A teenager investigators say is responsible for a man being in a medically-induced coma has turned himself in to the Dallas police.
Chancellor "Chance" Hutcheson, 18, of Plano, turned himself in Monday after police issued an arrest warrant on an aggravated assault charge -- a second degree felony.
On June 13, 20-year-old UCLA student and tennis player Jeffrey "Jake" Fleming was leaving a concert in Fair Park when someone struck him in the head. The punch knocked Fleming to the ground, where he hit his head on the parking lot concrete, police said. Fleming was later placed in a medically-induced coma at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas due to injury and swelling of his brain.
Police said Fleming and his friends may have been arguing with another group during the concert and that Hutcheson may have hit him.
According to the arrest affidavit, Fleming "was approached by suspect Hutcheson." A witness who was with Hutcheson's party and claimed to have known him for years, said Hutcheson ran to the bus yelling and cursing for the witness to board. The witness said they saw Fleming laying on the ground as they boarded the bus. After leaving, the witness said Hutcheson was "raving about hitting the guy with one punch" and about how the "opponent fell to the ground."
In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Hutcheson's lawyer Jeffrey T. Hall said Hutcheson did not "sucker punch" Fleming, as asserted by Fleming's family, and instead was defending himself from 5-7 other men. Hall said Hutcheson "reacted as most persons would react when confronted by a physical attack against them" and that Hutcheson "left the scene in fear of having to defend himself from the other men in the group."
Sr. Cpl. Janice Crowther with the Dallas police told NBCDFW.COM, Hutcheson was in contact with the authorities and had agreed to turn himself into police over the weekend, but did not. Crowther added that Hutcheson turned himself in Monday, then posted a $25,000 bond and left Dallas' Lew Sterritt Justice Center at about 1:30 p.m. Monday.
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Investigators initially offered a $10,000 reward for information on the case. But police won't say if a tip led to the arrest warrant being issued in Hutcheson's name. Dallas police also told NBCDFW.COM that Hutcheson was a senior at Plano West high school last year.
On Monday, NBCDFW.COM's Omar Villafranca knocked on the door of the Hutcheson residence in Plano to get Hutcheson's side of the story, but no one answered the door.
