Petito death scene recalls Carol Hutchinson slaying

Photos from the Gabby Petito crime scene show police used orange paint to flag the location of over two dozen small bullet-hole-like markings on rocks and trees near her body. Before the coroner identified the cause of death as throttling or “manual strangulation,” many believed Gabby’s fiancé chased her with a handgun, continuously firing until the frightened 22-year-old fell dead.

No one from South Louisiana could imagine that scene without recalling the murder of Carol Hutchinson. According to the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office, in 2019, Carol’s boyfriend, Errol Wayne Hicks, allegedly chased her through his rural neighborhood while shooting the 48-year-old daycare owner multiple times.

Hicks, 70-years-old, stood trial Tuesday, October 12, 2021, and a 21^st Judicial District Court found him guilty of second-degree murder, and he is expected to receive the mandatory sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.

Jo Hano, co-owner of the Little People’s Play Station in Livingston, spoke to reporters two days after the shooting. “She was such a loving person, so full of life. She was like Wonder Woman,” she said.

Before she died, Carol told Jo about her weekend plans to visit her former home in the 19000 block of McLin Road to collect her belongings after breaking off her relationship with Errol Hicks.

Prosecutors allege Errol Hicks first shot Carol in the chest at his McLin Road residence west of Livingston. Wounded, she ran to a neighbor’s home to escape her attacker. However, according to court filings, the neighbors had locked their door for the night. Before they could open the door, Carol fled to another neighbor’s house. A second shot, the report said, struck Carol in the back, but she continued running. At another house, a neighbor met her on the carport. He asked her to have a seat while he stepped inside to call 9-1-1.

As the neighbor called emergency services, according to prosecutors, Hicks stepped onto the carport and shot Carol in the head and leg.

Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office detective Jeff Beatty testified for the state at Hick’s bond hearing. He was one of the first deputies to respond to the McLin Road address where Hutchinson died, about 470 feet down the road from the home she once shared with Hicks.

The detective said the initial investigation by the Sheriff’s Office showed Hicks shot Hutchinson near his house, then he followed her down the street as she knocked on doors trying to find help.

The detective told the court that Hicks claimed in an initial statement that Carol Hutchinson pulled a gun on him and that he slapped it away and shot her, then followed her down the street and shot her a few more times.

Detective Beatty said police found no evidence of Carol having a weapon of any kind.

At the hearing, the state described Hicks as a flight risk, saying he had a documented criminal history of threatening and the use of force. They said he posed a potential danger to Carol’s family and the neighbors who witnessed the attack. However, Beatty disputed this, insisting Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office records did not indicate any documented history of violence between Hicks and Carol Hutchinson. They had no restraining order on file, and aside from two calls to Hicks’ residence for disturbing the peace, he had no criminal history in Livingston Parish.

Arguing to keep Hicks behind bars, Assistant District Attorney Serena Birch entered into record three items from the suspect’s criminal history, a Tennessee assault with intent to murder charge from the 1970s, and the two Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office disturbance calls, one of which alleged Hicks pulled a firearm on his son.

Hicks’ public defender objected to those entries. Hicks, he said, saw no conviction for the 1970s charge and no charges in the two disturbance calls.

Judge William Burris overruled the defense lawyer’s objections and accepted the history, adding that he believes Hicks presents a danger to the public.

The judge noted at least two key witnesses to the shooting were neighbors within close-proximity to Hicks’ home. The judge ordered the sheriff’s office to hold Hicks without bond, and an arsonist destroyed Hicks’ home soon after.

Jo Hano told reporters she met Errol Hicks several years before Carol’s assault when Hicks and Carol started dating, and, she said, he seemed like a nice person.

“I just don’t know what happened to him,” she said.

Hunter Pearson, one of Hutchinson’s three sons, told interviewers he felt the same way. “I never could’ve in a million years imagined something like this,” he said.

Jo said she and Carol worked together for 11 years. They met when their children played T-ball together. Carol, the team’s coach, struggled alone wrangling the kids on the field until Jo volunteered to help.

“We weren’t only coworkers; we were very close friends,” Jo said. “We raised our kids together.”

Hunter described his mother as selfless, a person endlessly caring for the little ones she worked with at the daycare and others around her. “She would drop anything and everything to help somebody else and she would never ever, ever make you feel bad or guilty about it,” he said.

Errol Hicks will stand trial for second-degree murder Tuesday, October 12, 2021, in 21st Judicial District Court. Brian Laundrie remains on the run. Authorities have yet to charge him with murdering Gabby Petito.

In both horrific cases, the motive for a man shooting his former lover multiple times remains unclear.