they call it the gold coast. the sun, the sea, and in this million dollar home, a mystery. >> he was talking on the telephone when he heard a loud bang. >> a woman murdered. her husband lt blind. >> are you bleeding do you see any blood? >> i'm bleeding all over, yes. i can't see. >> but who? >> everyone is somewhat of a suspect. >> and why? >> what brings someone to make a decision they're going to do this. >> was it love? >> what we learned was he was

having an affair. >> was itmoney? >> nobody really knows what happenedexcept for him and garrett. >> or was the truth hidden here on this tropical paradise. >> it was an sassination, a hit. no question. >> "blind justice." good evening. welcome to "dateline." i'm ann curry. r criminal investigators often the hardest thing of all to find, the motive. in tonight's story, the crime took place in florida. b detectives didn't discover an apparent motive until they dug around a tropical island thousands of miles away and found something long buried that had nothing to do wi treasure. here is keith morrison. >> reporter: it was august hot in coral gables. the air was shirt-sticking thick as night fell. the small, damp breeze pushed weakly at limp palm fronds.

in the artificial kufl john sutton's house, an intimate party was winding down early. it was susan sutton's birthday, attending his son, girlfriend and john's law partner. daughter melissa, just off to college in north florida couldn't be there. so she phoned her mother to say, she missedher. were you two close? >> extremely. that's my best friend. >> reporter: i was going to ask how old your mom was? >> . no, you can't put that on. she was a nice 45. let's put it, leave it at that. >> reporter: the guestslaughed. the law partner went home. son christopher and his girlfriend went to a movie. john settled in to watch tv in the master bedroom. susan in another bedroom talked on the phone with a close friend. a quiet end to a mrepleasant evening. quiet. but not for long.

>> coral gables, 911. >> i need the police aty house. i have just been assaulted. >> what happened, sir. >> somebody came in and shot me. >> shot you? 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 face. >> john sutton, tough as nail, take no prisoners lawyer was barely conscious as he begged the 911 operator for help. he told the operator, blood was gushing from his head wounds. he couldn't see. >> where is she? >> i don't know. >> somehow he made it out the front door on his own. he was met by a paramedic. >> he had holes in his head, in his face. i couldn't believe how mr. sutton made it out of the house walking to us. >> reporter: they stablized sutton. rushed him off in an ambulance. an hournorth of sutton's home, homicide detective, larry

belview was getting home. >> i was pulling into nigh drivay. he was critically injured. called 911. he made his way to the door. >> they didn't want to go in ton till he came out. >> there was no way of knowing if the persons involved were still inside. they backed off until the s.w.a.t. team arrived and maiden tree into the house. >> reporter: not knowing if the gunman wasstill in the house. s.w.a.t. teams cleared the house room by room, entering the bedroom where susan sutton had been on the phone. > when they went into the room in which mrs. sutton was. they didn't see anybody. >> reporter: miami-dade prosecutor karen keagan was on homicide duty that night and called out to the scene. >> they saw a mound on the bed covered by a blanket. there were bullet holes in the blanket. and they had to nk the blanket down. when they did that they found mrs. sutton in bed with her hands up. she had been holding the blanket and covering hself, literally ducking under the covers for

cover. >> reporter: susan sutton was dead. a bloody phone besid her. she must have dropped it as she pulled up the covers in her vain attempt to hide from her killer. house secured, no shooter around the s.w.t. team withdrew. a dispatcher warned the detective this may be the deadly result of a domestic dispute. sutton's 911 call an perhaps an attem to cover up what he had done. >> wen i got the phone call and said there was a murder/suicide wn in coral gables. we heard that the husband wasn route to the trauma center. and in critical condition. >> reporter: en route with two bullet wounds to his hd. had sutton killed his wife and turned the gun on himself. no, that theory was qukly dismissed when the pair medding wmedding -- paramedic put out a report. >> he can't provide any info. >> he had wounds t his hands which would make it clear like it was defense type wounds that

somebody else must have shot him. he put his hands up. >> reporter: obviously. first clue. >> this is not murder/suicide. >> reporter: who or why would anyone want to harm john or susan sutton? the suttons had lived exemplarily lives, emed to have it all. a beautiful house with a 31-foot boat out back. in exclusive coral gables, the upscale enclave south of miami. his law practice, susan worked as office manager was booming. just that week he received a check for $1 million for a case he had settled. so, was robbery the motive? and if so, how did the killer get into the house? officers saw a curtain blowing in the wind, through a sliding glass door near the rear of the house, near the pool, the door latch showed it had been broken long before the night. >> the killer had gone in through the sliding glass door, had walked all the way through that house, no ransacking. drawers were not opened. and in the master bathroom, on

the vanity was some beautiful diamond andgold jewelry. so, clearly, early on, it was pretty easy to detect that robbery was not the issue here. >> repter: no. >> it was apparent they were targeted it was an assassination, it was a hit. >> reporter: an assassination? a hit? that sort of crime just didn't hapn in staid coral gables. whatever the motive there was l little to go on no move, murder weapon, dna. there was however one possible lead. susan sutton as it was painfully obviou from the blood-stained evidence hadbeen on the phone when she was shot five times. someone heard the screams and bullets ripping through the silence of that steamy august night. but who? and what did he know that police didn't? he was given a polygraph, wasn't he? >> he passed on certain

information. but he was deceptive in others. >> reporter: which i a red flag. >> yes. >> reporter: when "blind justice" continues. and copays as low as $2. with savings like these, you have more time to remember what it's really all about. enroll starting november 15. ♪ go to walmart.com for details. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ [ ballad ]♪ ♪ they ♪ asked me how i knew ♪ my true love was true ♪ ohh-oh-oh-ohh ♪ i of course replied ♪ something here inside [ announcer ] the van beckons like no van before. ♪ cannot be denied the enchanting all-new honda odyssey.

>> reporter: an august morning, 2004, melissa sutton, 19 years old awoke to her new college dorm life in southern florida, unaware of what happened to her parents the night befe. awa unaware that her mother was dechltd unaware doctors were fighting to save her life. >> reporter: who told you and how? >> i actually got a call from a friend who, said i hope your dad is going to be okay? i just went what? like, maybe, he had heart attack or something. >> reporter: just out of the blue? >> out of the blue.

>> reporter: frantically, melissa called every number she could back home. >> i called my mom, she didn't answer. i called teddy, 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. >> reporter: were you frantic in the sense that yoknew something bad happened? >> i didn't know what. i didn't kn what level. >> reporter: eventually melissa reached montodo who reluctantly roke the news to her on the phone. he brought her bac to miami and the hospital where her father was in intensive care. her brother, christopher, had already arrived. both of them were reeling from loss of their mother. and now they kept vigil at their gravely wounded father's bedside. >> we didn't ev know if he was going to live for a long ti. >> reporter: pretty touch and go wasn't it? >> to say gruesome is, if i didn't know his hands an know little intricate pieces of him you wldn't have known it was him. >> reporter: you faced the shocking prospect of becoming an

orphan. >> i don't think that ever crossed my mind. he was still alive. >> reporter: messa wondered -- why her parents? who could have done this? gators dscribing -- investigat investigators describing it as a hit. >> reporter: did you have any idea? >> teddy told me what happened. i didn't know who, i thought it was some sort of break in. w my first instinct. that's what i thought f a long time until we started talking about my dad's clients. >> reporter: the homicide tectives were also thinking about sutton's clients and those he sued on their behalf. at this point, john sutton couldn't provide any information. he was clinging to life in a drug induced coma. >> i went several times to try to talk to john sutton. he was on pain medication. he was intubated. we are looking at maybe, incidents in his law firm, he

may have had made pple angry. >> reporter: civil attorneys take a lot of money from people and make people mad. >> i said find out if any of these people had reason for revenge. >> reporter: john sutton ran his law firm like most things in life. efficient and hard driving. in fact, detectivesheard about one woman who lost a $97,000 lawsuit and was so mad she threat tuned shoot up john's firm. and the very night of the murder, theeighbor heard a boat roaring down the canal behind john's boat over here and it turned out that that woman owned such a boat. >> she was w intinterviewed dow line also, and she was not the person responsible. >> reporter: what about the one call susan was on when she was shot to death. detectives found the bloodstained handset susan dropped when the gunman opened fire. who was she talking to? had that person heard something? detectives gotheir answer almost right away. john sutton's law partner, teddy

montodo 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. >> reporter: at least that's what he told the police. depending on the all. truth in his statement he could be a suspect. >> absolutely. >> reporter: that said melissa had to be impossible. teddy and susan worked together they talked often and frequently late at night. >> he was my mom's best friend. i call him my godfather pretty much. like a relative. >> reporter: police were suspicious. why had montodo arrived so quickly after the shooting? why was he armed with a handgun? they had a to questions and perhaps more importantly, some testing to do. >> we interviewed him extensively. we did take gunshot residue from his hands. >> he was given a polygraph wasn't ? >> yes. >> reporter: how did he do? >> he passed on certain

information but showed he w deceptive in others. >> reporter: a red flag. >> yes. >> reporter: a red flag this early in the investigation, what exactly did the law partner have to hide? perhaps john sutton could tell them. because, 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, would the killer try again? john sutton's son seemed to think so. >> i do recall him as very adamant that my dad be placed under john doe so that who ever did this could not finish off what they had started. >> reporter: well was the killer already closer than anyone could have dreamed? when "dateline" continues. while i'm on a bus. waiting at the barber shop. at the studio. oh, my paycheck's already in. [ chuckles ] i just transferred money. i went online and set up alerts to let me know if... my balance drops below $200.

you can pay your bills online. you enter the amount. then, "make payment." -boom. -done. -wish i was... [ male announcer ] bank whenever, wherever, however you want. with mobile and online banking from bk of america. not everyone has room for a bigger refrigerator. so, we radically redesigned ours to be bigge where it counts... more usable space, more energy efficient. the revolutionary kenmore elite refrigerator. that's genius. i'm ready. are you ready? john, your car is here. go get'em tiger. when you're hitting the road for business... good luck! ..nterprise will pick you up and get you on the road to success. pick enterprise. we'll pick you up. she's into just about everything. good thing fisher-price created the l, a six-in-one learning system that's smart in so many ways. cool. it's an interactive digital book. who loved to run and jump. a learning game player. six, seven bananas. a digital arstudio. look. a music player.

"k." a writing notebook and a photo album. plus lots of software so she can learn with her favorite characters. the new ixl, it's as smart as she is. only from fisher-price. ♪ play laugh grow

>> reporter: susan sutton was dead, shot five times by a killer who invaded her birthday party. her husband, john, an attorney had been shot in the head twice in critical condition at a miami hospital undergoing surgery to save his life. so 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 when homici detectives got there. >> eddie montodo told police he had been on the phone. heard gunfire. rushed over to the sutton home with a gun of his own to try to help. they gave montodo a polygraph. it showed he had been deceptive. hiding something. >> what we learned was that he was having an affair with mrs. sutton. >> reporter: so montodo hadn't been straight with them or 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 montodo was still being deceptive. he told them the affair had been recent and brief. that's not what the phone records said. did he have some secret reason to kill his lover and her husband? they tested him for gunshot residue. he told them 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 the incident? >> again early in the investigation. a lot of investigating to do. >> reporter: and mostly, they waited with everyone else, to see if john sutton would survive the attack, to see if they would er be able to ask him, what happened. and until now all they heard from sutton was this. >> are you bleeding?

do you see any blood? >> i am bleeding all over, ye i can't see. >> reporter: i can't see. it was almost a week after the shooting. when ston was awakenedcally inc. he was going to live. but he was going to live with the scars of the shoong. he had lost an eye, but worse, far worse was the news the doctors gave him. he would never see again. he was blind in th eyes. >> shortly before i left the hospil, some ophthalmologist came around and very bluntly told me there was nothing they could do fory eyesight. i was very unhappy very upset about the eyesight. >> reporter: did you know right away he was going to blind? >> no, i didn't. we didn't even know if he was going to live for a long time. >> reporter: it would be nice to

look into his eyes and know he can see back and see you. >> it is different. different to look some one who is blind. a different expression. >>reporter: for a long type, any expression was masked by truly dreadful injuries. how many bullets had you been hit by? >> i had two -- in my head. in theright temple and i'm told out the left jaw. one higher towards my ear and one in the lower part of the jaw. >> reporter: those were only the shots to his head. the tip of his ring finger was blown off. oth shots hit his thumb and shoulder. there were six pretty good sized bullet holes. >> reporter: 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 therein alack

hat or visor, black shirt, black pants. face shaded by the visor. and open fire all i really remember was one bang. >> reporter: the bullets destroyed his right eye and severed the optic nerve in his left eye. the optic nerve connects the eye to the brain. without it sight is impossible. but the bad news, ofcourse, didn't end there. >> reporter: how did you find out about susan? >> at some point, i asked melissa, how is mom doing? and missa said she is not doing quite as wells you. they're working on her somewhere else. so you need to hang in there. didn't reallyean too much to me. i think i was hallucinating an awful lot. at some point, somebody told me that she had died. >> reporter: in fact for weeks and weeks, sutdtton drifted in d out, depended on others to save him. >> of course, my son was there. a bunch of my friends were

there. i had multiple surgeries in that hospital. >> reporter: as he lay in that bed, sedated, medicated, breathing through tubes, a thought, 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 call the police. you know? everything i could say to get some assistance. >> reporter: he was wrong. there was no killer. still, christopher demanded the hospital take special precautions. >> i do recall him as very adamant that -- that my dad be placed under john doe so that who ever did ts could not find m. and finish off what they had started. >> reporter: so you were a pretty paranoid guy lying there? >> mst certainly. >> reporter: and with good reason. because the killer was still out there. and knew exaly where john

sutton was. but unfortunately, police had no idea where the killer was. >> everyone is someof what a suspect. you start with the family. you keep working your way out. >> reporter: when "blind justice" continue ♪

♪ hello sunshine ♪ sweet as you can be ♪ i love waking up [ chuckles ] ♪ to your morning melody ♪ i can tell it's gonna be ♪ a sweet day [ female announcer ] wake up to sweetness wi honey nut cheerios cereal. kissed with real honey for a yummy sweet taste that's just right. and the 100% natural whole grain oa treat your heart sweet. because they can help lower your cholesterol you are so sweet to me. ♪ you're sweet to me bee happy. bee healthy.

>> reporter: the fact that john sutton was alive at all after the 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 heas finally able to talk, sutton received a visit from police detectivs.

susan, police discovered had been having an affair with sutton's law partner, teddy montodo. >> it is upsetting. i am not excusing teddy, i'm not excusing anybody. i don't focus on that. i can't changeit. can't change any of it it is a bad dream. >> reporter: then the dream got worse. teddy was a possible murder suspect. >> one of the homicide detectives related to me there has been a problem with the polygraph. >> reporter: he was actually a suspect. >> i suspect so. anybody that pobably was anywhere near me was a suspect. >> reporter: but as sutton was absorbing the news of his wife's apparent betrayal. montodo slipped off the list of top suspects. for one thing he couldn't have been the shooter he was on the phone with susan when it happened. records confirmed he actuay called the police before rushing to the sutton house. so, as detectives eliminated early suspects like montodo.

they went back to the basics of every homicide investigation. >> everyone is someowhat a suspect. you know you start with the family. and you keep working your way out. >> reporter: family. john and susan met on a blind date, were married a year later. from the beginning, made family a very big deal. but even though they were strikingly good looking and financially successful and happy, they were smied. no matter how they tried, and oh, how they tried, they could not have children. >> she was sure that as much as anybody ee want aid baby she want aid baby more than anyone in the world. >> reporter: if wishing couldn't make susan pregnant, said her sister mary, it could make her a mother by adoption. >> she got her wish. as i said the happiest day o her life when she brought skr christopher home. >> reporter: the day they brought him home, john sutton

remembers every minute, every deil, even the green suit he was wearing. >> when christopher came to us, about 2 days old, very cute, was a lot of fun. >> reporter: a happy time. >> absolutely. >> reporter: susan equipment her job tobe a full time mom. but susan kept trying to get pregnant. afr suffering through years of failed fertility treatments and miscarriages. and finally, adopted a sister r 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. >> reporter: which seemed to describe the family too. they told the kids they had been adopted. didn't seem to worry them at all. >> my mom and my dad were my mom and my dad. there wasn't, you know, these are my biological and these are

my adopted. i had a great childhood. >> reporter: there were advantages to having a brother seven years older especially when he grew to be a 6-foot, 200-pounder. >> he was my defender and protector. someone made fun of me at school one time he came and kind of give the kid a stern look, what a big older brother did. and you know, i think he was protective of me. >> reporter: after the murder, in fact, christopher resumed that protective role. this time for his father who insisted that messa should return to college in northern florida. >> the day after the shooting was her first day of college. >> reporter: oh, my gosh. >> and i was then and i am still proud that e managed to stay in school. >> reporter: during a long, arduous recovery, the many surgeries, lingering fear, a protective ler formed around john's demeanor. he learned the hard way to keep focus in and emotion safely at

bay. it was esier that way. survival mode. >> he just focuses on putting one foot in fron of the other. i think i dohe same ing. and if you were to break down emotionally all the time or -- dwell on what happened you wouldn't get out of bed. >> reporter: the doctors l him go home finally, but since home was not exactly livable, he moved in with christopher at his townhouse. >> my house was a mess because there was a crime scene, the most logical place for me to go was not where the incident occurred,ecause we didn't know who was responsible but this wnhouse. that's where i went. >> reporter: a full time nurse looked after him during the day. christopheand his girlfriend juiet driscoll were there for him the rest of the time. and three months after the august shootings when john decided he was readyo go home to the house in which the shooting happened, christopher went with him. eyes for his blind father. >> and at that point he was more

involved in driving me around or some care giving. >> reporter: butow it was almos christmas. still no arrests. the detectives were certainly following up leads trying to find anyone wit a motive to kill the suttons. oh, understand the digging they were doing was mostly inmounds of dry paperwork. recos of phone calls and the like. and then, somewhere in the middle of that pile, there it was. and boy was it a doosie. >> he is sitting across from me and i look at him. i go, al we got something re. >> reporter: a phone call from a killer when "dateline" continues. zegerid otc is the first 24-hour treatment ever with two active ingredients: prescription-strength medicine plus a protective ingredient that shields the medicine from stomach acid so it's effectively absorbed. just one zegerid otc capsule a day

can relieve your heartburn all day and all night. if you have frequent heartburn, try dual-ingredien zegerid otc. heartbn solved. can your moisturizer do that? [ female announcer ] dermatologist recommded aveeno has an oat formula, now proven to build a moisture reserve, so skin can replenish itself. that's healthy skin for life. only from aveeno. these things are for real. so is excedrin migraine. it starts relieving migraine pain in half an hour. that's not all. gets rid of sensitivity to light and sound...everything. [ male announcer ] number one neurologist recommended. kowalczyk. [ man ] emergency, kowalczyk. what is your emergency? the intern forgot the donuts for the status meeting. ♪ bingo. [ tires screech ] ♪ ♪

bang. [ male announcer ] that's right. we put a turbo in a sport cross. he all new nissan juke. innovation for success. innation for all.

>> reporter: there is a reason of course why pants worry about the company their children keep. it was months after john sutton lost his wife and eyesight to an intruder with a handgun. detectives were planning their way through interview transcripts, tips, e-mai, and phone records. anything to narrow down their list of suspects. and in the pile of material from a phone company, they came across a name. we isolated within a three, four hour peod of the murder, five or six different names. and one of those came back to garrett kopp. >> reporter: who were they talking to? >> on the 22nd there was probably, i want to say maybe, 13 phone calls, if memory serves me right. they were made between garrett kopp and chris sutton's phone calls. >> a lot calls. >> reporter: lots of calls. on the day of the murder.

quite probably meant nothing at all, of course. still. garrett kopp was 20. a freak wevisitor around the su house. didn't seem to hatch a job or any direction in life. but christopher saw some good in him apparently. hired him ocasionally to do odd jobs. in fact after the murder, christopher had kopp rip up and remove the bloody carpets from the crime scene. >> reporter: what sort of person did he seem like? >> when garrett was in the house, he was always, shall we say at a distance. i honely cannot recall any conversations whatsoever with gaett. >> reporter: t kop ap and christopher called each her all the time. even the night of the murder. an hour after the murder. just when christopher and jult were coming out of the movie. >> weulled the video from the amc movie theater. it showed him getting right on the cellular telephone right after all the shooting ppened. >> reporter: was there a connection here with what

happened? again, probably not. but, just to cover all the bases detectives ran a criminal background check on young mr. kopp. and what do you know? >> he was arrested on august 23rd. >> reporter: the day after the shooting. >> the dayfter the shooting. i still get goose bumps when i remember that. because, he is sitting cross from me. i look at him and igo, we got something here. >> reporter: indeed they did. one day after the murder, garrett kopp was arrested for aggravad assault after an altercation at this apartment complex. a big no-no. he pulled a gun on a coup guys. happened in homestead, florida, about 30 miles away from the crime scene. detective bellvue called homestead polic department and talked to the arresting officer. >> please tell me it was a handgun? >> he said it was. >> tell me it was a glock 9 mill meter. >> he goes it was.

>> now please telly you have that weapon? >> he goes, i do. >> reporter: bingo. >> we got to get that gun. >> reporter: yeah. >> art went down and pingd tcke e gun. we submitted it to the firearms ch. >> reporter: the report came back, clear as day, this was the gun that killed susan sutton and blinded her husband. which obviously connects grett kopp to that murder pretty intimately. >> absolutely. >> reporter: but detectives did not rush out and arrest kopp. for a simple but very important reason. there was a bigger question that needed to be answered. did his friend christopher know anything? washe en, perhaps, involved? shocking question of course, this was sutton's son, the son who devoted himself to nursing his father back to health. but something about christopher bothered them. and had ever since he was interviewed the morning after the murder. he said that i was at the movies. he said do you want t see the

tickets. >> reporter: just had them right there like that? >> basically to me, red flag there. i wan to prove i'm at the movies. >> reporter: or, perhaps, might mean nothing at all. the gun implicated kopp, of course, but christopher, no real evidence to show he knew a thing. >> there were still a lot of the pieces o the puzzles we are putting together. >> we can't prove it yet. >> reporter: like for exam pull, this big tantalizing piece of the puzzle right here. wha in heavens name might an island in the far off pacific have to do with the shooting of john and susan sutton? coming up -- trouble in paradise. for young christopher and his family. >> he was kidnapped in the middle of the night and he was 17 yea old. >> reporter: when "blind justice" continues.

vegetables have important vitamins and minerals that can really help protect you. and v8 juice gives you three of your five daily servings. powerful, right? v8. what's your number? i went to the dentist. he was poking around, he found the spots, and he said, "are those spots sensitive?" he recommended that i use sensodyne. i noticed it was working when i was drinking cold things and i wasn't even thinking about it. i never thought a toothpaste could fix that proble

inherits a billion-dolla surplus, low unemployment. o'malley signs the biggest tax hike in maryland history. raids chesapeake bay fund to cover spending. gives raises to top aides. business climate ranks 45th worst in the nation. now 200,000 joblost. o'malley covers up jobs report that proved maryland's economy stalled. if re-ected, o'malley will raise taxes again. whether he does, is up to you.

>> reporter: amazing what the garden variety assault case in homestead, florida led to. garrett kopp was arrested with the gun that turned outo be the murder weapon in the sutton case. the very same garrett kopp who talked on the phone so often with christopher sutton. the friend who called christopher right after the shooting. so, now the complexion of the investigation changed. >> trying to think why would garrett kopp do this? i mean he is like 20-year-old kid. obviously there is a tie with christopher sutton and him. >> reporter: as for christopher himself, the detectives had no trouble finding people with an opinion about him. >> the cops should be looking at christoper sutton. because of the lengthy family

history of problems that john and susan had had with their son christopher who was a handful from a very early age. >> reporter: a very early age, actually. as john sutton recalled all too clearly. did he get into fhts at school? >> i can remember that happening early on in preschool. reporter: it got worse as christopher got oer. did he get into trouble? >> absolutely. there was vandalism, not only of our own things. there were vandalism of other people's property. >> reporter: they sent him off to boarding schools then. but he di't last at any of them. failed, got kicked t. of course, the whole family tried, said his sister melissa. the trouble wasn't the lack of love. not at all. was there asense that christopher was loved? >> oh, no doubt about it. >> reporter: but neither love no money could prevent christopher from always ending

back in the same place, trouble. >> i know that he dealt drugs. and at one point he wasrrested for it. whe i was younger, and, you know that was something that my father being a lawyer and, as well as a parent, you know what do we do? >> reporter: in 1995 when christopher was 16, when counselors and boardingschools and tough love had all been tried a found wanting, john and susan looked away, far, far away to find some help. on the pacific island of western samoa, there was a place called paradise cove. a so-called boot camp for troubled kids. behavior modification their specialty. it is a long way away, samoa. was that part of it? that it would be a good id to have him far away for awhile? >> we weren't focused on finding the farthest place we could send him. we were very hesitant about samoa. we investigated it rather

thoroughly. >> reporter: it was expensive. paradise cove charged $25,000 a yea but -- >> we just had enough. what else could be do? >> porter: the suttons knew there was no way christopher would aree to go on his own. attory sutton did what attorneys do best -- and got a court order to have christopher forcibly sent to samoa. >> he was kidnapped in the middle of the night. 17 years old. >> reporter: they kidnapped him. put him on a plane. he was sent to samoa. >> reporter: but christopher could not break so easily. and paradise cove was no paradise. in fact, 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 christopher sutton had complained that he had been hogtied, beaten. >> reporter: when his family was allowed to visit him a year later the did seem to beep a distinct change. a huge improvement.

they found the buff, cleaned up young man who excelled at sports. it was, asou can clearly see, a happy family reunion. >> the is was really happy ent. we cried. we hugged. we said, y know, our hellos, and loved each other, and he was proud of, you know what he had learned and showed off at least to . > reporter: then five months after this reunion. 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 had an order signed by a judge that said when you turn 18, if you haven't completed the course you are going to stay. which infuriated christopher sutton. >> reporter: whit dy did you de to keep him there when he turned 18? >> we had concernse wasn't ready to return. he had not "graduated the program." >> reporter: how did he feel

about that? >> he was quite upset. >> reporter: he wanted to come home. >> he wanted things s ay. he always wanted things his way. >> reporter: this time, finally, tough love seemed to work. christopher was 19 and changed man when he returned from his protracted stay in samoa. >> we met him at the airport, at l.a.x., on his irthday, april 13. >> reporter: he was happy to see you? >> absolutely. >> reporter: there was a joyous reunion? >> thrilled. >> reporter: the suttons went on a family cruise, a reward for their son. that's where he met his future fiancee, a young woman from boston, jewel yet driscoll. juliette movednd became a member of the family. john sutton got her a job at his law firm. she was what i would imagine if somebody was going to marry into the family. my mother embraced her. she was a great influence on my brother andhe family. >> reporter: christopher got his act together.

enrolled in college. started working. his parents helped out by buying him a $300,000 condo. >> he started up his own company which -- in retrospect looking at everything he had done from arrests to drugs, you know, this is good behavior. we were all happy that things were better. >> reporte anyway by the time of the murder, christopher was 26. and samoa had receded into his distant past. >> i interviewed melissa in the very beginning. ll she knew about her brother was he was a little rebellious as most teenagers are at that age. >> i think i said something along the line no, i don't know any reason why he would want to duo this. >> reporter: a belief her father shared. >> i asked him ely on. when he was able to talk at jackson hospital. could your son have something to do with this? he said i don'telieve so. >> reporter: perhaps garrett kopp act add loan. but detectives were convinced

christopher had to be mixed up in the awful shooting somehow. someone must know. and they were right. someone did. coming up -- john sutton survived two bullets to the head. could he survive being home alone with his son? >> christopher made comments that his parents were gointo pay. >> reporter: when "dateline" ctinues. last year. (oof). i had a bum knee that needed surgery. but it got complicated, because i had an old injy. so i wanted a doctor who had done this before. and unitedhealthcare'satabase helped me find a surgeon. you know you n't have great legs, if you don't have good knees. we're 78,000 people looking out for 70 milon americans. that's heah in numbers. unitedhealthcare. women: no! announcer: 's the unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks lunch. only at olive garden. featuring four homemade soups. enjoy all you wa for just $6.95. now...what about tomorrow?

how about soup, salad, and breadsticks again? great idea! i love it! the 57th president of the united states. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ bell rings ] ♪ [ male announcer ] the nation's fastest mobile broadband network. at&t. rethink possible. the new blackberry torch with a slide-out keyboard for $199.99. only from at&t. with a slide-out keyboard for $199.99. ["stir it upplaying] stir up a smile with hershey's syrup.

>> reporter: miami homicide detectives larry bellue and art manney had a problem they were

afraid the man who shot sutton was a frequent visitor at the sutton home. and they at least suspected the sutton's own son, now john's care giver was all mixed up in it somehow. >> i was becoming more concerned. >> reporter: was john sutton a sitting duck for anoth attack one that might finish him off. you must have found it a little worrisome that john sutton was actually living with his son christopher and being cared for by chrtopher. >> sure. >> reporter: still they worried but did not act. even though they knew full well that garrett kopp, the shooter they were sure, wa still hanging around. isn't that right that kopp was there? >> absolutely. again we still didn't want to tip our hand. >> reporter: should chrtopher have been a suspect at all. after all does this sound like the behavior of guilty men. garrett kopp and christopher sutton while ripping up bloody carpets actually called detectives to tell them they found new evidence at the crime scene.

a bullet casing under the carpet. >> helpful handy man. by the way, i found another casing. i mean, come on. >> an indication maybe they didn't do it. >> i didn'think so. >> reporter: that's what any good defensettorney is going to point out. >> sure, sure. the casing was underneath something. i don't know how we missed it. we missed it. >> we were a little pissed. >> reporter: detectives remain convinced christopher harbored a lingering anger his parents for sending hem to the bot camp. they talked to camp alumni. this former resident was there when christopher got the news that he would have to stay well beyond his 18th birthday. >> i know he was upset. he was mad at his family for that. >> reporter: when detectives tracked down another paradise cove resident. he said christopher was a lot more upset than that. >> christopher made comments that his parents are goingto pay for sending him, taking years out of his life. >> reporter: when they took a closer look at christopher's more recent history.

they could easily see his improved behavior wasn't exactly lasting. even girlfriend juliette's influence couldn't keep christopher from slipping up. yes he went back to college after he returned from samoa, but soon dropped out. he did form a company. but the company folded. >> he didt seem to be motivated. >> reporter: yeah. >> we fried to get him to stay in jobs. nothing seemed to be working. >reporter: what john sutton didn't know was that his so had gone back to the 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 it turned out had been buying and sometimes reselling the drugs, mostly marijuana and xanax and he and christopher spent plenty of time sampling the goods according to the prosecutor kathleen hogue. >> is wasn'tjust dru deals. they hung around a lot. doing drugs. playing video games. whatever.

>> reporter: in the months after the murder, phone records showed a spike in the volume of calls between the two. 300 calls in three months. >> the that is an awful lot of drugs to be dealing inhree months if you have 300 some phone calls. >> reporter: could they have been talking murder? speculation of course. but -- then afterhe murder when kopp was arresd 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. >> reporter: john and melissa sutton knew nothing. christopher and his girlfriend were still living with john. garrt kopp was still coming around. so, solid evidence or no, detectives decided it was time to act. they needed a confessi to make their case. >> i told the gatorinvetigatgai

investigators, bring him to me. >> coming up a showdown with the killer. >> go in the back door, walk in, shoot him. >> reporter: case closed? far from it. when "blinjustice" continues. yeah, yeah, a whole game room!!! honey...and... oh. and -- and a trip to the sp [ male announce] monopoly at mcdonald's is back and it's easier to win than ever... with game pieces on your favorite food and over 200 million in cash and prizes, odds are e in four wins! i didn't know we ordered a ford shey gt 500! whoo! [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] the simple joy of winning. [ engine revs ] [ mom ] mama's got a new ride. trick or treat. trick or treat. weren't you guys just here? no. yes. no. [ female announcer ] make halloween the most fun night of the year.

walmart has this candy for an average of 20% less than other stores. save money. live better. walmart. you do? your medicare card. [ laughing ] but don't let me or anyone see it except your doctor or their staff. and don't tell anyone your card or social security number over the phone. guard your card. [ woman 2 ] i hear unauthorized card use is a big source of fraud. the new healthcare lawets us crack down on criminals and win against fraud. making medicare stroer. and speaking of winning... [ man 2 ] not again! [ man ] learn more t stopdicarefraud.gov. until two years ago, when my dad transferred to istanbul. they settled in quickly. found their local deli. a few shortcuts. and a neighborhood hangout. but there's one thing they miss. their beloved hometown team. so i askeciti -- how many thankyou points it would take to give them something special.

their old seats, 5 and 6, row c. [ male announcer ] citi thankyou points can be used for almost anything you choose. what's your story? citi can help you write it. >> reporter: 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 pe-smoking buddy, garrett kopp to kill his parents. it was really just a theory. while e case against kopp was fairly strong,emember the murder weapon was found in his possession. the evidence against christopher was circumstantial. ttle more than guilt by association. th 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'll beep 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 d this on your own. give me the reason as to how chris got you to do this? >> heap 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 duo this. >> reporter: having given himself an excuse. kopp confessed. said christopher was behind it all. gave him th gun. money to buy the black cloes. hired him as the a hit man. >> did he formulate this plan or combined effort between the two

of you? >> he did. >> what plan did he te you? what did he want you to d >> go in the back door, walk in, and shoot him. >> reporter: dippd 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 wa 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 feare in florida law, which says at, the things a person says in the confession about somebody else could be labeled as hesay. they neededore. so they turned to the person closest to christopher, his fiancee, juliet drcoll, the

two engaged to be married inpe to weeks. dress bought, invitations in the mail. >> she sat there and said i don't know anything about i christopher doesn't tell me. >> reporter: didn'tell her anything? or so she said. awe thought was my reaction. and i didn't buy it. >> reporter: 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 ssan and john sutton. >> i said, look, susan really cared about you. she basically thought of you as a daughter. this woman di't deep serserve te like this. john doesn't deep serve to be blind the rest of his life. and i know for a fct that garrett did this under the directn of christopher. finally she started crying. and i go, i think i might have her. >> reporter: with the tears came a story, what christophe had said to her that just might nail him for murder. >> his prents deserve to die

for taking years out of his life. she said this went for for years. she interjected i knew it was going to happen. i just didn't know when. >> reporter: that night they put juliet into protective custody. >> the next day i prepared an arrestarrant 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 --hat we have arrested the assailant, he has admitted it. the bad news he has incull patrioted your son and said your son set him up. i go, man, oh, man. that was a badnight. a real bad night. >> reporter: what was it lock to hear that? was it a shock or did you have some kind of an idea? >> it was 50 emotions a a the same time. one of which is -- well, i finally know. two was, i can't believe this.

>> reporter: 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 complet complely outraged and upset and some where i knew he had done it. >> reporter: 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 thi i chased missing my mom. >> police are looking for 25-year-old chrtopher patrick sutt sutton. >> repoer: 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 perps 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.

>> reporter: what did it say? >> well it talked about killing us for insurance. >> reporter: a week after a warra was taken out for his arrest, police found christopher and brought him to the miami-dade homicide bur rope. there he learned that both his alleged co-conspirator, garrett kopp and fiancee jewel yet driscoll implicated him. >> i showed him certain xerexces out of juliet driscoll's statemt. 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 w guilty? >> he made comments like, there is no magical way i can tell you where to go to find the truth. >> reporter: 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,tw 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 avenue 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. >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. you are c.e.o. of the morales fily.

v.p. of video. president of playdates. queen of carpools. [ beeping ] director of dinner plans. [ woman ] navigate to korzon café. a.k.a., mom. the t-mobile g2 by htc. with 4g speeds, it's as turbocharged as you.

for every pink lid you send in, yoplait will donate 10 cents to susan g. komen for the cure. with your help, we've donated $25 million over 12 years. so let's continue to make a difference one lid at a time. i started with a free trial membership and i was hooked! [ male announcer ] now, with netflix, you can watch tv episodes and movies instantly with the threeeading video game systems or other dices. watching instantly is so easy! you just click it and bam... it's right there. [ male announcer ] netflix. unlimited streaming to your tv over the internet. for only nine bucks a month. netflix lets me watch what i want when i want. i can guarantee that once you start it, you're gonna love it! [ male announcer ] go to netflix.com to start your netflix free trial today. [ female announcer ] walgreens wants remind you that there are more than one billion cases

of the common cold each year in america. ♪ so, as you prepare for cold season, makeure your home and medicine cabinet are freshly stocked. ♪ right now buy select walgreens brand cold, flu or cough relief and get e free. get it before you get it... at walgreens. there's a way to be prepared.

>> reporter: john sutton survived gunshot wounds to his head, the deathof 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. >> reporter: a nightmare from which there was nawakening. but john, if you hadn't noticed by now is a determed man. he had been a champion swimmer in college. now he swam again. he had been a skier. now he lenedo ski blind. he fell in love again. her name is kathy henry. how did you meet her? >> blind date.

>> reporter: ha-ha. am i supposed to laugh at that line. >> yeah, it's true. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: and he went back to e thing he had always done best. he went back to court to practice law. >> we did not sue for breachf that contract. >> reporter: where his blindness became not exactly the handicap some opponents seemed to expe. >> i look to put myself down. so i say, poor old blind guy, you know, i'm just frying 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. >> porter: 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 even, i can't even try to think what that would be like. >> reporter: memorizing things and going into court, what is that -- a pretty determined guy. >> yeah, i agree. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: some of the best hospitals in the country, sutton had been told the 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 break through at harvard affiliated research institute in boston where a renowned researcher had 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 so 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 though the nerve was destroyed, the rest of the eye, theoretically at lst could work. >> my son is in jail, charged with first degree murder. >> reporter: they listened to the awful story of the way john lost his eyesigh they explained to him the amazing thingsthey were doing here like growing corneas in a petri dish and working on optic nerve regeneration. john took it all in, amed. 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. >> reporter: you we thinking, maybe they can do it for y. >> i said i am in the right spot. >> reporter: he talked to the leading researcher working on optic nerve pair. >> have you done any studies with severed optic nerves. >> reporter: he peppered them with questions like he was oss-examining witnesses. mike gilmore, president of the research clinic offered sutton a glimmer of hope. >> we will be able to regenerate an optic nerve not so much a question of can we, when can we? >> reporter: and it was a good news/bad news sort of day. >> i do not want to mlead you or provide false hopes. >> reporter: 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 nding we can get, how many scientists wean put behind the

problem to solve it. >> reporter: sutton told the doctors he would somehow help make it happen. he wrote checks. he joined the bord of directors. >> john sutton. >> reporter: he offered himself as a voice of hope for desperate patients. >> reporter: even thou it may never help him, as long as he lives. he is okay with that? >> there is a chance that -- hat we may not be able to store his vision. there is a chance -- on the other hand, we may. if he doesn't get behind it. he does know tha we're not going to move it as fast as we could. >> well it is my pleasure to beep here todbe here today. as you will hear i almost didn't make it here today. sutton traveled t country speaking at funaisers using his shock and awe presentation to tell his story. complete with his 911 call and news footage. >> the body of san sutton.

>> i want to flip this tragedy, this catastrophe into a positive. >> reporter: 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 confront 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 minu of every day, that i will not forget you. >> all rise, please. >> reporter: with that t murder trial of christopher sutton cod begin. now, florida law again, now prosecutors could use the sworn testony 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. >> reporter: john sutton wanted he law to convict his son of murder. t 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 atfirst? >> john. >> reporter: when "blind justice" continues. plane crash in alaska. trapped in the wreckage, a father calls out.

[ female announcer ] joe here likes saving money.

at's w joe likes aetna's payment estimator. he gets to comre out-of-pocket health care costs before ty come out of his pocket. that's awesome. [ female announcer ] now let's say every joe in america uses it. looks like everyone likes saving money. ah, the potential of putting people first. thanks joe. know more. get better. get a smarter health plan. ♪ aetna.com.

about what you give up, and not what you get? like electricity for gadget power at your seat. room to stretch your legs, and your wingspan. od when you're hungry, and taking off your shoes only if you feel like it. these aren't luxuries, they're basics. get tm back, on acela. [ male announcer ] acela's turning 10. celebrate with up to 10,000 amtrak guest rewards points. details at amtrak.com. >> from the day we are born we really do know where we are headed. that doesn'mean, however it is always easy. but when we understand what is happening around us, we lose our ar and we move ahead.

after all, we were built to evolve. we were not made to sit still. >> reporter: summertime in miami. pounding heat. unavoidable sun. unavoidable except of course inside. >> all rise, please. >> reporter: six years inside a cell in the count jail had produced a doughy christopher sutton by the time his trial finally began. it was july 201 the son charged with hiring the hit n who murdered his mother, blinded his father. and here he sat apparently confident, highlprepared, ignoring most of the time the surviving members of his family, a scant to feet away. >> you know, we locked eyes, but -- i have nothing to say to him. >> reporter: melissa sat with

her father, their father. front row seat. prosecutoraren keagan told the jury a horror story. the state's version of what happened. >> the man for whom the unman had signed on to commit a double-murder. a man who was intimately familiar with john and susan sutton. that man -- theiron. christopher sutton. >> reporter: then graphic evidence. a crime scene soaked in blood and littered with bullet casings. the medical examer 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 al >> raise your right hand. she will administer the oath. >> reporter: for starters, this man once worked with christopher, was an occasional pot customer too, b was shocked he said when christopher ask 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. >> reporter: a lot more, actually, house, insurance, law practice, christopher stood to inherit millions. so, was mney a motive? or was it the stint apt the boot camp in samoa or both? the detective told the jury he tried to find out en he questioned christopher. i said did you hate your parents that much? and his anser? he said you tell me. he said you just don't knw. >> reporter: 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 erk here. >> reporter: when jewel yet, 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 hisarents killed or taken care of? >> same thing i have been hearing for the last six years. >> which was he could find someone to kill the >> find somebody they derved it. >> reporter: this wasn't easy for juliet. as she called the last time she saw susan sutton, the night of the birthday celebration, a to 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. >> reporter: that night, whether juliet knew it or not, christopher and his drug dealing hit man, garrett kopp were 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. >> reporter: here was the man on the end of the phone. the man who said heap did it. garrett kopp. 25 years old. short, scruy. the self-confessed killer shuffled into the courtroom and told a horrifying tale how christopr instructed him to enter the house through a sliding ass door near the pool. how he made a sketch of the house to guide garrett down a hallway that john 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 rst? >> john. >> mr. sutton? >> yes. >> where was mr. sutton when you shot at him initially? >> on the bed. >> and what did you seer. 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. >> reporter: until this moment, john sutton had been a spectator at his son's time. 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. heestified 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 >> reporter: 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 head raised from birth. neither father nor son displayed the slightest emotion. >> it doesn't make any sense

to -- toget 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. >> reporter: soap he did. so he did. but was he right about his son? did the state really have the puzzle solved? or had itsey witness been forced to lie? 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. >> reporter: what would th do to the prosecution's case? when "dateline" continues. it's mine. i can tell by the clear tray. you can actually see what's in it. cherryomatoes, green beans, a they are crisp. that's because ofhe steam. i hate how much you're loving that. i love how much you're hating this. you're a self-absorbed moron. [cell phone rings] hold that thought...

go! a new honest to goodness lunch that's mae too honest. all-new steamed lunches. the latest thing in lunch from healthy choice. and for honest-to-goodness savings, look for our coupon inhis sunday's paper. so i got my nephew to build a website. i hired someone to make my website... five months ago. we are building a websitby ourselves. announcer: there's an easier way. create your own small-business site with intuit wsites. just choose a style that fits your business and customize, publish and get found in three easy steps. sweet. all from just $4.99 a month, t a 30-day free trial at intuit.com. trick or treat. trick or treat. weren't you guys just here? no. yes. no. [ female announcer ] make halloween the most fun night of the year. walmart has this candy for an average of 20% less an other stores. save money. live better. walmar [ female announcer ] last year, the u.s. alone

used over billion plastic boles of water. ♪ that's enough to stretch around the earth over 190 times. ♪ each brita filter can take up to 300 of those bottles t of the equation. it's a small step that can make a big differen. look for our coupon in this weekend's newspaper. [ record scratches ] ...and over [ record scratches ] probably isn't giving results you want. discover neosporin® lip health™. shown to restore visibly healthier lips in just days. neosporin® lip health™. rethink your lip care. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] try fixodent with a time released formula.

use just once per day for all day hold. it is importan to use the product as directed. for poor fitting dentures, see your dentist. for hold from dawn to dark... fixodent and forget it. kowalczyk. [ man ] emergency, kowalczyk. what is your emergency? the intern forgot the donuts for the status meeting. ♪ bingo. [ tires screech ] ♪ ♪ bang. [ male announcer ] that's right. we put a turbo in a sport cross. the all new nissan juke. innovation for success. innovation for all.

>> she tells them -- >> reporter: it take a speciaskill 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 s 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 cent and a blind father. the survivor of christopher sutton's alleged plot to kill his parents. >> the facthat john sutton survived and was blind to me was the greatest prejudice in the case. >> reporter: there he was right

behin the bar the whole time. >> the jry would hear somethg 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 was display sympathy. instead he would attack the murder instigation itself. the way the police came up with their two star witnesses, juliet dr driscoll, and rrett kopp without them the state's case was weak. why do you suppose they came forward anyway? because they were forced t 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. >> reporter: in fact, the

defense attorney got juliet to admi the state wouldn't even have had that if detectives hadn't intidated and threatened her. >> they told me if they didn't hear what they wanted to hear that theywere gng to arrest me instead. they threw my purse across the room. they slammed their hands on the desks. >> reporter: d . >> did they tell you for first gree murder. >> they told me they would arrest me for murder. >> and you eventually told them what they wanted to hear? >> after 13 hours, yes. >> report: 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 youear it for six

straight years, you just don't believe it. >> reporter: finally, juliet testified that detectives lied when 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. >> reporter: so, why not just play a tape of the interrogation. well,hey couldn't. the police didn't record a word of their long talk with juliet dr driscoll. >> reporter: she said he said no e those things but whether he did it or not is up in the air. >> i think that gives rise to a major reasonable dobt in this case. >> reporter: remembergarrett 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. >> reporter: oh, he did. fleier went after garrett and the cops. every time you denied being involved in this, they got aggressive with you didn't they? >> some what. 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. >> le this? >> yeah. >> when nay got close to this, what were they saying, garrett, garrett. >> something like that. >> you needto tell us, something, garrett. because they're goin to fry your ass in the electric chair. >> excuse me. >> mr. fleisher. >> i 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 jewel yet 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: when "blind justice" continues.

we get double miles every time we use our card. [ whistling ] no matter what we're buying. and since double miles add up quick... romans! get em! [ garth ] ...we can bring the whole gang. [ sheep bleats ] it's hard to beat double miles. whoa -- he's on the list. but we're with him. [ male nouncer ] get the venture card from capital one and earn double mile on every purchase, every day. to capitalone.com. [ indistinct shouting ] what's in your wallet? [ monkey screeches ] ♪ [ male announcer ] a bath becomes even more pleasurable when you know that your water is being heated in an environmentally conscious way, wle saving you hundreds of dollars on your water heating energy bill. introducing the geospring water heater from ge with advanced hybrid technology. heating the water in your home any other way is just going to seem primitive. ♪ when you want more cargo room... enterprise will pick you up... we're making a playhouse.

and get you on your way... to special memories. how's it going? both: finished! pick enterprise. we'll pick you up. it's pure ingenuity. crisp, cool air circulates top to bottom through 28 vents to help keep food fresh longer. the revolutionary kenmore elite refrigerator. that's genius. berry-topped, almond strudel pie? ♪

triple-chocolate-swirl brownie? ♪ [ sk sampler ] crunchy, berry, nutty, chocolatey goodness? [ female announcer ] when watching youreight, the more options you have, the more likely youre to stay on track. special k® cereals. in nine delicious flavors like red berries, chocolatey delight and fruit & yogurt. ' cause variety equals victory. taste all nine. ' cause variety equals victory. exchange tradefunds. some firms offer them "commission free." problem is they limit the choice of etfs to what makes financial sense to them. td ameritrade doe't limit you to one brand of etfs... they offer more than 100... each selected by investment experts at morningstar associates. only at the etf market center at td ameritrade. before investing, carefully consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. contact td ameritrade for a prospectus containing this and other information. read it carefully before investing.

>> judge, we are calling chris sutton. >> jurors had to be deeply cure yaus butt curious about the man accused of putting a hit on his parents. he looked more law student than murder suspect. for two weeks they watched his

note taking, his whisper add sides 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. >> reporter: how would he convey his innocence first by describing his hospital vigil, a concerned son on the night of he shooting. >> did he acknowledge tha 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 senter? >> shocked, hurt, worried, scared. >> reporter: not that christopher was claiming to be a perfect s. in fact, he told the jury he was a drug dealer. garrett kopp was one of his best customers but had good ason to turn on him. why? because years earlier, christopher said, he turned police informant to get drug charges dropped.

and whoid he finger? garrett kopp. >> what happened if anything with your relationship with garrett kopp after he was rested? >> 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. >> reporter: so was it pay back time, now, yes, says christopher it must have been. thus his theory of the murder. christopher said he h nothing to do with it. told the jury he nev 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 thatight to steal christopher's hidden stash. boxes full of drugs. >> how much marijuanaid you store in these boxes? >> in the top box, two pounds. >> what was the value of that? >> $7,000. >> reporter: in fact the very day of e murder, said christopher, a hopped up kopp called him again and again, desperate to buy drugs.

chstopher told him between his mother's birthday party and a movie 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. >> tt still doesn't explain why he would in cold blood murder and attempt to murder these two people. >> he went to get the drugs. found the suttons home. and they could recognize him. he panicked. he was in a drug spor and shot them both. >> reporter: so if you were garrett kopp, wouldn't you try to implicate thean who turned you in to police? here is the thing, said christopher here, can 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 haveaid 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 bah the woman i was going to be marrying in five weeks lied to save herself. >> tears of frustration too, said christopher, how could he defendimsel against lie when his police interrogator kept accusing him of murder. i told him he will not believe what i say. and twistmy 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. >> reporter soap the there it w. 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 a loud to go on

the bathroom on his own. its allowed to have some more privileges. and then -- >> reporter: something in the memories on that island struck a nerve. >> how were you feeling physically duri that time? >> i was what they called in denial. >> do you need a break? >> yeah. >> reporter: strange. stc for the rest of his testimony. yet in the process of trying to dismiss samoa as a murder motive 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 wen i got off the plane. >> reporter: 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 his parents came to visit they all had aonderful time together. hardly a dysfunctional family in the story the photos told. >> we you happy to be with your parents? >> i was very, very happy to see my parents. i loved them very much. >> reporter: 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 d 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 jewel yet dr juliet driscoll. where is the evidence in this

case? what do they have? nothing. >> reporter: seven men, five women on the jury. and real doubt in the air. >> the when he first started saying his testiny. he put it out of my mind. >> reporter: coming up, the jury speaks. >> we, the jury -- >> soap does christopher sutton. >> sure, i could have been a better guy. >> reporter: as his father hopes for a miracle. >> reporter: and coming up next friday -- on "dateline" -- stling paradise. >> she was just so beautiful. >> reporter: they found each other and their own tropical island. >> she said it is like living in a postcard. >> reporter: picture perfect. until she disappeared. >> imagine you were calling, leaving messages. >> calling, texting. d we started wondering. >> reporter: wondering where she went. and -- why someone new now

we went around the country asking women to speak frankly about something no one wants to talk about. toilet paper has to get you clean. period. it's not just about, you know... but it also has to keep your hands clean. toilet paper has to help keep me clean... while getting me clean. quilted northern soft & strong is now 50% stronger toelp protect against breakthrough. it has the strength that i can count on. and it's still soft. quilted northern soft & strong. protection for a confident clean or your money back. [ dog barking in distance ] ♪ [ guitar: power chord ] ♪ [ hard rock ] [ snarls ] ♪ [ continues ] [ thunderclaps ] [ announcer ] the van beckons like no van before.

the technology-packed, all-new honda odyssey. ♪ ♪ [ radio chatter ] with the blackberry torch i can send some little videos and photographs of the actual launch back to the team with blackberry messenger. [ stylist ] i style all my friends. i can search for different designers with the browser on my torch, zoom in and look at all the detail. finding what looks best on my friends. [ rocketman ] we're bringing space age to the public using space age techlogy. [ chuckles ] ♪

good thing fisher-price created the smart cycle racer. the more he races, the more he learns. ( boy giggles ) numbers, letters, ( 10, r, s, ) and so much more. ( blue ) plus he can refuel at a learning pit stop there are plenty of additional ( g, got it ) cartridges with his favorite characters. nesmart cycle racer. ( boy giggles ) spired by a great natural energy source. connor. (applause) yeaaah! only from fisher-price. play. lah. grow. style that lasts a lifetime. what do you say we get the look we want, the softness we need, and an unbeatable lifetime stain warranty for whatever life throws at it. then let's save big on the installation. ♪ we're wering the cost of going befoot. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get exclusive martha stewart ling and platinum plus installed in your whole house

for only 37 bucks. now you may deliberate. all ri for the jury, please. >> not an ey task these people were given. did christopher sutton mastermind a plan to kill his own parents? >> we battled for a while. >> reporter: 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 the other one is going death penalty. >> reporter: which means what you can't believe what he is going to say becse he is an opportunist. >> anything to save himself. >> yeah. >> reporter: next day they tried again. ten hours went by. sweat in the air conditioned hallway. 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. >> reporter: christopher sutton stood stoned faced as jurors streamed in. were those tears from some members of the jury. >> ladies and gentlemen, i understand you have reached a verdict. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: guilty. with that christopher's head snapped back as if he had been struck. >> as to count three, guilty of attempted firstdegree felony murder. >> reporter: melis 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 month i lost susan,

i lost christopher long before that. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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 son home just like mr. sutton had. so at this time, as to cunt one, mr. sutton, the court poses a sentence of life in prison, without the possibility of parole. >> reporter: that was that.

barring a successful appeal. 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. >> reporter: the verdict did sm 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 peoe feel you did, you know. >> reporter: the words fairly gushed from his mouth as if it wasn't time to say everything that needed to be said. >> a lot of ts comes down to there is me and thereis garrett and then everybody else is talking about what i did years before or -- or maybe after -- or even jewel yet sauliet. the only people that could know anything are christopher and garrett. >> reporter: this idea that he would break in lookin for drugs. you wouldn't have stuff there. >> i had stuff in my bedroom mifg moving in and out. garrett kopp helped me move that stuff.

>> do you need water? >> the tears on the witness stand, while h talked about samoa made so believe his incarceration there on the island was motive for murder. >> reporter: you seemed kind of broken up talking about the camp, but not sobroken up when you talked about your parents' death. >> when i talked about it it 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 am devastate heed said things about me, against me. but my dad turning on me in hard times i't anything new. >> reporter: then he talked abouhis circumstances, his fate and his self control abandoned him. >> the way it is said right now, ts is home, you will never get out. >>t some point in time, if you have integrity inside yourself you have to stand up for what you blieve in even if your life is on the line. >>eporter: 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, hand i didn't have haeng to dupe with this. i didn't create the system. i'm just stuck in it. >> reporter: trapped. >> that's why i will fight all the wa to the end. like, i will always mainin my innocence. >> so me how it looks like a lion >> reporter: john sutton still remembers the suit he wore when he brought christopher home from the hospital. and now it's come to this. 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. >> reporter: reconciling if it ever comes is a long, long way. >> that ain't happening. no way. no way. >> get up. >> reporter: 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 abillion family pictures with him. >> reporter: 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 d. i have no intention of ever speaking with him again. >> reporter: so, life goes on. melissa is a media planner for a major cable network in new york

now. detectives retired from the force. bellue adopted a little boy just look john sutton did all those years ago. and john sutton 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 ut of you is kind of inspirational. >> i'm ready to roll. i got plans for this eyesight. ♪ >> and that's all for this edition of "dateline" friday. we're back again next friday at 9:00, 8:00