John Sutton may have been left without sight from an attempt on his life by a hit man, but he told a Miami-Dade jury he wasn't blind to his son's rage leading up to the attack.
Prosecutors claim Sutton's son, Christopher, hired a hit man in 2004 to kill his parents because he was upset they sent him to boarding school in Samoa. The hit man killed his mom, Susan Sutton, and left John Sutton blind.
Christopher Sutton is on trial for conspiracy to commit murder and faced his father's take on what happened Wednesday.
"We started having problems. It was one problem after another," John Sutton said. "He became too difficult to deal with. We were at our wit's end."
On Tuesday, the jury saw a graphic demonstration from a medical examiner of how and where the bullets entered Susan Sutton's body as she slept in her bed that night. She was shot six times by Garret Kopp, the triggerman who has already testified against Christopher in the trial.
Sutton's defense attorneys claim Kopp invented the murder-for-hire story to avoid the death penalty. Kopp was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but avoided a death sentence in exchange for his testimony.
Kopp and Sutton were friends, prosecutors said.
John Sutton was shot in the face several times but miraculously survived the attack. He told jurors about living in the moment as the shooting happened.
"In an instant, Bam! I woke up and I was on the floor," he said."I knew I was in big trouble."
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Prosecutors allege Christopher Sutton let Kopp in the home that night to carry out the contract killing. The troubled son had spent almost three years in a boarding school and was resentful that his wealthy parents sent him away, prosecutors said.
