael Hutchinson

It should be no surprise to anyone here that I read almost exclusively true crime stories, or that is my main obsession on television also. I am currently reading a book written by Sarah Perry, the daughter of Crystal Perry, Michael Hutchinson's victim. Sarah was twelve years old when her mother was murdered in the home they shared together. By the time prosecutors would identify Hutchinson Sarah had lived equal time within her life with, and without, her mother.

Crystal Perry was a single mother of one when she was murdered on May 11, 1994 in her home in Bridgton Maine. Sarah had been in her room asleep when she had first been awoken by her mother yelling. She believes she fell back asleep because sadly over the years Sarah had gotten used to her mother arguing with her boyfriends. As the time neared one in the morning Sarah was again awoken by her mother only this time her mother seemed to be screaming as loud as she could. At this point Sarah became scared and very carefully went to her bedroom door, opened it and peeked into the other room. She could see the shadow of a man standing over her mother. She would also later believe that just before this she heard one of the drawers in the kitchen open and she had heard someone grab a knife that was in the home. Sarah would gently close her door and fearfully sit in her room until she felt it was safe to leave. She would then tip-toe out of her room and see her mother laying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. The phone in the kitchen was off the hook. Sarah attempted to replace it only to not be able to make a call. She went back to her mothers room to try the phone there but it appeared that the phone was not working.

At this point Sarah felt she had no choice but to leave the house on foot and seek help for her mother. She had no idea if her mother was still breathing or if the perpetrator was still nearby. As she made her way down the rural road towards the center of the small town. Along the way it began to rain and Sarah would stop at homes and pound on the doors but after several attempts she could get no one to come to the door. She continued on until she reached a business in town in which the owners lived upstairs. Many of those whose homes she had knocked on would later say that they heard the pounding but were too fearful to answer the door at that hour. Once Sarah was able to reach someone 911 was called and emergency personnel were dispatched to the home. Once they arrived they understood that Crystal Perry had been brutally attacked in her home and she was no longer living.

There did not seem to be a shortage of suspects in her murder. Crystal has a past with several boyfriends, some of which who had been jealous and violent, and a few other issues with others. Then there were the rumors and the suspicions of people that even led to a finger being pointed to Crystal's twelve year old daughter, Sarah. Sarah of course had been in the home at the time of the murder and while there were some who, without proof or reason, believed she could have been involved there were even more who believed that she knew more than she had told investigators. For the next several years she was interrogated by investigators and even family members who believed she got a better look at the perpetrator than she had stated and knew who had killed her mother. Many felt she was “covering” for someone. One of the other main suspects was Crystal's fiance', Dennis. A few other former boyfriends were also considered to be early suspects and despite the fact that Sarah was still close to some of them she feared any contact with them due to the suspicion.

For the next several years Sarah shuffled back and forth between family members as the investigation was launched and then waned. For the first several years she lived in Texas with an aunt. This helped her put distance between herself and the small town that had also been traumatized by the murder of her mother. After a falling out with the aunt in Texas she moved back to Maine to live with another aunt and uncle until she graduated and left for college.

There appeared to be few leads in the investigation and even after sending Sarah to be hypnotized they were still unable to get more information about the perpetrator. What they did know was that Crystal had been stabbed in excess of fifty times in her chest, face and head. The fatal wound had occurred to her chest and it was determined that even if the phones had been working in the home it was unlikely that Crystal would have been alive by the time responders would have made it to the scene. Crystal had suffered superficial wounds to her arms and wrists and investigators believed these to be defensive wounds. Investigators had also found tears, along with sperm cells around Crystal's anal area. A forensic test determined that the sperm had been left anywhere from minutes to four hours before Crystal died. Many suspects gave samples of their DNA but none matched that found at the scene nor did it match any known offenders in the criminal system.

In 2003 Michael Hutchinson pleaded guilty on an “unrelated threatening charge.” State law required that he submit a DNA sample. While he was sentenced to five years in prison in the threatening case, the DNA results showed a match to the Crystal Perry case and led to him being charged with murder.

Until the DNA test results returned Michael Hutchinson was not on law enforcement's radar. They brought him in for questioning and he claimed he did not know nor had ever met Crystal. Armed with the DNA results prosecutors theorized that Hutchinson went to Crystal's home, that was only a half mile from where he lived with his parents, and got her to open the door to him somehow. Once inside they believed he had sexually attacked Crystal and then proceeded to stab her to death.

It appears that until his trial in April of 2007 Hutchinson stuck to his story that he did not know, nor had ever even met Crystal. Prosecutors would argue that Crystal and her daughter had often taken evening walks right by his home and it would have been reasonable to believe that he had seen the pair out on their walks and followed them to see where they lived. At his trial Hutchinson decided to take the stand in his own defense.

Suddenly Hutchinson changed his story. He now told the court and the jury that he did in fact know Crystal Perry.... intimately. He claimed that Crystal had invited him to her home on the evening of her death and after the two had what he called consensual sex that a man, unknown to him had burst into the home. He told the court that the unknown man knocked him out, apparently went on to stab Crystal and then somehow in the process cut Hutchinson's hand. He alleged that he woke up to find Crystal dead (or clinging to life) and he ran from the home, dripping blood from his cut hand along the way. When asked why he never contacted law enforcement about what he alleged he observed he responded that he was “ashamed” of himself over the fact that he had ran from the scene.

The jury did not believe the defense theory and they found him guilty. Four months later in August of 2007 Michael Hutchinson was sentenced to life in prison. He was also ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution. Some have asked why the death penalty was not sought but the answer that is simple. Maine abolished the death penalty in 1887.

In 2009 Hutchinson filed an appeal on the main point that the law that had compelled him to give a sample of his DNA was unconstitutional. The courts denied this motion but I have to say Hutchinson had a point. No, I'm not saying that I think the law was unconstitutional as he argued in the appeal, but there is no doubt that had he not been forced to give his DNA he likely would have not been linked to the murder of Crystal. In 2013 he appealed again. This time he argued against ineffective counsel saying that his original attorneys did not solicit the prosecutors about a plea deal that could have given him less time than the life sentence he received. The courts once again denied his appeal. This time they pointed out that throughout the process leading up to, and including, his trial Hutchinson had proclaimed his innocence. It seemed rather unlikely that with this in mind that Hutchinson would have accepted any plea bargain that would have been offered and his attorney's had no obligation to solicit one for him based on his claims of innocence.

Any successful appeal seems unlikely in this case. With that said it appears that Michael Hutchinson will never leave prison alive.