Page 2 - Christopher Patrick Sutton News Today

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 defend himself against lies when his police interrogator kept accusing him of murder. i told him he will not believe what i say. 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 ...

We are now -- were now at five years, 11 months, 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. heres the judge. >> its ironic for me. i have a son who was born the exact same day as christopher sutton. when i heard his date ...

For taking years out of his life. she said this went for years. she interjected i knew it was going to happen. i just didnt know when. >> reporter: that night they put juliet into protective custody. >> the next day i prepared an arrest warrant for christopher sutton. >> reporter: and a female officer paid a visit to christophers 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 ha...

>> reporter: amazing what the garden variety assault case in homestead, florida led to. garrett kopp was arrested with the gun that turned out to 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...

Sports. it was, as you can clearly see, a happy family reunion. >> the is was really happy event. we cried. we hugged. we said, you know, our hellos, and loved each other, and he was proud of, you know what he had learned and showed off at least to us. >> 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 ...

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 murd...

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 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.

>> 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 suttons 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 t...

>> reporter: what did it say? >> well it talked about killing us for insurance. >> reporter: a week after a warrant 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 excerpts out of juliet driscolls statement. he began to sob, put his head on the table and said im [ bleep ]. but did that mean he was gu...

Cell in the county jail had produced a doughy christopher sutton by the time his trial finally began. it was july 2010. the son charged with hiring the hit man who murdered 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 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. prosecutor karen ...