Episode 185: Parent Hitman Murder Trial

Christopher Sutton, the adopted son of John and Susan Sutton of Coral Gables, Florida, was a troubled young man, constantly in trouble with the law. To curb his behavior, his wealthy parents sent him to a reform school in Samoa, and Chris never forgave them. After returning home to Florida, Chris, 25, offered his friend Garrett Kopp $10,000 to kill his parents. Kopp broke into the Suttons’ home on August 22, 2004, and shot the couple, killing Susan and blinding John. The initial suspect was John’s law partner, with whom Susan was having an affair, but the cops soon turned to Chris. He claimed Kopp acted alone out of anger after a drug deal went bad, but the jury didn’t buy it, and Chris Sutton was sentenced to three terms of life without parole.

This episode features the cross-examination of Chris’s girlfriend, Juliette Driscoll, who under police pressure admitted she was aware of Chris’s plan to murder the Suttons, but later retracted her assertion.