A mother who was convicted of the attempted murder of her then-13-year-old son is seen protesting her innocence while awaiting trial in a new documentary.
In 2018, Danita Tutt, 44, from Texas, was sentenced to five years in prison for the attempted murder of her son, Colton, who survived, despite being admitted to a hospice when doctors said there was nothing more they could do for him.
She was found guilty of lying about her son’s medical condition and subjecting him to unneeded surgeries, as well as intentionally depriving him of food and water.
Appearing in the Crime+Investigation documentary series Accused: Guilty or Innocent? – filmed while she was being held on a $25,000 bond in 2016 – the mother told how the accusations were like someone ‘stabbing her in the heart’.
Danita Tutt, 44, from Texas, was charged in 2016 with serious bodily injury to her son and found guilty of attempted murder
She was found guilty of lying about her son’s medical condition and subjecting him to unneeded surgeries, as well as intentionally depriving him of food and water. She is pictured with son Colby
‘Me and that accusation don’t go in the same sentence,’ Danita explained. ‘I can’t even wrap my head around it. It destroys me as a mother. It destroys me as a human being.
‘It feels like someone took a knife, stabbed me in my heart and is stabbing me in the heart over and over.’
‘My whole world is Colby, I know what’s been said about me and I’m frightened that I won’t get a fair trial.’
Danita’s two children remain in the custody of their maternal grandparents after the CPS and Tutt reached a settlement agreeing to dismiss the suit to remove her parental rights in 2017.
Colby suffers from heart and kidney issues as well as low bone density. Over the last 15 years he has been under constant medical supervision and has endured 17 surgeries.
Danita was sentenced to five years in prison for the attempted murder of her son Colton.She is pictured during her trial
In 2015, his stomach and colon issues worsened and he became dangerously malnourished. He had two surgeries to try and improve his condition, which were unsuccessful.
According to the documentary, doctors said there was no more they could do for Colby and referred him to a hospice.
However, it was later discovered by hospice nurse Connie Koehler that Colton was not dying and was able to consume solid foods and liquids – leading her to report Danita.
Danita was accused at the time of being an ‘attention-seeking type person’ who enjoys ‘the attention she gets for having a medically fragile child’.
The mother was not officially diagnosed with Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a medical condition in which a caregiver makes up or causes an illness or injury in a person under his or her care.
Danita was found guilty of lying about her son’s ‘terminal illness’ which led doctors to perform unnecessary surgeries and prescribe unnecessary pain medications to her son.
The surgeries included the placement of a central line which later led to a life-threatening blood infection, police alleged at the time.
The mother was found to be refusing to feed and provide water for Colby and had made funeral arrangements for him – even going as far as to buy him a coffin.
She was charged with three counts of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury and one count of attempted murder, but was found not guilty on the first two counts.
Fort Worth police began investigating after being contacted by CPS, who had taken emergency custody of Colby that same day.
The allegations against Danita were laid out in an indictment, which was read out to the mother ahead of her trial by her defense lawyer Terri Moore (pictured)
Reflecting on the case, Terri said: ‘What’s horrible is defending someone who with every bit of your being, you believe is innocent’
Hospice workers had reported to the agency that the mother had removed Colby from their care the night before without the doctor’s permission – and in disregard for his heath and well-being.
The allegations against Danita were laid out in an indictment, which was read out to the mother ahead of her trial by her defense lawyer, Terri Moore.
‘I know you’ve never been on trial before, for anything,’ Terri explained. ‘You’ve never even been in a courtroom or seen a real trial happening. You’re going to need to be strong.
‘The most hurtful thing is people are going to say things about you that will go to your core.’
Reading the indictment to Danita, Terri continued: ‘His mother refused to have any food or drink brought to Colby, stating eating or drinking would only delay the inevitable.’
The mother told the accusations where like someone ‘stabbing her in the heart’ and that her son was her ‘whole world’
Referring to allegations she gave him unnecessary pain medication, she said’I just wanted him not to feel the pain, where he could enjoy himself and feel good’
‘That’s what she told me,’ Danita snapped back, ‘Connie told me that eating and drinking is prolonging him. I didn’t know what prolonging the inevitable was until she said it to me.’
She then referred to allegations she had previously made funeral arrangements for her son, and had asked for pain medication to make him ‘go to sleep and not wake up’.
‘We would have never known what to do’, she insisted, ‘All the stuff she said I did, was all direction from her, she would tell us “I’m in control, we have the final say”.’
‘I just wanted him not to feel the pain, where he could enjoy himself and feel good.’
Reflecting on the case, Terri said: ‘My view of Danita is that she is absolutely innocent of these charges I would far rather defend someone who is guilty, it doesn’t feel weird defending someone who is guilty.
‘What’s horrible is defending someone who with every bit of your being, you believe is innocent.’
Accused: Guilty or Innocent? airs on Crime+Investigation on Tuesday 16th June