Justice Warrior Podcast-Episode 49: The Wrongful Conviction of Gary Sutton​

GARY SUTTON IS INNOCENT - THE REAL STORY

Narrative Summary

On February 24, 1992, Tommy Griffin was found shot to death on the riverbanks of Blount County, Tennessee. His sister, Connie Brannam, who went out looking for him after he didn’t return home, was found burned alive in her vehicle just four days later, in Sevier County, Tennessee.

Witnesses for the state testified that they had seen Griffin at Howie’s Hideaway, a local bar, with Gary Sutton and James Dellinger, Sutton’s uncle, on the night that Griffin was murdered. As a matter of fact, Sutton and Griffin were close friends and the three men could often be found frolicking around town, as many men their age do. However, on this particular evening, after an altercation at the bar with two men known only as “Chief” and “Cowboy,” Griffin went his own way and was later arrested for public intoxication.

Upon his arrest, the arresting officer noted that Griffin seemed “scared” but that he wouldn’t tell him why or what had happened. He also noted that Griffin was with two “older gentlemen” driving a dark colored truck (these men have never been identified).

While Griffin was in the drunk tank, his trailer was set ablaze. When a family member noticed the fire, they asked Dellinger if Griffin was inside, and he told her that Griffin had left with a woman he had met at the bar.

When Sutton and Dellinger learned that Griffin had been arrested, they went to the jail to bond him out. However, Griffin did not leave the jail with them. Both men have maintained that, upon release, Griffin left with the same woman, from the bar, who they say had dark hair and was driving a Ford Falcon. Neither the woman, or the car, were ever identified by law enforcement.

Detectives claim to have found spent shells, at the crime scene, that matched shells discovered at Dellinger’s trailer. About three days after that search, Detective Widener returned to the crime scene where he miraculously discovered spent shells that had allegedly been overlooked previously.

The defense asked that Sutton and Dellinger’s trials be separated. At which point, the prosecution admitted, in open court, that, if the trials were separated, Sutton would “walk” because they had no direct evidence tying him to the crime other than the gross speculation that Dellinger was guilty, and Sutton was with him at the time that the crime was committed.

The prosecution deliberately left parts of witnesses’ testimonies out to avoid creating doubt and to strengthen their narrative. In particular, James McDonald’s account of seeing a “dark boxy vehicle” flee the crime scene was completely omitted. McDonald’s account of this would have supported Sutton and Dellinger’s testimony that Griffin left the jail in a dark-colored (what they thought was a) Ford Falcon .  Further, Barbara Gordon’s testimony of seeing a white Dodge truck, which matched James Dellinger’s vehicle, was challenged by her own son, who testified that there was no way she could have seen any vehicle from where the claimed to have been at the time she allegedly witnessed the vehicle leave. Gordon’s son claimed that his mother, Gordon, had been told what to say by detectives. When I questioned Gordon, she admitted that she was not certain that the vehicle she saw that day was, in fact, the same one shown to her by detectives (James Dellinger’s Dodge Ram). To add to the issue of the white Dodge truck, alternate suspect (Lester “Festus” Johnson) drove a white Dodge D100 at the time that the crimes occurred.

Both Sutton and Dellinger were convicted and sentenced to death… based on manufactured circumstantial evidence. Dellinger died of natural causes while awaiting execution. Sutton is currently incarcerated and waiting for an execution date.

Issues at Trial

1.     Insufficient Defense Counsel Sutton’s attorneys acknowledged that they lacked experience in homicide cases (let alone Capital Murder) and requested to be relieved of their duty to the client. The court denied their request.

2. Illegal Warrants based on False Testimony Transcripts from the Sevier County trial, show that Detective Widener lied about having eye-witnesses in order to obtain an arrest warrant. When confronted by Judge Ogle, Widener admitted to having lied. Sevier County transcripts also reveal that Detective Widener lied to Judge Sexton in order to obtain a search warrant of James Dellinger’s trailer, where they allegedly found and shot gun and shells that he claims match the shells found at the crime scene, three days later.

Despite having admitted to fabricating evidence for the search warrant, Judge Ogle allowed evidence found during that search.

TBI Agent Davenport also told the same lie for an arrest warrant in Blount County. Davenport was not called to testify in Blount County due to the fact that, while testifying in Sevier County, he was exposed for forging Investigator Mark Turner’s signature on a three-page statement that he (Davenport) claimed Gary Sutton had given to him, Davenport, during an unauthorized visit to Sutton at the Sevier County Jail.

3. Planted & Manufactured Evidence Three days after Tommy Griffin’s body was discovered, and after having searched James Dellinger’s property, Detective Widener returned to the crime scene and claimed to have found shotgun shells that they allegedly missed. Sutton and Dellinger’s defense attorneys enlarged photographs of the crime scene on the day Griffin’s body was found, February 24, 1992, and placed that photograph next to crime scene photographs taken when the shells were “discovered” (three days later) showing that they were not in the first photograph but seemed to have miraculously appeared after Widener performed the search warrant on Dellinger’s property.

3. Failure to Investigate All Possible Suspects Although the victim had been arrested on public intoxication charges on the night in question, the arresting officer, Officer Roberts, failed to get the names of two “older” gentlemen (driving a dark pickup truck) that the victim was with at the time that he was arrested. To date, these men have never been identified but, arguably, should have been sought for questioning and considered suspects.

4. Exculpatory Evidence - Alternate Suspect Detectives failed to reveal/consider Lester "Festus" Johnson as a possible suspect, despite facts that implicated Johnson and tied him directly to both victims. Johnson, who had been incarcerated for the attempted murder of Tina Hartman, was released on the same day that Griffin went missing. Johnson's girlfriend, at the time, provided a statement to Dellinger's defense team, stating that she had dropped Johnson off in Sevier County on that day, after picking him up from jail in North Carolina. Johnson had issued several death threats to witnesses (and even the prosecutor of that case) from jail. Both victims, Brannam and Griffin, had been summonsed to testify for the state in that case. Johnson also drove a white Dodge truck, which matches the description of the vehicle key witness, Gordon, claimed to have seen fleeing the crime scene. 

5. More Exculpatory Evidence The prosecution purposefully omitted a vital piece of information from key witness, Jason McDonald's, testimony. McDonald, who claimed to have seen a "dark boxy car" flee the crime scene, after hearing gunshots, has since confirmed that the vehicle he saw was, in fact, a Ford Fairlane, which would have supported Sutton and Dellinger's testimony that Griffin left the jail with a woman driving a dark (what they thought was a) Ford Falcon (similar to a Ford Fairlane).

6. Inappropriate Conduct w/ Jurors Family members of the victim were seen talking to the jurors. When the person who witnessed this informed the judge, he replied, “I think it will be okay.”

Despite discrepancies, Sutton and Dellinger were convicted on 1st Degree murder charges, in Blount County Circuit Court, on September 5, 1996. Dellinger died of natural causes prior to execution. Sutton is currently awaiting an execution date.

Governor Lee,

We ask that Gary Sutton be EXONERATED of all charges and released from prison immediately. The detectives and the court system failed to safeguard Mr. Sutton's constitutional rights and, as a result, inflicted a great injustice upon both Sutton, and Dellinger, as well as Connie Brannam and Tommy Griffin (and their surviving family members). Gary Wayne Sutton is INNOCENT! 

                                                               Kind regards,

                                                               P.I. Heather M. Cohen (TN #8049)

                                                               Justice Warrior Investigations (TN #2141)