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Keith morrison: 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. keith morrison: 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. and 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. and at that point, he was more involved in driving me around or some caregiving. keith morrison: but now it was almost christmas. still no arrests. detectives larry belyeu and his partner, art [inaudible] were certainly following up leads ....
Keith morrison: but did that answer the question about guilt or motive? or would she? man: miss driscoll, if you ll come forth, stand in front of our clerk here, please keith morrison: when juliette once his fiance 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. karen kahgan: what did the defendant tell you about getting his parents killed or taken care of? same thing i d been hearing for the last six years. karen kahgan: which was that he could find someone to kill them? find somebody, they deserved it. keith morrison: this wasn t easy for juliette as she recalled the last time she saw susan sutton the night of that birthday celebration a few hours before she was killed. we went over. it was me, chris, john, susan, and teddy. we had dinner. karen kahgan: do you remember that melissa was there? ....
Keith morrison: it takes a special sort of skill to defend a man facing a charge of first degree murder. and in miami, bruce fleisher has honed the skill as well as anyone. but what he could see 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 client and a blind father, a survivor of christopher sutton s alleged plot to kill this 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 d look over at john sutton. they had to be thinking, this poor man. look what he has to go through life with. keith morrison: for the victim, fleisher knew, he must display only sympathy. so instead, he d attack the murder investigation itself, the way the police came up with their two star witnesses, juliette driscoll and garrett kopp. ....
Keith morrison: did it upset him to tell you this story? no, not really. not that i could tell. keith morrison: did he seem relieved that he finally had told someone? no. and during this time, i m talking to him, and he was pretty calm. he was matter-of-factly talking about it. keith morrison: after that confession, kopp was charged with first degree murder. he was allowed to see his father, his girlfriend, and their son, and then taken off to jail. [woman crying] 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 fiance juliette driscoll. the two were engaged to be married in a few weeks. dress bought, invitations in the mail. ....
After all, without them, the state s case was weak. and why do you suppose they came forward anyway? because they were forced to, or so reasoned fleischer. juliette driscoll, for example. 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. man: if you ll please have a seat over here keith morrison: in fact, the defense attorney got juliette to admit the state wouldn t even have had that if detectives hadn t intimidated and threatened her. they told me that if they didn t hear what they wanted to hear that they are going to arrest me instead. they threw my purse across the room. they slammed their hands on their desks. did they tell you it was going to be for first degree murder? ....