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Scott Dutton (left) is charged with murder in the 2016 fatal shooting of Josh McLemore (right). Dutton was released from the Morgan County Jail today on $50,000.

(File photos)

After 252 days behind bars on a murder charge, the owner of Decatur's Downtown Dawgs restaurant has been released on $50,000 bail.

Scott Dutton, 34, was released today from the Morgan County Jail. The business owner had been held without bail since he was charged in the June 21, 2016 fatal shooting of Joshua McLemore, a 27-year-old Army veteran.

Dutton was released shortly before 9 a.m. today after posting a property bond, Morgan County Chief Deputy Mike Corley said.

The conditions of Dutton's bonds include a curfew and prohibit him from having a gun or drinking alcohol, according to an order by Morgan County Circuit Judge Glenn Thompson.

Thompson is the same judge who previously denied Dutton bail, citing a history of violence. In 2012, Dutton was stabbed in the head after brandishing a weapon during a fight across from his business. No charges were filed in that incident.

"The defendant being at large will pose a real and present danger to others or the public at large," Thompson wrote on a June 22 warrant for Dutton's arrest.

During a hearing the next month, Thompson again decided not to grant Dutton bail.

"The court finds the defendant to be a danger to the public," Thompson wrote in an order denying bond after the hearing.

But, at a hearing last week, Thompson reversed course.

Dutton is required to be at home from 6 p.m.-7 a.m. each day, according to Thompson's order. At all other times, Dutton must be at work in his restaurant on East Moulton Street.

Thompson ordered Dutton be under supervision of the Morgan County Community Corrections program and that he receive an alcohol monitor immediately upon release.

The murder case is pending indictment by a grand jury, which is tasked with determining whether prosecutors have enough evidence for a case to proceed to trial.

The shooting occurred at Dutton's home in Decatur when he and McLemore were arguing over a woman they both were seeing romantically. Dutton is claiming self-defense in the shooting, though McLemore, of Hartselle, was unarmed.