Page 53 - John Sutton News Today

>> police are looking for 25-year-old christopher patrick sutton. >> and christopher was nowhere to be found. day after day as police looked for him, john sutton had time to think, and remember. and one event in particular which perhaps he had suppressed, nine years earlier when christopher was 16, it was the deciding factor in sending him off to samoa. >> susan was going through christophers room and found a handwritten note planning our murder. >> what did it say? >> well, it talked about kill...

>> he cant provide any info but it does look like a gunshot wound to the head. i dont know if it was a defensive wound. >> he had wounds to his hands which would make it clear it was defense type wounds that somebody else must have shot, because he put his hands up. >> so obviously, first clue, this is not -- >> this is not a murder-suicide. >> who or why would anyone want to harm john or susan sutton? the suttons had lived exemplary lives, seemed to have it all, a beautiful house with a 31-foot...

>> as for christopher himself, the detectives had no trouble finding people with an opinion about him. >> the cops should be looking at christopher sutton, because of the lengthy family history of problems that john and susan had had with their son christopher, who was a handful from a very early age. >> a very early age, actually. as john sutton recalled all too clearly. did he get into fights at school? >> i can remember that happening early on in preschool. >> it got worse as christopher got ...

From the beginning, they made family a very big deal. but even though they were strikingly good-looking and financially successful and happy, they were stymied. no matter how they tried and oh, how they tried, they could not have children. >> she was sure that as much as anybody else wanted a baby, she wanted a baby more than anyone in the world. >> but if wishing couldnt make susan pregnant, said her sister mary, it could make her a mother by adoption. >> she got her wish, and as i said, it was...

>> i asked, could your son have something to do with this? and he said, i dont believe so. >> so perhaps garret kopp acted alone after all. but detectives were convinced christopher had to be mixed up in that awful shooting somehow. someone must know, and they were right. someone did. miami homicide detectives larry belyeu and art had a problem. they were pretty sure the man who shot john and susan sutton was now a frequent visitor of the sutton home. >> here he gets arrested. >> and they at lea...

Away, and knew long before the trial, was the scene in that courtroom was about as batted as they could be. because there they were, just feet apart. his client and a blind father, a survivor of christopher suttons alleged plot to kill his parents. >> the fact that john sutton survived, and was blind, to me was the greatest prejudice in the case. >> and there he was, right behind the bar the whole time. >> the jury would hear something bad, and they would look over at john sutton. they had to be...

John sutton had survived gunshot wounds to his head. the death of his wife, and his own sons arrest for murder. and to top it off, he was blind, apparently permanently. >> it still is unbelievable. i mean, its like a big bad dream. >> a nightmare from which there was no awakening. but john, if you hadnt noticed by now, is a determined man. he had been a champion swimmer in college. now he swam again. he had been a skier. now he learned to ski blind. he fell in love again. her name is kathy henry...

theres a feature in florida law, which says that the things a person says in a confession about somebody else could be labeled as hearsay. they needed more. so they turned to the person closest to christopher, his fiancee, juliet driscoll. the two were to be married in two weeks. >> she sat there and said i dont know, christopher doesnt tell me. >> didnt tell her anything? or so she said. >> that was my reaction. and i didnt buy it. >> guess not, because he went on grilling this young ...

>> was it money? >> nobody knows what happened except him and garrett. >> or is the truth here on a tropical paradise? >> it was an assassination. it was a hit. no question. >> thanks for calling it. im ann curry. for criminal investigators it is often the hardest thing to find -- the motive. in the story youre about to see, the crime took place in florida. the detectives didnt discover an apparent motive until they dug around a tropical island thousands of miles away, something long b...

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." im ann curry. r criminal investigators often the hardest thing of all to find, the motive. in tonights story, the crime took place in florida. b detectives didnt discover an apparent motive until they dug around a tropical islan...