Episode 52: Damian Sutton (Part 1)

Suffer the Little Children

Suffer the Little Children Pod

Social Sciences, True Crime, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 993 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On August 21, 2013, 26-year-old Ronald DiMambro Jr. called 911 to summon an ambulance to his family’s lavish home in Washington Township, Michigan. Ronald said a little boy in his care, 2-year-old Damian Sutton, was having an asthma attack, but later that evening, after giving a detective multiple versions of his story, Ron confessed to shaking the toddler and was charged with felony child abuse. After Damian died on August 27, Ron’s charge was upgraded to murder.
In this episode, you’ll hear the story of a little boy with enormous blue eyes whose light was snuffed out by a man pretending to be his mother’s boyfriend, and you’ll hear how that man’s barbaric actions dragged Damian’s family through not one, but two murder trials. Next week, you’ll hear my interview with Damian’s maternal grandmother, Tara Thompson, who Damian called “Na-na.”
This is part one of the gut-wrenching story of Damian Sutton.
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Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh, he's cute. Mr. I can never sleep when I'm traveling. He's hugging his pillow like a sloth on a branch.
0:10.0	He couldn't sleep before. Now listen to him. Sounds like an elephant with a chest infection.
0:15.0	Well, they call him a dreamer. And now they're right.
0:19.0	All aboard, Mr. I can never sleep when I'm traveling.
0:23.0	Find all the comfort you need in the quiet lounge.
0:26.0	Piento Ferries, there is another way.
0:29.0	Did you know that each year, over 125,000 Americans die from overdose and suicide combined?
0:36.0	That doesn't even count the other causes of death related to substance misuse and mental health.
0:40.6	These people are our friends, our neighbors, our family members, our
0:44.2	favorite celebrities, our community members. Some of them are parents with children who
0:48.0	depend on them to keep them safe and their deaths are totally preventable.
0:51.6	As you know if you've listened to my podcast,
0:54.1	the topics of drug use and mental illness
0:56.0	frequently come up in the stories I cover,
0:57.8	and it's really important that we address these issues
1:00.2	to prevent unnecessary deaths.
1:02.4	Jay Shiffman is a public speaker, coach, and host of the Choose Your Struggle Podcast,
1:06.5	where he interviews people with real life experience about mental health,
1:10.0	substance misuse and recovery, and drug use and policy to help end stigma and normalize these difficult
1:15.4	conversations through empathy and vulnerability.
1:18.3	There are plenty of system changes that need to happen in this country, from child protective services
1:22.4	to family court all the way to mental health and drug treatment.
	...

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