Texas attorney general’s office plans to retry Waco attorney Seth Sutton in murder-for-hire plot - KWTX

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WACO, Texas (KWTX) - The Texas Attorney General’s Office will retry Waco Attorney Seth Sutton in a murder-for-hire plot and court officials hope to start the new trial in Jan. 2024.

Sutton’s first trial ended in a mistrial on Aug. 18 when jurors deadlocked 9-3 in favor of guilty and were unable to reach a unanimous verdict after 12 hours of deliberations.

Visiting judge Roy Sparkman scheduled a pretrial hearing for Sutton, who is charged with solicitation of capital murder in the alleged plot to kill a fellow Waco attorney, for Sept. 29 in Waco’s 19th District State Court.

Sparkman is hearing the case because Judge Thomas West recused himself. The attorney general’s office is prosecuting the case because McLennan County District Attorney Josh Tetens recused his office.

Assistant attorney generals Patrick Sloane and Matt Shawhan prosecuted Sutton in last month’s trial, but Sloane is leaving the office to become a federal prosecutor in Midland.

Sutton, who is free on bond, has said he plans to move to Houston. “It’s been my pleasure to represent Central Texans for almost two decades, and I’m particularly grateful for the overwhelming swell of support I’ve received from folks here over the last three years,” Sutton said on Friday.

Sutton did not testify during his five day trial. His attorney, Clint Broden, of Dallas, said Friday they are disappointed the attorney general’s office wants to retry the case, calling it a waste of taxpayer money.

“We have recently been told that the Texas Attorney General’s Office has decided to continue its ill-advised prosecution of Seth Sutton,” Broden said in a statement, “This comes after a weeklong trial in which a rogue police officer, after taking an undercover course called ‘Lust for the Bust,’ admitted that he instigated each and every encounter with Mr. Sutton, including calling him multiple times a day.”

Broden further said, “At that trial, almost half the jurors rejected the actions of the rogue officer. Apparently, rather than undertake an investigation into this disgraced officer who repeatedly disobeyed orders from superiors, the state has decided to double down in its pursuit of Mr. Sutton.”

Broden said that a new set of jurors is “just as likely to be appalled by the rogue officer’s actions as many of the prior jurors and retrying Sutton will be an “incredible waste of limited resources and taxpayer dollars.”

Sutton is charged with trying to hire an undercover Waco police officer to kill Waco attorney Marcus Beaudin, who is under indictment on charges he molested a female member of Sutton’s family when she was 14.

The officer befriended Sutton and was made a member of Sutton’s Red Mouse Cult motorcycle club. The detective testified he initially wanted to infiltrate the motorcycle group to gain intelligence on criminal street gangs like the Bandidos.

He further testified it was Sutton’s idea to kill Beaudin and said Sutton concocted several scenarios in which Beaudin would be killed.

The detective recorded several of their conversations, including when Sutton gave him $300 to buy an untraceable gun, discussed alibis for them, and ways for the detective to flee to Florida. Sutton also proposed a scheme to plant the gun at the rural Robinson home of the alleged victim’s father to make it look like the father was the one who murdered Beaudin, the detective testified.

At trial, Broden painted the detectives as an overzealous, rogue officer who defied orders to shut down his investigation and who improperly entrapped Sutton by inflaming his emotions over the girl’s alleged abuse and Sutton’s desire for retribution.

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