Della Sutorius

Last updated
Della Sutorius
Born
Della Faye Hall

August 8, 1950
Auxier, Kentucky [1] [2]
DiedNovember 20, 2010(2010-11-20) (aged 60)
Ohio Reformatory for Women
Marysville, Ohio
Other namesDante Sutorius
OccupationHomemaker
Criminal statusDied in prison
Spouse(s)Darryl Sutorius (1995-1996, his death) and four others
Criminal charge Aggravated murder, use of a weapon in a crime of violence, drug possession
Penalty23 years to life in prison

Della Faye "Dante" Sutorius [3] (August 8, 1950 – November 20, 2010) [1] [4] was an American woman who was convicted of murdering her husband in 1996.

Contents

Murder

Dr. Darryl Sutorius, a prominent heart surgeon in Cincinnati, married Dante Britteon in 1995. Sutorius was found dead in the basement of the house he shared with his wife in Symmes Township, Ohio on February 19, 1996. Though it was clear that a gunshot to the head had been the cause of death, authorities were initially unsure whether his death was homicide or suicide. [5] Dante Sutorius was arrested the same day when investigating police found a supply of cocaine. Though released on bail the next day, Dante Sutorius was re-arrested on February 27 when it was determined that she had purchased the weapon that had killed her husband and gunshot residue tests and autopsy results indicated that she had been the one who fired the weapon on the day of Sutorius's death. [6] This time the charge was aggravated murder with prior calculation. [3]

Investigation and trial

Investigation into the background of Dante Sutorius revealed that her real name was Della; she had begun using the name "Dante" sometime in her 20s. It also showed it was not the first time she had been associated with violence. Her third husband alleged that she had repeatedly threatened to kill him during their marriage; after the couple divorced, she was charged with threatening another man, this time a boyfriend, with a gun. [3] One husband had found knives hidden around the house he shared with her and had been surprised when she told him she "could kill you", [7] while her fourth husband told investigators that she was mentally abusive and he feared her to the point of hiding the bullets to his gun to prevent her from being able to use them. [7] Dr. Sutorius had discovered that virtually everything Della/Dante had told him about her background was false. She claimed to have graduated from UCLA, but in truth had never finished high school. She claimed to have owned a day care business, but had never held a steady job in her life. When he learned about these lies and her violent history, he cut Della out of his will and began divorce proceedings. A week before his death, he was planning to formally serve her with papers and have her thrown out of their house. [2]

Hamilton County, Ohio prosecutor Joe Deters theorized that Della Sutorius had "a serious problem with rejection" after colleagues of her husband reported that he had been considering divorce. [8] According to her sister Donna Hall, Sutorius's approach to men had long been colored by monetary gain: "She said you find a wealthy man and, when they die, you'd get their money". [9]

Sutorius declined to take the stand in her own defense at her trial. [10] Though her lawyers argued that police had failed to prove that Darryl Sutorius's death was anything but suicide [11] and their client's statements to police had not been preceded by a Miranda warning, [12] she was convicted on June 7, 1996, with the jury deliberating for fewer than five hours before finding her guilty of aggravated murder, use of a gun in a crime of violence, and drug possession. [13] Later the same month, she was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison, the maximum penalty allowed. Judge Richard Niehaus said that contrary to her media portrayal as a "black widow," she was more akin to a lionfish, who attracts prey with its brilliant stripes before using its poisonous spines to kill them. [14]

After conviction

Della Sutorius appealed her conviction in the spring of 1997, claiming that the trial jury having been allowed to hear hearsay evidence of statements her dead husband had made and that prosecutors had made improper comments to the jury. The appeal was declined in June of the same year and Sutorius returned to serving her sentence at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. [15]

In order to defray the costs of prosecuting Sutorius, the Hamilton County Sheriff's department seized and auctioned off Sutorius's 11-piece jewelry collection. Despite the coverage the press devoted to the auction, [16] [17] bidders failed to meet the minimum necessary total for the pieces to sell separately and the lot was sold for a $5,100 lump sum. [16]

Death

According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Della Sutorius died of natural causes at the Ohio Reformatory for Women on November 20, 2010, where Sutorius had been serving her life sentence since her conviction. She was 60 years old. Sutorius would have been eligible for parole in 2014. [4]

In media

Della Sutorius's dramatic history with her husbands and the public perception of her as being a "black widow" [18] attracted high levels of coverage from the press; her lawyer, ex-husbands, and ex-boyfriends were all reportedly approached by talk show hosts and news broadcasts such as Geraldo and Hard Copy . A spokeswoman for the Sally Jessy Raphael talk show Sally , which also pursued the story, explained that the case was "highly dramatic" and would appeal to daytime television watchers. [19] Despite jury selection being slowed down by already widespread news coverage of the case, CourtTV was permitted to televise coverage of the May 1996 trial. [20] A 2010 episode of Dateline NBC covered the case in detail, interviewing Sutorius's family and friends as well as people who had been involved in her legal cases. [18]

Crime reporter Aphrodite Jones covered Sutorius's case in her 2002 book Della's Web. [21] Her case is one of the thirteen famous murders reported on in the book The Cincinnati Crime Book (1998), by George Stimson. [22]

The Sutorius case was featured in 2005 on the Oxygen Network series Snapped , [23] and the Investigation Discovery series Deadly Women [24] and Fatal Vows. [25] It was also in the Forensic Files episode "Second Shot at Love". [26]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of JonBenét Ramsey</span> Unsolved homicide of an American child beauty queen

JonBenét Patricia Ramsey was an American child beauty queen who was killed at the age of six in her family's home in Boulder, Colorado. A long handwritten ransom note was found in the home. Her father, John, found the girl's body in the basement of their house about seven hours after she had been reported missing. She had sustained a broken skull from a blow to the head and had been strangled; a garrote was found tied around her neck. The autopsy report stated that JonBenét's official cause of death was "asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma". Her death was ruled a homicide. The case generated worldwide public and media interest, in part because her mother Patsy Ramsey, a former beauty queen, had entered JonBenét into a series of child beauty pageants. The crime is still considered a cold case and remains an open investigation with the Boulder Police Department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diamond Bessie</span> American murder victim

Diamond Bessie was the popular name given to Bessie Moore, née Annie Stone, a prostitute whose murder in the woods outside Jefferson, Texas, propelled her to the level of local legend. She was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head, allegedly by her husband, Abraham Rothschild.

Samuel Holmes Sheppard, D.O. was an American neurosurgeon. He was exonerated in 1966, having been convicted of the 1954 murder of his pregnant wife, Marilyn Reese Sheppard. The case was controversial from the beginning, with extensive and prolonged nationwide media coverage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carey Lowell</span> American actress (born 1961)

Carey Lowell is an American actress and former model, best known as ADA Jamie Ross in Law & Order and as Bond girl Pam Bouvier in the James Bond movie Licence to Kill (1989).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrienne Shelly</span> American actress (1966–2006)

Adrienne Levine, better known by the stage name Adrienne Shelly, was an American actress, film director and screenwriter. She became known for roles in independent films such as Hal Hartley's The Unbelievable Truth (1989) and Trust (1990). She wrote, co-starred in, and directed the 2007 posthumously-released film Waitress which later became a Broadway show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Remus</span> German-born American lawyer and bootlegger (1878–1952)

George Remus was a German-born American lawyer who was a bootlegger during the early days of Prohibition, and later murdered his wife Imogene.

Stella Maudine Nickell is an American woman who was sentenced to ninety years in prison for product tampering after she poisoned Excedrin capsules with lethal cyanide, resulting in the deaths of her husband, Bruce Nickell, and Sue Snow. Her May 1988 conviction and prison sentence were the first under federal product tampering laws instituted after the 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders.

Elisabeth Anne Broderick is an American woman who was convicted of murdering her ex-husband, Daniel T. Broderick III, and his second wife, Linda Broderick, on November 5, 1989. At a second trial that began on December 11, 1991, she was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and later sentenced to 32-years-to-life in prison. The case received extensive media attention. Several books were written on the Broderick case, and a TV movie was televised in two parts. In 2020, an 8-episode miniseries was produced and aired about Broderick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alton Coleman</span> American serial killer (1955–2002)

Alton Coleman was an American serial killer who, along with accomplice Debra Brown, committed a crime spree across six states in the Midwest between May and July 1984 that resulted in the deaths of eight people. Coleman, who received death sentences in three states, was executed by the state of Ohio in 2002. Brown was sentenced to death in Ohio and Indiana, but the sentences were later reduced to life without parole and 140 years, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oba Chandler</span> American convicted murderer (1946–2011)

Oba Chandler was an American serial killer who was convicted and executed for the June 1989 murders of Joan Rogers and her two daughters, whose bodies were found floating in Tampa Bay, Florida, with their hands and feet bound. Autopsies showed the victims had been thrown into the water while still alive, with ropes tied to a concrete block around their necks. The case became high-profile in 1992 when local police posted billboards bearing enlarged images of the suspect's handwriting recovered from a pamphlet in the victims' car. Chandler was identified as the killer when his neighbor recognized the handwriting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Marcus Fiesel</span>

Marcus Fiesel was an American 3-year-old child who was murdered in Clermont County, Ohio, in August 2006. Fiesel had recently been removed from his mother's care by child protective services, and placed into foster care with David and Liz Carroll in Union Township, where he died from hyperthermia after being restrained and neglected in a closet for a two-day period. On February 21, 2007, Liz Carroll was convicted of murdering him. On February 26, 2007, it was announced attorneys for David Carroll had reached a plea agreement.

The Nancy Kissel murder case was a highly publicised criminal trial held in the High Court of Hong Kong, where American expatriate Nancy Ann Kissel was convicted of the murder of her husband, 40-year-old investment banker Robert Peter Kissel, in their apartment on 2 November 2003. It was arguably the highest profile criminal case involving an expatriate in Hong Kong's history, and was closely covered in the media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Sowell</span> American serial killer (1959–2021)

Anthony Edward Sowell was an American serial killer and rapist known as the Cleveland Strangler. He was convicted in 2011 of murdering 11 women whose bodies were discovered at his Cleveland, Ohio, home in 2009. After being sentenced to death for the murders, Sowell died in prison from a terminal illness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarence Elkins</span> American wrongfully convicted for murder and rape

Clarence Arnold Elkins Sr. is an American man who was wrongfully convicted of the 1998 rape and murder of his mother-in-law, Judith Johnson, and the rape and assault of his wife's niece, Brooke Sutton. He was convicted solely on the basis of the testimony of his wife's six-year-old niece who testified that Elkins was the perpetrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Travis Alexander</span> 2008 murder in Mesa, Arizona

Travis Victor Alexander was an American salesman who was murdered by his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Ann Arias, in his house in Mesa, Arizona. Arias was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8, 2013, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on April 13, 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Kirkland</span> American serial killer on death row

Anthony Kirkland is an American serial killer. Between 2006 and 2009, Kirkland murdered two women and two girls in the Cincinnati area, following a 16-year prison term for the 1987 killing of his girlfriend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death of Barbara Precht</span>

Barbara Rose Precht, previously known as Pearl Lady, was a woman who was found dead in the Ohio River in 2006; she remained unidentified until 2014. Precht's cause of death is unknown; it may have been an accident, suicide, or homicide. Her husband, James, was located and arrested after she was identified. He was charged with lying to police about his identity.

On July 19, 2015, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Samuel DuBose, an unarmed man, was fatally shot by Ray Tensing, a University of Cincinnati police officer, during a traffic stop for a missing front license plate and a suspended driver's license.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Ryan Poston</span> Murder of an American attorney

On October 12, 2012, Ryan Carter Poston, an American attorney from Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, was shot to death by his on-again off-again girlfriend Shayna Michelle Hubers. After a trial in the Campbell County circuit court, Hubers was convicted of murder on April 23, 2015. She was sentenced to 40 years in the Kentucky Department of Corrections on August 14, 2015, with parole eligibility after 34 years. On August 25, 2016, Hubers’s conviction was overturned on appeal when one of the jurors in her murder trial was revealed to be a convicted felon. Hubers was convicted of murder during her second trial on August 28, 2018. On October 18, 2018 she was sentenced to life imprisonment with parole eligibility after 20 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Little</span> American serial killer (1940–2020)

Samuel Little was an American serial killer who confessed to murdering 93 women between 1970 and 2005. In 2014 he was convicted of the murders of Carol Ilene Elford, Guadalupe Duarte Apodaca, and Audrey Nelson Everett, and in 2018 for the murder of Denise Christie Brothers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)'s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) has confirmed Little's involvement in at least 60 of the 93 confessed murders, the largest number of confirmed victims for any serial killer in United States history.

References

  1. 1 2 Griggs, France; Lecky, George (1996-03-01). "Dark past for 'party person'". Cincinnati Post. Archived from the original on 2014-06-11. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  2. 1 2 Jones, Aphrodite (2007). Della's Web. Crime Rant Books. ISBN   9781451637298.
  3. 1 2 3 Kinney, Terry (1996-03-07). "Woman held in death of her 5th husband". Los Angeles Times . Cincinnati, Ohio. Associated Press . Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  4. 1 2 Sinclair, Hansen (2010-12-31). ""Black Widow" Della Sutorius Dies In Ohio Prison". GantDaily. Archived from the original on December 24, 2012. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  5. ↑ Lecky , George (February 27, 1996). "Police, coroner discuss slaying officials uncertain if it's murder, suicide.(news)". Cincinnati Post . Cincinnati, Ohio. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  6. ↑ Lecky, George; Jackson, Elayne (February 27, 1996). "Gun residue was found on wife's hands". Cincinnati Post. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  7. 1 2 Horn, Dan; Clark, Michael D. (1996-03-01). "'She scared me to death' ex-husbands: woman unstable, dangerous". Cincinnati Post. Archived from the original on 2014-06-11. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  8. ↑ Kinney, Terry (March 12, 1996). "Woman wed five times charged with killing her latest husband". The Buffalo News . Associated Press. Archived from the original on April 11, 2013. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  9. ↑ Horn, Dan (May 30, 1996). "Della's sister: 'she's a wicked person'". The Cincinnati Post. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  10. ↑ Horn, Dan (1996-06-06). "Sutorius lawyers rest; Della won't take stand". The Cincinnati Post. Archived from the original on 2014-06-11. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  11. ↑ Horn, Dan (April 30, 1996). "Suicide defense raised wife's team fights evidence". The Cincinnati Post. Archived from the original on June 11, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  12. ↑ Clark, Michael D. (1996-05-09). "Defense says rights ignored". The Cincinnati Post. Archived from the original on 2014-06-11. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  13. ↑ Horn, Dan (1996-06-07). "Della Dante Sutorius is guilty of murdering her fifth husband". The Cincinnati Post. Archived from the original on 2014-06-11. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  14. ↑ Horn, Dan (June 24, 1996). "Family: 'now we can get on with our lives' Della sentence: 23 years". The Cincinnati Post. Archived from the original on June 11, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  15. ↑ Horn, Dan (June 26, 1997). "Appeals court: Sutorius must remain behind bars". The Cincinnati Post. Archived from the original on April 9, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  16. 1 2 Pulfer, Laura (March 23, 1997). "Della's jewels give us hint of our values". The Cincinnati Enquirer . Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  17. ↑ "Killer's jewelry auction". The Cincinnati Post. March 17, 1997. Archived from the original on March 25, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  18. 1 2 Dennis Murphy (2010-03-12). "The Doctor's Wife". Dateline NBC . NBC.
  19. ↑ Clark, Michael D. (March 14, 1996). "Trash TV zeroes in on Della Geraldo, Sally pant after story". The Cincinnati Post. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  20. ↑ Horn, Dan (May 21, 1996). "Sutorius defense asks jury: be fair". The Cincinnati Post. Archived from the original on November 18, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  21. ↑ Jones, Aphrodite (1998). Della's web : A True Story Of Marriage And Murder. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN   978-1451637298.
  22. ↑ Stimson, George (1998). The Cincinnati Crime Book (1st ed.). Cincinnati, Ohio: Peasenhall Press. ISBN   9780966349405 . Retrieved 24 October 2017. Featuring 13 of the most infamous murder cases in Cincinnati history.
  23. ↑ "Snapped: Season 2, Episode 11 Della Dante Sutorius". TVGuide.com. 15 May 2005. Retrieved 24 October 2017. The case of Della Dante Sutorius, convicted of murdering her last husband, Dr. Darryl Sutorius, a Cincinnati heart surgeon.
  24. ↑ "Deadly Women | Web of Death". Investigation Discovery GO. 14 September 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2017. Season 6 • Episode 5
  25. ↑ "Fatal Vows | Exquisite Lies". www.investigationdiscovery.com. Investigation Discovery. 5 January 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2017. Season 1 • Episode 8
  26. ↑ "Forensic Files - Season 5, Ep 16: Second Shot at Love". www.youtube.com. FilmRise. Retrieved 24 October 2017. Forensic scientists battle to see if the good doctor died at his own hand or was killed by his gold-digging wife.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.