Victim’s mother testifies in Collinsville home invasion-rape case

Prosecutors depicted accused rapist Jerry Sutt as a man intent on killing the entire family on the night he allegedly broke into the house.

Jerry Sutt, 53, is accused of breaking into a home in rural Collinsville on Sept. 18, 2013. He is accused of tying up two teenagers and sexually assaulting the girl, then age 15.

Sutt fled the area and was arrested several days later in Tennessee. He is charged with two counts of aggravated unlawful restraint and two counts of aggravated sexual assault while possessing a weapon, and has been held in the Madison County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Sutt is representing himself in his trial, having hired and fired multiple public defenders or private attorneys. Family members attempted to post his bail in May 2014, but bail was revoked after two telephone calls from Sutt in the county jail were recorded in which Sutt allegedly said he intended to kill everyone connected with the victims and a woman he nearly hit with a vehicle before he was arrested, according to news reports.

Prosecutor Kathleen Nolan said in her opening statement that Sutt went to the house with the intent of killing the entire family. He had been in a relationship with the mother, she said, and had a young daughter with her. They were in a custody battle, and there was a restraining order keeping Sutt away from the house.

According to Nolan, Sutt entered the house and went to the lower level, where the teenage girl and her brother had their bedrooms. He allegedly tied up the boy and put a pillowcase over his head, then went into another room with the teenage girl and assaulted her sexually.

Afterward, Nolan said, Sutt told both teenagers he intended to kill the entire family, and they pleaded with him for more than an hour not to kill their mother and young sibling. He was armed with a gun, and repeatedly threatened them with it, she said.

Eventually Sutt left, and the two teenagers ran upstairs to wake their mother and call the police, Nolan said.

Sutt said the prosecution was “painting a tale of a crazed man,” and it wasn’t true — just a man “trying to keep his family together.” He said his ex-girlfriend “manipulated the system” against him.

“Please give me the benefit of the doubt until I can get my story out,” he said.

He said he and the mother had a lot of issues, but he considered them his family. “They say I went there to kill them,” he said. “But everybody is alive.”

The mother testified that she had had a relationship with Sutt and they had a young daughter together. In August 2013, she sought and received an order of protection, she said, because of increasing violence and outbursts from Sutt. The order was in place at the time of the incident in question, but had been modified to allow visitation with his daughter on a set schedule.

From time-to-time, she said, Sutt would come by the house outside the schedule and peer in through the window at his daughter. She did not report it, she said, because she didn’t want to escalate the conflict. As far as she knew, she said, there had been no conflict between Sutt and her older children.

However, she said, she received a number of threatening calls and texts from Sutt. She said the last one read, “You’re gonna hurt more than you’ve ever hurt before.”

That night, she said, she woke when both of her older children came into her room and told her that Sutt had broken into the house, tying them up. She said they were “scared, terrified.”

She said her daughter then told her Sutt had raped her. “She was clinging to my arm, hysterical and crying,” she said. She said the teenagers were afraid to call police because Sutt had threatened to come back if they did, but she called 911 anyway.

On cross-examination, Sutt asked if he’d ever hurt her or the kids. She said yes, and that the most recent order of protection came after he threatened to kill her. The day before, she had met Sutt and given him a suitcase, phone and money so he could go to his sister.

“Why would you do this?” he asked.

“Because I felt threatened,” she said.

Earlier, Sgt. Andrew Friedrich of the Madison County Sheriff’s Department testified as the first police officer on the scene after the call. Friedrich testified about the physical evidence on the scene, including the girl’s cut-up clothing. He said he told the family to go to the hospital so that the girl could be examined.

Sutt asked why Friedrich searched the house when the teenage boy had already told him he had left. Friedrich said it would be standard procedure to search the house after an invasion even if they were told the perpetrator had left.

Lt. Carole Presson, an investigator on cases with juvenile victims, presented photos of the girl taken during the rape kit collection at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, showing ligature marks on her wrists and ankles.

“Does it look like there’s anything wrong with her other than being very tired and having a bad case of acne?” Sutt asked, but Nolan objected to the question and Judge Kyle Napp sustained the objection.

Photos displayed by the prosecution included views of the interior of the house and of physical evidence collected by crime scene investigators, including the girl’s cut-up clothing. Peggy Luesse, an emergency room nurse at Cardinal Glennon, detailed how she collected the evidence in the rape kit.

Later, a neighbor testified that on the night in question, Sutt had parked a motorcycle on her driveway, but it was a different motorcycle than he usually drove. He had often done so, she said, with their permission.

Richard Stanton, a longtime acquaintance of Sutt’s, said Sutt came to his Missouri home in the early hours of the morning. He said Sutt seemed disoriented and told him he was was in trouble. He showered at Stanton’s house and changed clothes, leaving a handgun behind. Stanton secured the gun in his home.

“I was upset,” Stanton said. “I didn’t want to be involved in any kind of hassle he was involved in.”

Later, Stanton said, Madison County sheriff’s deputies came to his home and retrieved the 9mm semiautomatic handgun.

Police had previously testified that the gun was missing its clip when it was retrieved.

Sutt said Stanton was a father figure and confidante to him. As Stanton stepped down, he nodded to Sutt.

The names of the victims and their family members are being withheld as part of the News-Democrat’s policy not to name victims of sexual assault without their permission.

This story was originally published July 19, 2016 at 10:12 AM with the headline "Victim’s mother testifies in Collinsville home invasion-rape case."