Brownwood Man Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges, Gets Sentence

A Brownwood man who pleaded guilty to felony drug charges was sentenced on Thursday.

According to District Attorney Micheal Murray, Brown County resident Che Patrice Hutchinson was sentenced to 50 years in prison for felony charges of delivery of a controlled substance.

First Assistant District Attorney Sam C. Moss presented evidence that Che Hutchinson delivered over 4 grams of methamphetamine to a confidential informant on Nov. 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 roundup on Aug. 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 cellphone. 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.

Dibrell interviewed Hutchinson after the Aug. 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 also able to seize the cellphone of this individual. Aaron testified that Che Hutchinson's cellphone 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, and recalled the arrogant attitude of Hutchinson. Sams said in his testimony that during his April 2011 arrest, he asked consent to search Hutchinson's home to which he 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 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 Aug. 17, 2011 arrest but was taken into custody on Feb. 16, 2012 after receiving the 50 year sentence.