By Eric Fleischauer

A 23-year-old Lacey’s Spring man in Morgan County Jail on charges that include first-degree sexual abuse has over the last four years faced multiple charges but was out on bond Saturday when he allegedly entered a neighbor’s house and began fondling a sleeping woman.

Christopher Walter Hutchens, of 323 Mack Brown Road, is jailed in lieu of $200,600 bond. In addition to the felony sexual abuse charge, the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office filed misdemeanor charges of menacing and attempting to elude law enforcement.

According to an affidavit filed Tuesday in Morgan County District Court by sheriff’s Lt. Garry Landers, a woman was asleep in her boyfriend’s house on Mack Brown Road and the boyfriend left for work Saturday morning. Sometime after 8:30 a.m., the woman “was awakened by someone fondling her” and recognized Hutchens as the man who had his hand in her underwear.

“Christopher held her down and began choking her, made the statement, ‘You know you liked it,'” according to the affidavit.

The woman got away from Hutchens, retrieved a gun and left the house, according to the affidavit.

When deputies arrived Hutchens ran from them on foot, Landers said, and pointed a toy gun at them before being apprehended.

District Judge Brent Craig ordered that if Hutchens does post bond, he must enroll in Morgan County Community Corrections and submit to random drug screens.

Hutchens filed a hardship affidavit claiming that he has no income. Decatur attorney Carl Cole was appointed to represent him.

In 2019 and 2020, Hutchens was charged by another female resident of Mack Brown Road with misdemeanor indecent exposure, harassment and related counts after she alleged he pulled down his pants in front of her and fondled himself. That charge was dismissed by prosecutors on the day of trial.

In October 2021, he was charged with first-degree theft for allegedly stealing a van from another Mack Brown Road resident. He was released on $5,000 bond, but the bond was revoked Tuesday due to the first-degree sexual abuse arrest three days earlier. His bond in the theft case had previously been revoked in July when he was charged with another first-degree theft on Mack Brown Road, but was later reinstated.

The July theft case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning it could be refiled, by the Morgan County District Attorney’s Office.

In January 2022, while in Morgan County Jail, Hutchens was charged with second-degree assault after “a physical altercation where he admitted to punching, kicking and body slamming (another inmate) over a few hours time” in a jail cell, according to an affidavit by a deputy. The deputy said the victim sustained a broken arm and orbital and nose fractures.

Hutchens was released from jail in June on the assault charge after posting a $2,500 bond. No trial date has been set.