pay for sending him, taking years out of his life. >> reporter: when they took a closer look at christopher's more recent history. they could easily see his improved behavior wasn't exactly lasting. even girlfriend juliette's influence couldn't keep christopher from slipping up. yes he went back to college after he returned from samoa, but soon dropped out. he did form a company. but the company folded. >> he didn't seem to be motivated. >> reporter: yeah. >> we fried to get him to stay in jobs. nothing seemed to be working. >> reporter: what john sutton didn't know was that his son had gone back to the one job he seemed to be good at -- selling drugs. nor did he know that christopher's friend, garrett kopp was one of his best clients. kopp it turned out had been buying and sometimes reselling the drugs, mostly marijuana and xanax. and he and christopher spent plenty of time sampling the goods according to the prosecutor kathleen hogue.