MONTGOMERY — The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals has affirmed the murder conviction of Sean Kevin Sutton of Athens, Attorney General Steve Marshall announced today.
Sutton, 54, was convicted in the murder of his mother, Emma Sutton, in Limestone County Circuit Court on May 17, 2024.
According to a news release from Marshall’s office, the evidence at trial showed that on Nov. 20, 2018, friends of Emma Sutton became concerned when they could not get in touch with her. Her son, Sean Kevin Sutton, told people that he had not seen his mother in several days.
Later, one of the victim’s friends discovered Emma Sutton’s body “slaughtered in blood” in the kitchen of her apartment she shared with her son, the release said.
Sutton was picked up by Athens police officers at a nearby store. A police investigation revealed numerous instances of questionable and suspicious behavior by Sutton in the days preceding his mother’s murder.
Limestone County District Attorney Brian Jones’s office prosecuted the case and Sutton was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He sought to have his conviction reversed on appeal.
The Attorney General’s Criminal Appeals Division handled the case during the appeals process, arguing for the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to affirm Sutton’s conviction. The Court did so in a decision issued Aug. 15.
Marshall commended Assistant Attorney General Beth Slate Poe for her work on the case and thanked Jones and his staff for their valuable assistance in defending the conviction.
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