the daily show places of the air and that is our broadcast for this friday night and for this week with our thanks for being with here with us as we always say have a good weekend, unless you have other plans. >> they told the gold coast. the sun, the sea, and this million dollar home, a mystery. >> he was talking on the telephone when he heard a loud bang. >> a woman, murdered. her husband went blind. >> are you bleeding? do you see any blood? >> i'm bleeding all over, yes. >> okay. >> i can't see. >> but who? >> everyone is somewhat of a suspect. >> and why? >> what brings someone to make a decision they are going to do this. >> was it love? >> what we learned was that she was having an affair with the sun. >> was that money?

>> nobody knows what happened except for him and garrett. >> what was the truth, hidden here on this tropical paradise? >> it was an assassination, a hit, no question. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> it was august, hot in coral gables. the air was short sticking thick as night fell. the small debris pushed the palms. and the artificial pool of attorney john sutton house was a party already known early. it was susan sutton's birthday attending their son, his girlfriend, and john's law partner. melissa, off to college in north florida couldn't be there. so she found her mother to say

she missed her. >> were you too close? >> extremely. that's my best friend. >> i will ask how old your mom was? >> 57? no, you can't put that on! she was a nice 45, let's leave it at that. >> the guests left, the law partner went home, the son christopher and his girlfriend went out to a movie. john settled into watch tv in the master bedroom. susan in another bedroom, talk on the phone with a close friend. quiet and pleasant evening. quiet, but not for long. >> coral gables 9-1-1. >> i need police. my house. i have just been assaulted. >> what happened sir? >> somebody came in and shot me. >> they shot you? >> yes. >> who did it? >> i don't know. i can't see. i need police and i need an ambulance. >> okay. where did he shoot you? >> in my head.

>> john sutton, a tough as nails techno prisoners lawyer, was barely conscious that he made the 9-1-1 call. he told the operator blood was gushing from his head wounds. he couldn't see. >> who else is in the house with you? >> my wife, susan. >> and where is she? >> i don't know. >> somehow, he made it out the front door on his own. he was met by a paramedic. >> the holes in his head, in his face. i mean, i couldn't believe how he made it out of the house, walking to us. >> they stabilized sutton, rushed him off in an ambulance. an hour north of sutton's home homicide larry belyeu was getting home after a long shift. >> i was pulling into my driveway when i got the phone call. he was injured but he called 9-1-1 and made his way to the door and opens the door. >> they didn't want to go on until he came out? >> they wanted to know whether the persons involved were inside. they backed off until the swat team arrived and made entry into the house. >> not knowing if a gunman was

still in the house, swat teams cleared the house room by room, binding entering the bedroom where susan sutton had been on the phone. >> when they went into the room where mr. sutton was they didn't see anybody. >> miami-dade prosecutor karen kagan was on homicide to do that night i was called out to the scene. >> we saw a mound on the bed covered by a blanket. there were bullet holes in the blankets and they had to yank and blankets down. when they did that, they found mrs. sudden in bed with our hands up, she had been holding the blanket and covering herself. literally ducking under the covers for cover. >> susan sutton was dead. a bloody phone beside her. she must have dropped it as she pulled up the covers in her vein attempt to hide from her killer. house secured, no shooter around, the swat team were through. a dispatcher warned detective larry belyeu this might be the deadly result of a domestic dispute. sutton's 9-1-1 call an attempt

to cover up what he had done. >> when i got the phone call, and said there was a murder suicide down in the city of coral gables, we heard the husband was rushed out to a trauma center, and in critical condition. >> on route was two bullet holes to his side. had sutton killed his wife and turned the gun on himself? no. that theory is quickly dismissed when the paramedic who took him to the hospital put out an update over the radio. >> we can't provide any info, but does look like he has a gunshot wounds to the head. i don't know if it was defensive wounds. >> he had wounds to his hands, which would make it clear that was defense type wounds that somebody else must of shot because he put his hands up. >> obviously first blue, this is not -- >> this is not murder suicide. >> who or why would anyone want to harm john or susan sutton? the sutton's lived exemplary lives, had it all. a beautiful house with a 31 foot boat out back.

an exclusive coral gables, the upscale enclave south of miami. his law practice, susan worked his office manager, it was booming. that, week he received a check for 1 million dollars for a case he'd settled. r 1 millso, was robbery the mot? and if so, how did the killer get into the house? officers tsai curtain blowing in the wind the race lighting glass door in the rear of the house near the pool. the door last showed signs it had been broken long before that night. >> the killer had gone and through that sliding glass door, head walked all the way through that house. no ransacking. jurors were not open. in the master bathroom, on the vanity was beautiful diamond and gold jewelry. clearly, early on, it was pretty easy to detect that robbery was not the issue here. it was apparent that they were targeted. it was an assassination. it was a hit. >> an assassination?

a hit? that sort of crime didn't happen in coral gables. whatever the motive, there is nowhere to go on, no murder weapon, no fingerprints, no dna. there was one possible lead, susan sutton, as it was obvious from the bloodstained evidence, had been on the phone when she was shot five times. someone heard, the screams and bullets rubbing through the silence of that steamy august night. but who? coming up -- and what did he know that police didn't? >> a polygraph, wouldn't he? >> he passed on certain information, but deceptive in others. >> which is a red flag? >> yes. >> when dateline continues. line continues

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melissa sutton 19 years old i looked away her new college dorm life and northern florida unaware what had happened to her parents tonight before. and where her mother was dead. unaware that in a miami emergency room, doctors were fighting to save her father's life. >> who told you and how? >> i actually got a call from a friend who that i hope your dad is going to be okay, and i went, what? like, maybe a heart attack or something. >> out of the blue? >> out of the blue. >> practically melissa called every never she could back home. >> called my mom, she didn't answer. i called teddy montoto, my dad's partner, extremely close family friend and he didn't answer. i called my brother, he said he couldn't talk right now. >> are you frantic? >> i didn't know what, what level. >> eventually, melissa reached teddy montoto overlooked utley

broke the news to her on the phone you brought her back to miami at the hospital her father was an intensive care. her brother, 26-year-old christopher had already arrived. both of them were reeling from the loss of their mother and now they kept vigil of their gravely wounded fathers bedside. >> we didn't know if he was going to live very long. to say gruesome is, you know. if i didn't know his hands and no little pieces of him, he wouldn't have known it was him. >> you faced the shocking prospect of becoming an orphan? >> i don't think that ever crossed my mind, actually. he was still alive in my mind. >> melissa wondered why her parents? who could have done this? investigators describing it as a hint. >> did you have any sense at all what may have happened? >> teddi told me what had happened, but i didn't know who had done it. i thought it was some sort of

break in. it was my first instinct. it's what i thought for a long time until we talked about my dad's clients. >> homicide elective larry belyeu and arts were also thinking about sutton's clients and those who sued on their behalf. at this point, jon sutton couldn't provide any information. he was cleaning to live in a drug induced coma. >> i went several times to talk to john sutton. he was on pain medication, he was intubated. we are looking at businesses and his law firm that would've made people angry at him. >> attorneys take money from people and make people mad. >> find out if any of these people had reason for revenge on john sudden. >> john sutton run as long from lucky run most things in life. efficient and hard driving. in fact, detectives heard about one woman who lost in 87,000 dollar lawsuit and was so much she threatened to shoot up johns firm.

and the very night of the murder, a neighbor friday boat roaring down the canal behind johns host and it turned out that women own such a vote. >> she was interviewed down the line also. she was not the person responsible. >> what about that phone call susan was on when she was shot to death? detectives found the bloodstained hands that she dropped when the gun opened fire. who was she talking to? that person heard something? detectives got their answer almost right away. john sutton's labrador teddy montoto had shown up at the house even before the first reports of the shooting hit the news that night. he was also armed. >> he was talking to susan sutton on the telephone when he heard a loud bang, or what he said maybe gunshots, he didn't know. >> that's what he told police? depending on the amount of truth in his statement, he could be a suspect? >> absolutely. >> but that had to be impossible. teddy and susan worked together!

they talked often and frequently late at night. >> it is my mom's best friend. i call him my godfather, pretty much. like a relative. >> but police were suspicious. why had montoto arrived so quickly after the shooting? why was he armed with a handgun? a few questions, and perhaps more important, some testing to do. >> we interviewed him extensively. we do take gunshot residue from his hands. he was given a polygraph, wasn't he? >> yes, he was. >> how do you do? >> he passed on certain information, but he showed that he was deceptive and others. >> which is a red flag? >> yes. >> a red flag this early in the investigation, what exactly did law partner teddy montoto have to hide? perhaps john sutton could tell. the survivor of the slaughter, it was clear, was going to live. and when he came out of his coma, what story would he tell? what did he see?

coming up, with his victim defenseless in the hospital, with a killer try again? john sutton's sun seemed to think so. >> i do recall him very adamant that my dad be placed under john does who ever did this could not finish off what they have started. >> was the killer already closer than anyone could've dreamed? when dateline continues. ues. gestive and neurological side effects have rarely been reported. ask your vet for heartgard plus. it's so busted, you can't use this part of the screen. definitely cracked every phone i've owned. (announcer) you broke your phone, so verizon broke the rules. for the first time ever, new and current customers

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after my car accident, plus 0 % interest for 36 months. ends monday i wondered what my case was worth. so i called the barnes firm. when that car hit my motorcycle, insurance wasn't fair. so i called the barnes firm.

it was the best call i could've made. atat t bararnefirmrm, our r inry a attneysys wk hahard i could've made. atat t bararnefirmrm, to get you the best result possible. call us now and find out what your case could be worth. you u mit bebe sprisised >> susan sutton moos dead, shot ♪ the barnes firm injury attorneys ♪ ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million ♪ five times by a killer who invaded her home after her birthday party. her husband, john, an attorney, had been shot in the head twice and was in critical condition at a miami hospital undergoing many surgeries to save his life. soon after the shooting, detectives had a potential suspect, john sutton's good friend and law partner. >> he had a partner who was on

the scene one homicide detectives got their. >> teddy montoto told police he'd been on the phone with susan, heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire, rushed over to the sutton house with a gun of his own to try and help. was that the whole story? they gave montoto a polygraph. it showed he'd been deceptive, hiding something. >> what we learned was he was having an affair with misses sutton. >> so, montoto hadn't been straight with them or with his good friend and partner, john sutton. but was he off the hook for murder? well, maybe. maybe not. when they checked phone records, it appeared teddy montoto montoto was still being deceptive. he told the affair had been recent and brief. that's not about the phone records said. did teddy montoto have some secret reason to kill his lover and her husband? they tested him for gunshot

residue, and said he might test positive. he was an expert marksman, had been shooting earlier that day. >> another twist in the story, but what did it mean in terms of the likelihood he was involved in this incident? >> again, it was early in the investigation. a lot of investigating to do. >> mostly, for days, they waited with everyone else to see if john sutton would survive the attack, to see if they could ask him what happened? until now, all they heard from sutton, was this -- >> are you bleeding? do you see any blood? >> i'm bleeding all over, yes. >> okay. >> i can't see. >> i can't see. it was almost a week after the shooting. when sutton was awakened by a medically induced coma, he was going to live. but, he was going to live with the scars of the shooting he lost and i, but worse, far worse, was the news the doctors gave him. he would never see again.

he was blind in both eyes. >> shortly before i left the hospital, some ophthalmologist came around and very bluntly told me there was nothing they could do for my eyesight. i was very unhappy, very upset about the eyesight. >> did you know right away he was going to be blind? >> no, i didn't. we didn't even know if he was going to live for a long time. >> we nice to look into his eyes and no he could see back and see you. >> it's different. it's different to look at someone who's blind. it's a different expression. >> for a long time, any expression was masked by a truly dreadful injuries. how many bullets have been hit by? >> i had to in my head. in the right temple, and i'm told out the left draw. one higher towards my ear, and one in the lower part of the

job. >> only the shots to his head, the type of his ring finger was blown. off other shots in his thumb and shoulder. >> six pretty good sized bullet holes. >> when he was well enough to talk to detectives, sutton told them what he could. the story of a man who barely witnessed the attack that killed his wife and almost killed him. he was a former college swimmer, so he was watching an olympic diving event in the master bedroom, he said. >> next thing i, know somebody was standing there and a black cat or visor, black shirt, black pants. face shaded by the visor, and opened fire. all i really remember was one bang. >> the bullets destroyed his right eye, and severed the optic nerve in his left eye. the optic nerve connected the eye to the brain. without it, site is impossible. but the bad news, of course, didn't and there. >> how did you find out about

susan? >> at some point, i ask melissa how is mom doing? and melissa said, well, she's not doing quite as well as you. they are working on her somewhere else. so, we need to hang in there. didn't really mean too much to me. i think i was hallucinating an awful lot. at some point, somebody told me that she had died. >> in fact, for weeks and weeks, sutton drifted in and out of alertness. dependent on others. >> of course, my son was there. a bunch of my friends were there because i had multiple surgeries in that hospital. >> and as he lay in that bed, sedated, medicated, breathing through tubes, thoughts, half a dream, terrified him. was the killer a hit man? was he coming to try again? >> i thought somebody was trying to kill me one night, so i raised hell. i said, you know, call the police. you know, everything i could say to get some assistance. >> he was wrong.

there was no killer. still, christopher demanded the hospital take special precautions. >> i do recall him very adamant that my dad be placed under john doe, so whoever did this could not find him and finish off but they had started. >> so, you were a pretty paranoid guy? >> most certainly! >> and with good reason. because the killer was still out there, and knew exactly where john sutton was. coming up, but unfortunately, police had no idea where the killer was. >> everyone is somewhat of a suspect. you start with the family, you work your way out. >> when dateline continues. tinues

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>> the fact that john sutton was alive at all after that mystery invader killed his wife and shot him in the face was a medical marvel, frankly. the rest of the news was not so good. when he was finally able to talk, sutton received a visit from police detectives. susan, police discovered, had been having an affair with sutton's law partner teddy montoto. >> it's upsetting. i'm not excusing teddy, i'm not excusing anybody. i don't focus on that, i can't change, it i can't change any of. this it's like a bad dream. >> but then the dream got worse. teddy was a possible murder suspect. >> one of the homicide actives related to me that there had been a problem with the polygraph. >> because he was actually a suspect? >> i suspect so. anybody that was probably anywhere near me was a suspect. >> but as sutton was absorbing the news of his wife's the

parent vitriol, montoto slipped off the list top suspect. for one thing, he could not have been the shooter, he was on the phone with susan when it happened. records confirmed he actually called the police before rushing to the sutton house. so as detectives eliminated early suspects like montoto, they went back to the basics of every homicide investigation -- >> everyone is somewhat of a suspect. you start with the family, and you keep working your way out. >> family. >> john and susan met on a blind date and we're married a year later from the beginning they made family a very big deal, even though they were strikingly good financially, they were stymied. no matter how much they tried they could not have children. >> she wanted a baby more than anyone in the world. >> but if wishing couldn't make

her pregnant, it could make her a mother by adoption she got her wish and it was the happiest day of her life when she brought christopher home christopher sutton was born april 13th 1979 of the day they brought him home he remembers every minute every detail, even the green suit he was wearing. >> when christopher came to us, about two days home he is very cute, a lot of fun. >> it was a lot of fun? >> absolutely. >> she quit her job to be a full-time mom, but she kept trying to be pregnant and was suffering through years of failed fertility treatments. finally adopted a sister for christopher, melissa. >> she was and always has been a little angel, absolutely. she would probably be upset

with me saying this, but she was pretty close to perfect. >> which seem to describe the family to, they told the kids they've been adopted and it didn't seem to wear them at all. >> my mom and my dad were my mom and my dad. these are my biological and these are my adoptive. i had a great childhood. >> and there were advantages to having a brother seven years older. especially when he grew to be a six foot 200 pounder. >> he was my protector. someone made fun of me at school one time, he came and he gave the kid a stern look like a big older brother did. i think he was protective of me. >> after the murder, christopher resumes that protective role, this time for his father who insisted that melissa should return to college in northern florida. >> the day after the shooting was her first day of college. i was then and i'm still proud

that she managed to stay in school. >> during the long and arduous recovery, and many surgeries are protectively are formed around john's demeanor. he learned, the hard way, to keep focusing and emotions at bay, it was easier that way. survival mode. >> he just focuses on putting one foot in front of the other, and i think i do the same thing. if you were to break down emotionally all the time, or dwell on what happened, you wouldn't get out of bed. >> the doctors let him go home finally, but since home wasn't actually livable he moved in with christopher at his town house. >> my house was a mess because it was a crime scene. the most logical place for me to go was not where the incident occurred because we didn't know who was responsible, but the town house was and that's where i went. >> the full-time nurse looked after him and christopher and

his girlfriend julia, were there for him the rest of the time. three months after the august shootings when john decided that he was ready to go home to the house in which the shooting happened, christopher went with him. eyes for his blind father. >> at that point, he was more involved in driving me around or some caregiving. >> but now it's was almost christmas, still no arrests. the detective belyeu was following leads trying to find anyone with a motive to kill the sentence. understand the digging they were doing was mostly amount of dry paperwork, records of phone calls, and then somewhere in the middle of that pile -- there it was, and boy was it a doozy. coming up. >> he sits across from me and i go, we have something here.

>> a phone call from a killer. when dateline continues. eline continues. it works naturally with the water in your body to unblock your gut. free your gut, and your mood will follow. >> there's a reason of course

why parents worried about the company their children keep. it was months after johnson's lost his wife and his wife to an intruder. miami detectives were plowing their way through miles of

phone records, anything they could narrow down their list of suspects. in the pile of material from the phone company, they came across a name. >> we isolated within a three or four hour period of the murder five or six different names, and one of those came back to garrett kopp. who >> was he talking? two >> on the 22nd, i want to say there were 13 phone calls, they were made between garrett kopp and chris sutton's phone call. >> a lot of? calls >> lots of calls. >> it meant nothing at all probably but still, garrett kopp was 20, a frequent visitor around the sutton house, he didn't seem to have a house or any direction life. but christopher saw some good in him, apparently. hired him occasionally to do our jobs. in fact, after the murder christopher had carpet ripped

up the carpet from the bloody scene. >> what kind of person was he? like >> when garrett was in the house, he was always at a distance. i cannot recall any conversation whatsoever with garrett. >> when they called each other all the time even on the night of the murder, right just one christopher and juliet were coming out of the movie. >> we pulled the video and it showed him getting on his cellular telephone right after all the shooting happened. >> was there a connection here with what happened? again probably not, but just to cover all the bases that this detective ran a criminal background check on kopp and what do you know. >> he was arrested on august 23rd -- >> the day after the shooting? >> the day after the shooting. i still get goose bumps. when i remember that because he

was sitting across from me and i go, we have something here. >> indeed they did. one day after the murder, garrett cop was arrested for aggravated assault after an altercation at this apartment complex. big no no. he pulled a gun on a couple of guys. it happened at homestead florida couple of miles away from the scene. detective belyeu called the police department talked to the arresting officer. >> please tell me it was a handgun? it was. i tell them please tell me was a nine millimeter handgun, he says it was. and then i tell him please tell me you have that weapon? and then he says i do. and i say i have to get that gun. i went down and picked up the gun and we submitted to our firearms staff. >> the report came back clear as day. this was the gun that killed susan sutton and blinded her husband.

which obviously connects garrett kopp to that murder pretty intimately. >> absolutely. >> but detectives did not rush out to arrest kopp, for a very simple but important reason, there was a bigger question that needed to be answer. did his friend christopher know anything, was he perhaps even involved? shocking question of course, because this was the son who was devoted to nursing his son back to health. something about christopher bothered the detectives. and it had ever since they interviewed him after the murder. >> he said i was at the movies. he said do you want to see the tapes. >> he just had them right there? >> basically to me it was a red flag there. i want to prove that i am at the movies. >> odd? perhaps. but it might mean nothing at all. the gun implicated kopp, but christopher? no real evidence to show that he would do a thing.

>> there were a lot of pieces of the puzzle that we were putting together. >> we couldn't prove anything. >> like for example this big piece of evidence, right here. what's in evan's name might an island in the far pacific have to do with the shooting of john and susan sutton? coming up. double paradise, for a young christopher and his family. >> he was kidnapped in the middle of the night and he was 17 years old. >> we knew that christopher son complained that he had been hanging tied, beaten. >> when dateline continues. when dateline continues but that's all thanks to ted, a man who possesses an innate understanding of dimension. uh... ted... (ted) sorry, i was in the zone. also my name is brian. (brad) apartments-dot-com! the most popular place to find a place.

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[sfx: kids laughing] [sfx: bikes passing] [sfx: fire truck siren] onstar, we see them. okay. mother and child in vehicle. mother is unable to exit the vehicle. injuries are unknown. thank you, onstar. ♪ my son, is he okay? your son's fine. thank you. there was something in the road... it's okay. you're safe now. >> amazing, garrett kopp was

arrested with a gun that was the murder weapon in the sutton case. the same garrett kopp that talk

so often with christopher sutton. >> we're trying to think why would garrett kopp do this? >> he is a 20-year-old kid, obviously there's a tie with christopher sutton. >> and that's for christopher himself, the detectives had no trouble finding people with an opinion about him. >> the cops should be looking at christopher sutton because of the lengthy family history of problems that john ensued sin had had with their son. he was a handful from a very early age. >> a very early age, actually. as john sutton recalls all too clearly. did he get in the fights at school? >> i can remember that happening early on in preschool. >> it got worse as he got older. did he get into trouble? >> absolutely.

there was vandalism. not only of our own things, there was vandalism of other peoples property. >> they sent him off to boarding schools, but he didn't lasted any of them. failed or got kicked out. the whole family tried, said his sister melissa, the trouble wasn't the lack of love not at all. was it your sense that christopher was loved? >> no doubt about it. >> neither love nor money could prevent christopher from always ending back in the same place. trouble. >> i know that he did drugs, at one point he was arrested for it when i was younger. that was something that my father being a lawyer, as well as a parent, what do we do? >> finally in 1995 when christopher was 16, went to counselors, boarding schools, john and susan looked far away.

to find some help. on the pacific island of western samoa there was a place call paradigm whole, a boot camp for trouble kids. a behavior modification being their specialty. >> so a long way away samoa. it was that an idea that it was gonna be a good idea to -- >> we were very hesitant about samoa, but we investigated it rather thoroughly. >> it was expensive, they charged about $25,000 a year, but -- >> we just had enough. what else could we do? >> the sultans knew that there is no way that christopher would agree to go on his own. attorney son did what attorneys do best. he got a court order to have christopher's forcibly send to samoa. >> he was kidnapped in the middle of the night and he was

17 years old? >> they kidnapped him? >> he was put on a plane and sent to samoa. >> christopher would not brig so easily, and paradise cove was no paradise. there were many reports of physical abuse and restraints used on those who were uncooperative, something christopher learned when he first arrived. >> we knew that he had complained that he was hog-tied, beaten -- >> when his family was allowed to visit him about a year later, it did seem to be a distinct change. a huge improvement. they found a buff, cleaned up young man who excelled at sports. he was, as you can clearly see, a happy family reunion. >> it was really happy. we cried, we hugged, we said, you know, our hollows, we loved each other, he was proud of what he'd learned and showed off to us. >> five months later, christopher turned 18, time for

him to come home. or so he thought. >> he was banking on getting out when he turned 18. but we also learned that john sutton, being a lawyer, hadn't order signed by judge that when you turn 18 if you haven't completed the course you are going to stay. which infuriated christopher. >> why did you decide to keep him there when he turned 18? >> we had concerns that he wasn't ready to return. he had not quote, graduated the program. >> how did he feel about that? >> he was quite upset. >> he wanted to come home? >> he wanted things his way. he always wanted things his way. >> but this time, finally, tough love seem to work. christopher was 19 and a changed man when he returned from his state and samoa. >> we met him at the airport at l.a.x., on his birthday, april 13th -- >> he was happy to see you? >> absolutely. >> it was a joyous reunion?

>> he was thrilled. >> they went on a family cruise, arwa ward for their son. that's where he met his future fiancée, a young woman from boston name julia. julia moved to miami and became a member of the family. johnson even got her a job at his law firm. >> she was, but i would imagine if someone was going to marry into the family. my mother embraced her, julia was a grace influence on my brother and on the family. >> christopher got his act together, enrolled in college, started working. his parents helped out by buying him a 300,000 dollar condo. >> he started up his own company, which in retrospect looking at everything he done from arrest to drug, this is good behavior. we were all happy that things were better. >> anyway, by the time of the murder christopher's 26, and samoa had receded into his distant past.

>> i interviewed melissa at the very beginning. all she knew about her brother was that he was re-bilious as most teenagers are at that age. >> i think i said something along the line of i don't know any reason why he would want to do this. >> a believe her father shared. >> i asked them early on when he was able to talk at jackson hospital, coach or son have something to do with this? >> and he said i don't believe so. >> perhaps garrett kopp acted alone after all. but detectives were convinced christopher had to be mixed up in that awful shooting somehow. someone must know. and they were right. someone did. coming up. johnson survived two bullets to the head. could he survive being home alone with his son? >> christopher made comments that his parents were going to pay. >> when dateline continues. n dateline continues virus.

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had a problem, they were pretty sure that the man who shot john and susan sutton was a frequent visitor of their residents. they at least suspected that the sun's own son, now johns caregiver was all mixed up in it somehow. >> i was becoming more concerned. >> john sutton was he a sitting duck of another attack? you must of found it worrisome that john sutton was living with his son christopher, cared for by christopher? >> sure. >> still they worried but they not act. even though they knew full well that garrett kopp, the shooter they were short, was still hanging around. isn't that right the cop was there? >> and again we still didn't want to tip our head.

>> but should christopher had been a suspected all? does that sound like the behavior of a guilty man? gareth and the -- actually called detectives to tell them that they had found new evidence, a bullet casing under the carpet. >> he said we found another casing. come on. >> it is an indication that maybe they didn't do it? >> i don't think so. >> but that's what any good defense attorneys want to point out? >> the casing was underneath something and i don't know if we all missed, but we missed it. >> we were a little bit pissed. >> detectives remained convinced that christopher harbored and anger towards his parents for sending him to that boot camp in samoa. they talk to some of his alumni's. >> i know he was upset, he was mad at his family for that. >> but when detectives tracked

down another pair of residents, he said that christopher was a lot more upset than that. >> christopher made comments that his parents were going to pay. >> when they took a closer look at christopher's more recent history, they could easily see that his improved behavior wasn't exactly lasting. even girlfriend juliette's influence could not keep him from slipping up. he went back to college after he returned from samoa, but soon dropped out and he did form a company, but the company folded. >> he didn't seem to be motivated. we tried to get him to stay in jobs, nothing seems to be working. >> johnson didn't know that his son had gone back to his one job he seemed to be good at, selling drugs. nor did he know that christopher's friend garrett kopp was one of his best clients. kopp had been buying and reselling the drugs, mostly

marijuana and xanax. he and christopher spent plenty of time saddling the hoods, according to the prosecution. >> it wasn't just drug deals, they hung around a lot. doing drugs, playing video games and whatever. >> in the months after the >> the that is an awful lot of drugs to be dealing in three months if you have 300 some phone calls. >> reporter: could they have been talking murder? speculation of course. but -- then after the murder when kopp was arrested on the gun charge the prosecutors discovered it was christopher who put up the money to bond him out. even drove him to court. hardly the sort of thing a drug dealer would do for a mere customer. >> going to court with him. bonding him out. there was more to this friendship. john sutton knew nothing of what the police were discovering. christopher and his girlfriend were still living with john. garrett kopp was still coming

around. so, solid evidence or no, detectives decided it was time to act. they needed a confession to make their case. >> i told the investigators, bring him to me. >> coming up, a showdown with the killer. >> what did they want you to do? >> go in the back door, walk in, shoot him. >> reporter: case closed? far from it. when "dateline" continues. oooh, that's a low price. ♪♪ ooh, that's a low price. huh. that is a low price. what's a low price? ahh, that's a low price. can you let me shop? hmm, that's a low price. i can get you a new one tomorrow. at amazon, anytime is a good time to save. for the power of a deep clean in minutes try mr. clean clean freak i can get you a new one tomorrow. unlike bleach sprays, clean freak begins deep cleaning on contact with 3x the cleaning power to break down tough messes in seconds

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>> the detectives had a theory to explain the shooting of john sutton and the murder of his wife susan which was that christopher sutton hired his dope-smoking buddy, garrett kopp to kill his parents. it was really just a theory. while the case against kopp was fairly strong, remember the murder weapon was found in his possession. the evidence against christopher was circumstantial. little more than guilt by association. the samoa boot camp may have given christopher a motive.

but -- >> i certainly needed more than that to make the arrest. i decided it was time to act. we are going to need a confession, i believe. >> reporter: given what they had against kopp, detectives gambled the shooter may roll over on the son. >> reporter: he denied all. wasn't my gun? >> it wasn't my gun. looks like we're going to be here a long time today. >> reporter: and they were. hours and hours. >> do you know how the house was set up. i said i don't believe you did this on your own. give me the reason as to how chris got you to do this? he basically said look, you have to look out for me and my family because i am afraid of him. >> reporter: chris is going to kill him. >> if he didn't do this, chris was going to take care of him and his young son. >> reporter: having given himself an excuse. kopp confessed. said christopher was behind it all. gave him the gun. money to buy the black clothes. hired him as the a hit man. >> did he formulate this plan or was it a combined effort between the two of you? >> he did.

>> what plan did he tell you? what did he want you to do. >> go in the back door, walk in, and shoot him. >> reporter: did it upset him to tell you the story. >> not really. not that i could tell. >> reporter: did he seem relieved he had told someone. >> no. during this time i was talking to him. he was pretty calm talking about it. >> reporter: after the confession, kopp was charged with first degree murder and allowed to see his father. his girlfriend and then his son and then taken off to jail. so, case closed? well you would think given what kopp told the detectives in there. but it did not give them what they needed to arrest christopher. there is a feature in florida law, which says that, the things a person says in the confession about somebody else could be labeled as hearsay. they needed more. so they turned to the person closest to christopher, his

fiancee, juliet driscoll, the two engaged to be married in a few weeks. dress bought, invitations in the mail. >> she sat there and said i don't know anything about it. christopher doesn't tell me. >> didn't tell her anything? or so she said. awe thought was my reaction. and i didn't buy it. >> i guess not. because he went on grilling this young woman for more than 12 hours. at the end of which, the detective played to her heart, her relationship with susan and john sutton. >> i said, look, susan really cared about you. she basically thought of you as a daughter. this woman didn't deserve to die like this. john doesn't deserve to be blind the rest of his life. and i know for a fact that garrett did this under the direction of christopher. finally she started crying. and i go, i think i might have him. >> reporter: with the tears came a story, what christopher had said to her that just might nail him for murder.

>> his parents deserve to die for taking years out of his life. she said this went for years. she interjected i knew it was going to happen. i just didn't know when. >> reporter: that night they put juliet who was living with christopher into protective custody. >> the next day i prepared an arrest warrant for christopher sutton. >> reporter: and a female officer paid a visit to christopher's father home alone. >> she says, well, i have good news and bad news. and the good news is that we have arrested the assailant, he has admitted it. the bad news he has inculpated your son and said your son set him up. i go, man, oh, man. that was a bad night. a real bad night. >> what was it like to hear that? was it a shock or did you have some kind of an idea? >> it was 50 emotions all at the same time. one of which is -- well, i finally know. two was, i can't believe this. >> john ever the attorney wanted to know what the evidence was.

had the reports read to him and was convinced. >> i think -- that i was some where in between being completely outraged and upset and somewhere where i knew that he had done it. >> but melissa so grief stricken wasn't focused on who did it so much as what she had lost. >> a lot of people chase the killer. i think i chased missing my mom. >> police are looking for 25-year-old christopher patrick sutton. >> and christopher was nowhere to be found. day after day as police looked for him, john sutton had time to think and remember. one event in particular which perhaps he suppressed. it happened nine years earlier when christopher was 16. it was the deciding factor in sending him off to samoa. >> susan was going through christopher's room. and found a handwritten note planning our murder. >> what did it say?

>> well, it talked about killing us for insurance. >> a week after a warrant was taken out for his arrest, police found christopher and brought him to the miami-dade homicide bureau. there he learned that both his alleged co-conspirator, garrett kopp and his fiancee juliet driscoll implicated him. >> i showed him certain excerpts out of juliet driscoll's statement saying i knew it was going to happen, i didn't know when. he began to sob, put his head on the table and said i'm [ bleep ]. but did that mean he was guilty? or merely that he understood the police believed he was guilty? >> he made comments like, there is no magical way i can tell you where to go to find the truth. >> christopher sutton and garrett kopp were charged with first degree murder, possible death penalty case, both pleaded not guilty. and john sutton got busy.

he had a mission, two, in fact. one to seek justice no matter what that might mean for his son. and the other, perhaps even more impossible, to simply see again. coming up, garrett kopp's confession should be enough to put him behind bars. but did prosecutors have enough to convict christopher sutton? >> this was a circumstantial case, extremely circumstantial. really based on motive. >> when "dateline" continues. hes ♪let's make lots of money♪ ♪you've got the brawn♪ ♪i've got the brains♪ ♪let's make lots of♪ ♪uh uh uh♪ ♪oohhh there's a lot of opportunities♪ with allstate, drivers who switched saved over $700. saving is easy when you're in good hands. allstate click or call to switch today. (brad) apartments-dot-com has

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hello, i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. new cdc guidance says fully vaccinated people no longer have to wear masks outside or indoors with exceptions. 47% of americans have had at least one dose of the vaccine. 36% are fully vaccinated. some states are reviewing their mask mandates. and china successfully landed its rover on mars making

it the second country to do so after the united states. now back to "dateline." >> john sutton survived gunshot wounds to his head, the death of his wife and his own son's arrest for murder. and to top it off, he was blind, apparently permanently. >> it still is unbelievable. i mean, it's like -- a big, bad dream. >> a nightmare from which there was no awakening. but john, if you hadn't noticed by now is a determined man. he had been a champion swimmer in college. now he swam again. he had been a skier. now he learned to ski blind. he fell in love again.

her name is kathy henry. how did you meet her? >> blind date. >> ha-ha. am i supposed to laugh at that line. >> yeah, it's true. >> what has it meant to you to have her with you? >> is has meant a great deal. it's just -- tremendous. i wish i could see her. >> and he went back to the thing he had always done best. he went back to court to practice law. >> we did not sue for breach of that contract. >> where his blindness became not exactly the handicap some opponents seemed to expect. >> i like to put myself down. so i say, poor old blind guy, you know, i'm just trying to do the best i can. then i go in and memorize the citations and let them decide if i know what i'm doing. >> lately he has been busier than ever. recently won a $9 million

judgment for one of his clients. >> the blindness, i just couldn't even imagine. i don't even, i can't even try to think what that would be like. >> memorizing things and going into court, what is that -- a pretty determined guy. >> yeah, i agree. >> but adapting, even successful adapting using a talking typewriter for example. wasn't enough for john sutton. as he waited for his son's long delayed trial, he pursued with something like an obsession, a quest to regain his eyesight. and most people might have given up by then. can't do anything. live with it. >> not even close. i won't take no for an answer. >> some of the best hospitals in the country, sutton had been told there was simply nothing to be done. he would be blind for life. the bullets had permanently destroyed his optic nerve. john had heard about a landmark breakthrough at harvard affiliated research institute in

boston where a renowned researcher had successfully regenerated the optic nerve in mice using stem cell therapy and drugs, human trials would be next. so in march 2008, almost three years to the day after his son was arrested, sutton and his girlfriend kathy were on the cold, rain-swept streets of boston on the way to an appointment at the clinic. >> okay. there is a chin rest in front of you. a doctor evaluated, sutton's one intact eye and discovered even though the nerve was destroyed, the rest of the eye, theoretically at least could work. >> my son is in jail, charged with first degree murder. >> they listened to the awful story of the way john lost his eyesight. they explained to him the amazing things they were doing here like growing corneas in a petri dish and working on optic nerve regeneration. john took it all in, amazed. and for the first time, since

the shooting, he felt a surge of positive excitement. and a little germ of hope lodged itself in his stubborn mind. >> you were thinking, maybe they can do it for you. >> i said i am in the right spot. >> he talked to the leading researcher working on optic nerve repair. >> have you done any studies with severed optic nerves. >> he peppered them with questions like he was cross-examining witnesses. mike gilmore, then president of the research clinic offered sutton a glimmer of hope. >> we will be able to regenerate an optic nerve. it's not so much a question of can we, when can we? >> and it was a good news/bad news sort of day. >> i do not want to mislead you or provide false hopes. >> yes, there might be a cure but perhaps not for five, ten years or more, quite possibly too late for john sutton. >> okay.

>> how soon depends on how much funding we can get, how many scientists we can put behind the problem to solve it. >> sutton told the doctors he would somehow help make it happen. he wrote checks. he joined the board of directors. >> john sutton. >> he offered himself as a voice of hope for desperate patients. >> even though it may never help him, as long as he lives. he is okay with that? >> there is a chance that -- that we may not be able to restore his vision. there is a chance, on the other hand, we may. if he doesn't get behind it. he does know that we're not going to move it as fast as we could. >> well, it is my pleasure to be here today. as you will hear i almost didn't make it here today. sutton traveled the country speaking at fundraisers using his shock and awe presentation to tell his story.

complete with his 911 call and news footage. >> the body of susan sutton. >> i want to flip this tragedy, this catastrophe into a positive. >> meanwhile in miami it was decision time. the alleged shooter, garrett kopp, had finally agreed to plead guilty and testify against sutton's son christopher. in exchange for a 30-year sentence and no death penalty. sutton confronted the killer the day he entered a plea. >> during the next days, months, years, 20 years, 30 years, i want you to think about what you planned and what you did that night, you can be assured that with my blindness, every minute of every day, that i will not forget you. >> all rise, please. >> with that the murder trial of christopher sutton could begin. now, florida law again, now

prosecutors could use the sworn testimony in court of both of the girlfriend and the hit man. but even with that, the case was, as prosecutor kathleen hogue knew all too well, rather weak. >> this was a circumstantial case, extremely circumstantial. really based on motive. >> john sutton wanted the law to convict his son of murder. but was christopher actually guilty? coming up -- in court, the killer returns to the scene of the crime. >> what did you do at the end of the hallway? >> proceeded to shoot. >> who did you shoot at first? >> john. >> and what did you see mr. sutton do when you shot him? >> slip off the bed. >> when "dateline" continues. air wick

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summertime in miami, pounding heat, unavoidable sun, unavoidable except of course inside. >> all rise, please. >> and six years inside a cell in the county jail had produced a doughy christopher dutton by the time his trial began. a son charged with hiring the hit man who killed his mother, blinded his father. and here he sat apparently confident, highly prepared, ignoring most of the time the surviving members of his family a scant few feet away.

>> you know, we locked eyes, but i had nothing to say to him. >> melissa sat with her father, their father. front row seat. prosecutor karen keagan told the jury a horror story. the state's version of what happened the night of the murder. >> the man for whom the gunman had signed on to commit a double-murder. a man who was intimately familiar with john and susan sutton. that man -- their son. christopher sutton. >> then graphic evidence. a crime scene soaked in blood and littered with bullet casings. the medical examiner placed knitting needles in a mannequin to show where susan was shot six times. her son took a deep breath, recoiled, dreadful. but, how would the state prove that christopher was behind it all? >> raise your right hand. she will administer the oath. >> here's how for starters, this man once worked with christopher, was an occasional pot customer too, but was shocked he said when christopher asked him a certain question.

>> what did the defendant ask you? >> he asked me if i knew of any hit men that would kill his parents. >> what reason or explanation did he give you? >> he said his parents were worth about $500,000 to $1 million. >> it was a lot more, actually, house, insurance, law practice, christopher stood to inherit millions. so, was money a motive? or was it the stint at the boot camp in samoa or both? the detective told the jury he tried to find out when he questioned christopher. i said did you hate your parents that much? and his answer? he said you tell me. he said you just don't know. >> but did that answer the question about guilt or motive? or would she? ms. driscoll if you will come forward, stand in front of the clerk here. >> when juliet, once his fiancee and the love of his life walked by him in the courtroom,

christopher's eyes welled up. he hadn't seen her in years. now her testimony could send him away for life. >> what did the defendant tell you about getting his parents killed or taken care of? >> same thing i have been hearing for the last six years. >> which was he could find someone to kill them? >> find somebody, they deserved it. >> this wasn't easy for juliet. as she recalled the last time she saw susan sutton, the night of the birthday celebration a few hours before she was killed. >> we went over, it was me, chris, john, susan, and teddy. we had dinner. >> do you remember that melissa was there? or do you need a minute? >> this may be a good time for a break. >> that night, whether juliet knew it or not, christopher and his drug dealing hit man, garrett kopp were already leaving a trail for detectives.

the trail of phone calls. 17 in all. one just an hour after the murder as christopher and juliet left the movie theater that august night. >> the state will call garrett kopp to the stand. >> here was the man on the end of the phone. the man who said he did it, garrett kopp. 25 years old. short, scruffy. the self-confessed killer shuffled into the courtroom and told a horrifying tale how christopher instructed him to enter the house through a sliding glass door near the pool. how he made a sketch of the house to guide garrett down a hallway to john and susan's bed rooms. >> what did you do at the end of the hallway? >> proceed to shoot. >> who did you shoot at first? >> john. >> is that mr. sutton? >> yes. >> where was mr. sutton when you shot at him initially? >> on the bed. >> and what did you see mr. sutton do when you shot him? >> flip off the bed. >> after you fired at mr. sutton, what did you do? >> proceeded to shoot in the other room.

>> and who was the person with whom you were in a plan to shoot john and susan sutton? >> chris sutton. >> and what do you remember the defendant telling you about how much money you might expect to get? >> upwards of $100,000. >> until this moment, john sutton had been a spectator at his so son's trial. his thoughts and feelings, his own. but he was a victim too, staying out of it, wasn't an option for him. and now came the moment he had both dreaded and demanded. he testified against his own son. first about the night his world went dark. >> the only thing i saw was for an instant a snap, i didn't see the gun, but in an instant, bam, and then, the next thing you knew, i woke up and i was on the floor. >> john sutton answered the questions as if the defendant sitting before him was a man he had never met, as if this was not the boy he had raised from birth. neither father nor son displayed

the slightest emotion. >> it doesn't make any sense to -- to get on the witness stand and cry in front of the jury it can cause a mistrial. so, i dealt with it. i did what i had to do. >> so he did. but, he was right about his son? did the state really have the puzzle solved? or had its key witness been forced to lie? coming up -- now, it was the defense's turn. and christopher's old girlfriend, one of the prosecution star witnesses against him, had a new story to tell. about how she was threatened by police. >> they told me if they didn't hear what they wanted to hear that they were going to arrest me instead. they threw my purse across the room. >> what would that do to the prosecution's case? when "dateline" continues.

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a long, long norwegian winter. but eventually, with spring comes rebirth. everything begins anew. and many of us realize a fundamental human need to connect with other like-minded people. welcome back to the world. viking. exploring the world in comfort... once again. she tells them -- >> it takes a special skill to defend a man facing a charge of first degree murder. in miami, bruce fleisher has honed the skill as well as anyone. but what he could see right away, knew it long before the trial was that the scene in that courtroom was about as bad as it could be. because there they were, just

feet apart. his client and a blind father. the survivor of christopher sutton's alleged plot to kill his parents. >> the fact that john sutton survived and was blind to me was the greatest prejudice in the case. >> there he was right behind the bar the whole time. >> the jury would hear something bad and they would look over at john sutton. they had to be thinking, "this poor man, look what he has to go through life with." >> for the victim, fleisher knew he must display only sympathy. instead he would attack the murder investigation itself. the way the police came up with their two star witnesses, juliet driscoll, and garrett kopp without them the state's case was weak. why do you suppose they came forward anyway? because they were forced to. or so reasoned fleisher. juliet driscoll, why did she tell police christopher talked about killing his parents? >> they eventually tell her if you don't tell us, what we want

to know, you're going to be arrested in this murder conspiracy. and what does she do? she tells them what they want to know. >> please have a seat over here. >> in fact, the defense attorney got juliet to admit the state wouldn't even have had that if detectives hadn't intimidated and threatened her. >> they told me if they didn't hear what they wanted to hear that they were going to arrest me instead. they threw my purse across the room. they slammed their hands on the desks. >> did they tell you it was going to be for first degree murder? >> they told me they were going to arrest me for murder. >> and you eventually told them what they wanted to hear? >> after 13 hours, yes. >> before christopher was arrested, the two planned a wedding and honeymoon in samoa, of all places. which begged the question -- >> he was going to take the

lives of his parents, why would you stay with him and why would you marry him? >> i can't think of how many times i have heard somebody say, oh, my god i hate this person so much i could kill them right now. when you hear it for six straight years, you just don't believe it. >> finally, juliet testified that detectives lied when they said she told them i knew it would happen, i just didn't know when. >> i never believed he was going to do it. that's why the whole thing with my statement. that i knew he was going to do it. which i said i didn't know he was going to do it. i am still confused about the whole matter. i don't know if he did it or not. nobody knows what really happened except for him and garrett. >> thank you. >> that's what i have been saying. >> so, why not just play a tape of the interrogation. well, they couldn't. the police didn't record a word of their long talk with juliet driscoll. >> she said certainly he said those things. but whether he did it or not is up in the air as far as i'm concerned.

>> i think that gives rise to a major reasonable doubt in this case. >> but remember, garrett kopp, confessed shooter, testified he was christopher's puppet on a string when he killed susan and tried to kill john. how do you get a jury to doubt a statement like that? >> we now had to go after him with hammer and tongs. >> oh, and he did. fleisher went after garrett and the cops. every time you denied being involved in this, they got aggressive with you didn't they? >> somewhat. they're just like, got pushy a little bit. >> got pushy. they walked over to you and pushed you a little bit on the shoulder. >> getting in my face. >> did they touch you? >> leaned up against me. >> like this? >> yeah. >> and when they got close to you like this, were they saying, garrett, garrett? >> something like that. >> you need to tell us, something, garrett. because they're going to fry your ass in the electric chair.

>> excuse me. >> mr. fleisher. >> is that an objection? >> yes, that is an objection. >> the question is, is that what they said to you? >> something like that. i'm going down for murder. >> you're going down for murder. >> i'm going to get the death penalty. >> you are going to get the death penalty. what finally made you give them some information. >> saying that juliet was confessing in the other room. they told me i was going -- i was going to go to jail for murder already. so -- i ended up confessing. >> there was no doubt that kopp committed the murder. but maybe the case against christopher wasn't quite so water tight after all. maybe christopher himself could set the record straight. >> we're calling chris sutton. >> would jurors listen? coming up -- accused of murdering his mother, and blinding his father, a son sheds

tears on the stand for himself. >> that was when they called, in denial. >> do you need a break? >> yeah. >> "dateline" continues. but this is our shot at returning to the faces and places we love and miss. ♪♪ the covid-19 vaccines are ready. and so is walgreens, with pharmacists you know, who know you. so, when you're ready, they'll be ready to give it to you safely, for free. this is our shot at bringing our communities back together. providing healing, not just for some, but for all. this is our shot. this is our shot. this is our shot, at reconnecting with the ones we love,

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>> judge, we are calling chris sutton. >> jurors had to be deeply curious about the man accused of putting a hit on his parents. for one thing, with his buttoned down shirt and glasses he looked more law student than murder suspect.

for two weeks they watched his note taking, his whisper asides to attorney fleisher. >> he felt he was wrongfully prosecuted. the only way we could tie up a lot of things and actually prove things or disprove things is by him testifying. >> give me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. >> i do. >> how would he convey his innocence? first by describing his hospital vigil, a concerned son on the night of the shooting. >> did he acknowledge that you were there? >> yeah, he could squeeze your hand but couldn't speak. >> how did you feel when you saw your father at the ryder trauma center? >> shocked, hurt, worried, scared. >> not that christopher was claiming to be a perfect son. in fact, he told the jury he was a drug dealer. garrett kopp was one of his best customers but had good reason to turn on him. why? because years earlier, christopher said, he turned police informant to get drug charges dropped.

and who did he finger? garrett kopp. >> what happened, if anything, with your relationship with garrett kopp after he was arrested? >> i didn't speak to him for a while. or he didn't speak to me i should say for a while. >> was he mad at you? >> yes. >> so was it payback time, now, yes, says christopher it must have been. thus his theory of the murder. christopher said he had nothing to do with it. told the jury he never asked kopp to kill his parents. kopp made it all up. the police had it all wrong. what really happened he said, was that kopp stormed into the house that night to steal christopher's hidden stash. boxes full of drugs. >> how much marijuana did you store in these boxes? >> in the top box, two pounds. >> what was the value of that? >> $7,000. >> in fact the very day of the murder, said christopher, a hopped up kopp called him again and again, desperate to buy drugs. christopher told him between his

mother's birthday party and a movie that night he couldn't do it. >> why did you tell him that you couldn't get the drugs? >> overruled. >> i told him i left it in my room at my parents' house. >> that's what gave kopp the idea where to go to get the drugs. >> that still doesn't explain why he would in cold blood murder and attempt to murder these two people. >> he went to get the drugs. he found the suttons home. and they could recognize him. he panicked. he was in a drug stupor and he shot them both. >> so if you were garrett kopp, wouldn't you try to implicate the man who turned you in to police? here is the thing, said christopher, he could understand kopp turning on him. but juliet, his own fiancee, when he heard what she told police, he said he broke down in tears. not because of what she said, but why she must have said it. >> as soon as he started reading parts of juliet's statement,

yeah, i started crying. >> why were you crying. >> objection. >> overruled. >> i was crying because the woman i was going to be marrying in five weeks lied to save herself. >> tears of frustration too, said christopher, how could he defend himself against lies when his police interrogator kept accusing him of murder. i told him he will not believe anything what i said and twist my words to use them against me, you know. like he did with juliet. because there is no proof that i did anything. because i know i didn't do anything. >> so there it was. another theory for the jury to consider. but there was one more thing the defense had to do if possible -- knock down the allegation that his banishment to samoa had given him a motive to kill his parents. what you are about to see as christopher described the program probably wasn't in the defense strategy. >> level two is allowed to go to

the bathroom on his own, is allowed to have some more privileges. and then -- >> something in the memories on that island struck a nerve. >> how were you feeling physically during that time? >> i was what they called in denial. >> do you need a break? >> yeah. >> strange. stoic for the rest of his testimony. yet in the process of trying to dismiss samoa as a murder motive he cried about his experience there. so, revealing? attorney fleisher put the best spin on it he could. >> i think that showed his honesty as a witness. >> i cried when i got off the plane. >> when court resumed. christopher told the jury that while he was initially upset about being sent to samoa, he got over it, made the best of it.

when his parents and melissa and came to visit, they all had a wonderful time together. hardly a dysfunctional family in the story the photos told. >> were you happy to be with your parents? >> i was very, very happy to see my parents. i loved them very much. >> he had given the jury an alternative. he tried at least to diffuse the samoa motive. enough? not nearly, said prosecutor keagan. >> what motive did garrett kopp to go in and attempt to assassinate both of those people? none. what motive did christopher sutton have to want both his parents dead? plenty. >> and what's the story here? they have the statement of garrett kopp. the drug-crazed, little thug, who gives this story to save himself from the death penalty. and the coerced statement of juliet driscoll. where is the evidence in this case? what do they have? nothing.

>> seven men, five women on the jury. and real doubt in the air. >> when he first started saying his testimony, he put doubt in my mind. >> coming up, the jury speaks. >> we, the jury -- >> so does christopher sutton. >> sure, i could have been a better guy. >> as his father hopes for a miracle when "dateline" continues.

>> now you may deliberate. >> all rise for the jury, please. >> not an easy task these people were given. did christopher sutton mastermind a plan to kill his own parents? >> we battled for a while. >> who knew that those 12 were butting heads all day in the jury room. and split down the middle after seven hours. they went home. it was mostly garrett kopp they had trouble with. how could they believe a cold-blooded hit man who rats on a friend to save his own skin. >> he is making the deal because he doesn't want the death penalty. >> which means what, you can't believe what he is an opportunist. >> anything to save himself. >> yeah. >> next day they tried again. ten hours went by. sweat in the air conditioned hallway. a deadlock? at 7:00 p.m., two words set the hall abuzz. a verdict. john and melissa sutton took their seats in the front row.

>> bring in the jury, please. >> christopher sutton stood stoned faced as jurors filed in. were those tears from some members of the jury. >> ladies and gentlemen, i understand you have reached a verdict. >> judge stanford blake read the verdict. state of florida versus christopher sutton, we the jury in miami-dade, florida, find the defendant christopher patrick sutton, as to count one, guilty of first degree murder as charged in the indictment. >> guilty. with that christopher's head snapped back as if he had been struck. >> as to count three, guilty of attempted first degree felony murder. >> melissa wept. her father, their father, locked his jaw, stared ahead, sightless. sentencing would be immediate. john sutton was offered time to speak. and years of stoic resolve crumbled. >> regardless of the result, this is a bad case.

we are now -- we're now at five years, 11 months, i lost susan, i lost christopher long before that. >> christopher did not look at his father. had he done so he would not have seen tears. the bullets that tore into his head left john sutton unable to cry. i lost my eyesight. >> how was it in that courtroom. >> it needs to be over. >> raw. personal. here's the judge. >> it's ironic for me. i have a son who was born the exact same day as christopher

sutton. when i heard his date during the trial, i remembered the joy of bringing my son home just like mr. sutton had. so at this time, as to count one, mr. sutton, the court poses a sentence of life in prison, without the possibility of parole. >> that was that. christopher sutton will die in prison. a result he found so shocking he decided he needed to explain that they got it so very wrong. >> the verdict did seem to be a big surprise. >> yeah, i definitely wasn't expecting to be found guilty. i was shocked, you know, to know you didn't do something, yet to have people feel you did, you know. >> the words fairly gushed from his mouth as if it wasn't time to say everything that needed to be said. >> a lot of this comes down to there is me and there is garrett and then everybody else is talking about what i did years before or -- or maybe after --

or even juliet. the only people that could know anything are christopher and garrett. >> this idea that he would break in looking for drugs. >> yeah, absolutely. >> you wouldn't have stuff in there. >> i had stuff in my bedroom moving in and out. garrett kopp helped me move that stuff. >> do you need water? >> the jury told us christopher's tears on the witness stand when he talked about samoa made some of them believe his incarceration there on the island was a motive for murder. >> you seemed kind of broken up talking about the camp, but not so broken up when you talked about your parents' death. >> when i initially talked about it, i would cry, i would be hard. the program i have done my best to seal that away and forget about it. the first time i sat there in a long time and, thought, wow, what did happen there. >> how do you feel about your dad now? >> i'm devastated that he said things against me. but my dad turning on me in hard

times isn't anything new. >> then he talked about his circumstances, his fate and his self control abandoned him. >> the way it is said right now, this is home, you will never get out. >> at some point in time, if you have integrity inside yourself you have to stand up for what you believe in even if your life is on the line. >> how does that feel? >> it's hard. it's hard to know i will go to jail for something i didn't do. you know, i am not going to sit here and deny that i had problems with my parents or, any of that stuff happened. that's why i wanted to get up there and explain. explain to the people, that you know i may not be the best person. i'm sure i could have been a better guy, you know, i was trying, and i didn't have anything to do with this. i didn't create the system. i'm just stuck in it. >> trapped. >> that's why i will fight all the way to the end. like, i'm innocent and i'll always maintain my innocence.

>> so me how it looks like a lion. >> john sutton still remembers the suit he wore when he brought christopher home from the hospital. and now it's come to this. when we last sat down with him, he shared his thoughts about the boy he began to raise. what about christopher? do you still think of him as your son? >> i guess technically he is. but some day i may go see him and confront him and say what were you thinking of, you know? what a stupid criminal, ridiculous crazy thing all this was. >> reconciling if it ever comes is a long, long way. >> that ain't happening. no way. no way. >> get up. >> it's complicated says melissa. ridiculously difficult. but what choice does she have? >> i have a brother, you know. i'm not going to ignore that fact, you know. i have a billion family pictures with him. >> a brother who blew up your

whole family? >> but in the same picture i have a mom who passed away, a brother who is in jail, a dad who is blind. that's my family. that's kind of -- kind of what it is. but at the same time, you know, i believed he did what he did. i have no intention of ever speaking with him again. >> so life, indeed did go on. melissa moved up north and found a career in media services. detectives retired from the force. bellue adopted a little boy just look john sutton did all those years ago. and john sutton continued to pursue his dream to see again. are you prepared or has it sunk in that you're going to be blind for the rest of your life? >> well, that's not my plan. i may not be that smart, but, boy, i am motivated. >> i mean the enthusiasm coming out of you is kind of

inspirational. >> i'm ready to roll. i got plans for this eyesight. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> she's the little girl who won the heart of a big city. >> they call you the miracle baby. why do they call you that? >> shot in the head at point blank range, a crime scene that shocked even hardened police. >> dora the explorer pillow, and it had blood on it. the. >> as she fought to live, this detective vowed to catch whoever left her to die. soon, he turned up a promising lead.