Live Breaking News & Updates on Christopher sutt sutton
Stay updated with breaking news from Christopher sutt sutton. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
it. >> why didn't you tell him he could get the drugs? >> objection. >> overruled. >> i told him i left it in a room in my parents' house. >> that's what gave kopp the idea where to get the drugs. >> that doesn't explain still why in cold blood he would murder and attempt to murder these two people. >> he went to get the drugs. he found the suttons' home, and they could recognize him. he panicked. he was in a drug stupor and he shot them both. >> so if you were garrett kopp, wouldn't you try to implicate the man who turned you in to police? here's the thing, said christopher, he could understand kopp turning on him, but juliet, his own fiancee? when he heard what she told police, he said he broke down in tears. not because of what she said, but why she must have said it. >> as soon as he started reading parts of juliet's statement, yeah, i started crying. >> why were you crying? >> objection. >> overruled. >> i was crying because the
and said, do you want to see the tickets? >> just had them right there, like that. >> basically to me it was like a red flag right there. i want to prove i'm at the movies. >> odd, 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 pieces of the puzzle that we're still putting together. >> we can't prove it yet. >> like for example, this big tantalizing piece of puzzle right here. what in heaven's 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 a young christopher and his family. >> he was kidnapped in the middle of the night and he was 17 years old. >> when "blind justice" continues. ♪ you and me and the big old tree ♪ ♪ side by side, one, two, three ♪ ♪ count the birds in the big old tree ♪ ♪ la la la [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest
hardly a dysfunctional family, in the story the photos told. >> were you happy to be with your parents? >> i was very, very happy to see my parents. i loved them very much. >> so he had given the jury an alternative. he tried at least to defuse the samoa motive. enough? not nearly said prosecutor kahgan. >> what motive did garrett kopp had to go in and assassinate those people? none. what motive did christopher sutton have to want both his parents dead? plenty. >> they have the statement of garrett kopp, the drug-crazed little thug who gives this story to save himself from the death penalty, and the coerced statement of juliet driscoll. where is the evidence in this case? what do they have? nothing. >> seven men, five women on the jury. and real doubt in the air.
>> the doctors let 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 it was a crime scene. the most logical place for me to go was not where the incident occurred, because we didn't know who was responsible, but this townhouse, and that's where i went. >> a full-time nurse looked after him during the day. christopher and his girlfriend juliette driscoll, were there for him the rest of the time. three months after the august shootings when john decided he was ready to go home to the house in which the shooting happened, christopher went with him, eyes for his blind father. >> at that point, he was more involved in driving me around or some care-giving. >> but now it was almost christmas. still no arrests. detectives were certainly following up leads, trying to find anyone with a motive to
son, and then take him off to jail. so case closed? well, you'd think, given what kopp told the detectives in there. but it did not give them what they needed to arrest christopher. there's 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 engaged to be married in a few weeks. invitations were in the mail. >> she said, i don't know anything about it. christopher doesn't tell me. >> didn't tell her anything? or so she said. >> that was my reaction. and i didn't buy it. >> i guess not. because he went on grilling this young woman for more than 12 hours. at the end of which the detective played to her heart, her relationship with susan and john sutton. >> i said, look, susan really
woman i was going to be marrying in five weeks had lied to save herself. >> his were tears of frustration, too, said christopher, how could he defend himself against lies when his police interrogator kept accusing him of murder. he said he's not going to believe anything i said. he would try to twist my words or use them against me. like he did with juliet. because there's no proof that i did anything, because i know i didn't do anything. >> so, there it was. another theory for the jury to consider. but there was one more thing that the defense had to do, if possible. knock down the allegation that his banishment to samoa had given him motive to kill his parents. but what you're about to see, as christopher described the program, probably wasn't in the defense strategy. >> a level 2 is allowed to go to the bathroom on his own, is allowed to have some more
the police didn't record a word of their long talk with juliet driscoll. >> she said, certainly he said those things. >> but whether he did it or not is up in the air, as far as i'm concerned. and i think that gives a rise to a major reasonable doubt in this case. >> but remember, garrett kopp, the confessed shooter, testified he was merely christopher's puppet on a string when he killed susan and tried to kill john. how do you get a jury to doubt a statement like that? >> we now had to go after him with hammer and tongs. >> oh, and he did. fleischer went after garrett and the cops. >> every time you denied being involved in this, they got aggressive with you, didn't they? >> somewhat. they were just like got pushy a little bit. >> got pushy? you mean, they walked over to you and pushed you on the shoulder? >> getting in my face. >> did they touch you? >> leaned over against me.
full-time mom, but susan kept trying to get pregnant, kept suffering through years of failed fertility treatments and miscarriages. and finally, adopted a sister for christopher, melissa. >> she was and always has been a little angel. absolutely. she would probably be upset with me saying this, but she was pretty close to perfect. >> which 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. and i had a great childhood. >> and 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, my protecter. someone made fun of me at school one time, he came and he kind of
>> sure. >> still, they worried, but did not act. even though they knew full well, kopp, the shooter, was still hanging around. >> isn't that right, that kopp was still there? >> and we didn't want to tip our hand. >> but should christopher have been a suspect at all? after all, does this sound like the behavior of guilty men? gary kopp and christopher sutton actually called detectives to tell them they found new evidence at the crime scene, a bullet casing under the carpet. >> a helpful handyman, oh, and by the way, i found another casing. i mean, come on. >> maybe that's an indication they didn't do it. >> i didn't think so. >> but that's what any good defense attorney would point out. >> sure. >> the casing was underneath something. i don't know how we all missed it, but we missed it. >> we were all a little ticked.
>> on the bed. >> and what did you see mr. sutton do when you shot him? >> slip off the bed. >> after you fired at mr. sutton, what did you do? >> proceeded to shoot in another room. >> and who was the person with whom you were in a plan to shoot john and susan sutton? >> chris sutton. >> and what do you remember the defendant telling you about how much money you might expect to get? >> upwards of $100,000. >> until this moment, john sutton had been a spectator at his son's trial. his thoughts and feelings his own. but he was a victim, too. staying out of it wasn't an option for him. and now came the moment he both dreaded and demanded. he testified against his own son. first, about the night his world went dark. >> the only thing i saw was, for an instant, a snap, i didn't even see the gun. but in an instant, bam, and then