Dateline: 5 harrowing details about Christopher Sutton's crimes, explored 

The Dateline NBC episode titled "Murdered by Morning" covers the shocking crimes of Christopher Sutton. This is a 2004 case in which Christopher conducted a violent attack on his adoptive parents Susan and John Sutton at their Florida home. A gunman shot Susan six times killing her in the bedroom and then shot John multiple times in the head. The gunman was later identified as Christopher's friend.

Surprisingly, despite severe injuries John miraculously survived. Read on to learn the 5 harrowing details about Christopher Sutton's crime as per Dateline.

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5 harrowing details about Christopher Sutton's crimes, as explored in Dateline

John was a successful lawyer while Susan used to manage his office. They adopted 2 children. Investigators also suspected Teddy Montoto, John's law firm partner but later they got to know about Christopher's great dislike for his own parent. Here are 5 harrowing details about the case:

Injured John called 911

“I remember a lot of pain,” he told in one of his Dateline interviews.

It was August 2022 and Susan had just turned 57, while John just won 2 lucrative cases, but the celebration didn't last long. John was sleeping in a separate room because he snores. Next, he remembers being shot multiple times in the head. He called 911 to report that.

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Burglary was ruled out, Teddy Montono came into the limelight

The attacker didn't take any jewelry or expensive items from the home. Therefore the motivation was clear.

“It looked like the shooter came there to shoot Susan and her husband. She was executed,” said Dr. Emma Lew, a medical examiner in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

The investigation initially took Teddy into suspicion as John was a lawyer, he used to get threats sometimes related to the case he was handling. Teddy was on a call with Susan when she was killed. Teddy even heard the sound of the bullets. But later Teddy answered that Susan and him work closely in the law firm. He also confessed that he possessed a .9mm handgun, the same size bullet shells investigators found on the crime scene.

The investigation finally shifted to Christopher Sutton

Chris on his 19th birthday came home after 30 months at boarding school and was relying on his parents for financial support. In 2005 a girl came forward with suspicion over his ex-boyfriend Garrett Kopp in Susan's killing. Later the investigators found the same .9mm gun with him.

Eventually, Kopp confessed that Chris hired him to kill his parents and would also receive a cut from the insurance that he would receive after Chris' parent's death.

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Christopher's troubled past

Christopher was once been in jail when he along with other kids broke into a teacher's house and spray painted the inside of the house for which his parents had to pay $50,000 for damages. In Dateline, he was asked if he had been out of control since childhood.

“Out of control? I mean, I wanted to do my own thing… I was definitely into body piercings and tattoos – things my parents hated, but… I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

Christopher had a history of behavioral issues and anger management problems. His parents had sent him to a boarding school in Samoa to curb his behavior, but he never forgave them for it.

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The Trial and Sentence

According to Dateline, Christopher Sutton was arrested in March 2005 and went on trial in July 2010. He was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder and sentenced to three life terms without the possibility of parole. His father, John Sutton, testified against him during the trial.