Page 43 - John Sutton News Today

>> reporter: you were thinking, maybe they can do it for you. >> i said i am in the right spot. >> reporter: he talked to the leading researcher working on optic nerve repair. >> have you done any studies with severed optic nerves. >> reporter: he peppered them with questions like he was cross-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? >> repor...

Testimony in court of both of the girlfriend and the hit man. but even with that, the case was as prosecutor kathleen hogue knew all too well, rather weak. >> this was a circumstantial case, extremely circumstantial. really based on motive. >> reporter: john sutton wanted the law to convict his son of murder. but was christopher actually guilty? coming up -- in court, the killer returns to the scene of the crime. >> what did you do at the end of the hallway? >> proceeded to shoot. >> who did you...

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. >>...

With advil pm. fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer she tells them-- keith morrison: it takes a special sort of skill >> she tells them -- >> reporter: it take is a special skill to defend a man facing a charge of first degree murder. in miami, bruce fleisher has honed the skill as well as anyone. but what he could see right away

Perfect son. in fact, he told the jury he was a drug dealer. garrett kopp was one of his best customers but had good reason to turn on him. why? because years earlier, christopher said, he turned police informant to get drug charges dropped. and who did he finger? garrett kopp. >> what happened if anything with your relationship with garrett kopp after he was arrested? >> i didnt speak to him for a while. or he didnt speak to me i should say for a while. >> was he mad at you? >> yes. >> reporter...

>> reporter: during a long, arduous recovery, the many surgeries, lingering fear, a protective layer formed around johns demeanor. he learned the hard way to keep focus in and emotion safely at bay. it was easier that way. survival mode. >> he just focuses on putting one foot in front of the other. i think i do the same thing. and if you were to break down emotionally all the time or -- dwell on what happened you wouldnt get out of bed. >> reporter: the doctors let him go home finally, but since...

Two engaged to be married in ape to weeks. dress bought, invitations in the mail. >> she sat there and said i dont know anything about it. christopher doesnt tell me. >> reporter: didnt tell her anything? or so she said. awe thought was my reaction. and i didnt 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 susan and john sutton. >> i said, look, susan really care...

Would the killer try again? john suttons 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. hey allergy muddlers. are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool? try zyrtec®. its starts working hard at hour one. and works twice as hard when you take it again the n...

>> at some point, i asked and melissa said she is not doing quite as well as you. theyre working on her somewhere else. so you need to hang in there. didnt really mean 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, sutton drifted in and 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: ...

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