upscale enclave south of miami. his law practice, susan worked as office manager was booming. just that week he received a check for $1 million for a case he had settled. so, was robbery the motive? and if so, how did the killer get into the house? officers saw a curtain blowing in the wind, through a sliding glass door near the rear of the house, near the pool, the door latch showed it had been broken long before the night. the killer had gone in through the sliding glass door, had walked all the way through that house, no ransacking. drawers were not opened. and in the master bathroom, on the vanity was some beautiful diamond and gold jewelry. so, clearly, early on, it was pretty easy to detect that robbery was not the issue here. reporter: no. it was apparent they were targeted it was an assassination, it was a hit. reporter: an assassination? a hit? that sort of crime just didn t happen in staid coral gables.
when i got the phone call and said there was a murder/suicide down in coral gables. we heard that the husband was en route to the trauma center. and in critical condition. reporter: en route with two bullet wounds to his head. had sutton killed his wife and turned the gun on himself. no, that theory was quickly dismissed when the paramedic put out a report. he can t provide any info. he had wounds to his hands which would make it clear like it was defense type wounds that somebody else must have shot him. he put his hands up. reporter: obviously. first clue. this is not murder/suicide. reporter: who or why would anyone want to harm john or susan sutton? the suttons had lived exemplarily lives, seemed to have it all. a beautiful house with a 31-foot boat out back. in exclusive coral gables, the
that s my best friend. reporter: i was going to ask how old your mom was? 57. no, you can t put that on. she was a nice 45. let s put it, leave it at that. reporter: the guests laughed. the law partner went home. son christopher and his girlfriend went to a movie. john settled in to watch tv in the master bedroom. susan in another bedroom talked on the phone with a close friend. a quiet end to a pleasant evening. quiet. but not for long. coral gables, 911. i need the police at my house. i have just been assaulted. what happened, sir. somebody came in and shot me. shot you? who did it? i don t know. i can t see. i need police and i need, an ambulance. okay, where did he shoot you? in my face. john sutton, tough as nail, take no prisoners lawyer was
reporter: lots of calls. on the day of the murder. quite probably meant nothing at all, of course. still. garrett kopp was 20. a visitor around the sutton house. didn t seem to hatch a job or any direction in life. but christopher saw some good in him apparently. hired him occasionally to do odd jobs. in fact after the murder, christopher had kopp rip up and remove the bloody carpets from the crime scene. reporter: what sort of person did he seem like? when garrett was in the house, he was always, shall we say at a distance. i honestly cannot recall any conversations whatsoever with garrett. reporter: but kopp and christopher called each other all the time. even the night of the murder. an hour after the murder. just when christopher and juliet were coming out of the movie. we pulled the video from the amc movie theater. it showed him getting right on the cellular telephone right
the evidence against christopher was circumstantial. little more than guilt by association. the samoa boot camp may have given christopher a motive. but. i certainly needed more than that to make the arrest. i decided it was time to act. we are going to need a confession, i believe. reporter: given what they had against kopp, detectives gambled the shooter may roll over on the son. reporter: he denied all. wasn t my gun? it wasn t my gun. looks like we ll beep here a long time today. reporter: and they were. hours and hours. do you know how the house was set up. i said i don t believe you did this on your own. give me the reason as to how chris got you to do this?