Family, county prosecutor speak out after 3-year-old’s after tragic death

By JAMIE SHERROD, ANNA MUCKENFUSS

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    Oscoda Township, MI (WNEM) — A family member and a county prosecutor are responding after local mother is accused of killing her 3-year-old daughter.

“She was full of life. She was very smart she knew so many colors she could count almost to 30,” said Alisa Johnson, Sutton’s grandmother.

Johnson remembers her 3-year-old granddaughter Sutton Mosser as a beautiful and bright young girl who could put a smile on anyone’s face. The two were close.

“I wasn’t grandmother, I was grand mom. That baby loved me more than anything. She was so close to me, she always waited for me to come home from work,” Johnson said.

Johnson said she was downstate when she learned about Sutton’s death. The details were devastating.

The young girl had suffered multiple stab wounds to her chest. Her body had been found in a trash bag Friday morning at a home on Cedar Lake Road in Oscoda Township where she lived with her grand-mom and mother, Justine Johnson.

“I broke down. I told them tell me it’s not true that I needed to get to my baby, and this couldn’t be happening,” Johnson said.

The prosecuting attorney is calling the case, shocking.

“Certainly, there’ve been homicides in the county previously. I don’t know of any that have involved a young child,” said James Bacarella.

He’s charging Sutton’s mother with homicide felony murder and child abuse in the first degree.

“The homicide charge is a charge that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. And then first-degree charges also carry a life term, but the party would be eligible for parole,” said Bacarella.

Johnson is pleading not guilty. Johnson’s mother said 3-year-old Sutton meant everything to her daughter.

“Justine loved Sutton with all her heart. She’d never let anybody hurt that baby she would always there for her she never did anything to hurt her,” Johnson said.

She believes her daughter is innocent.

“I want a fair investigation for my child. I want my granddaughter to have the proper justice,” Johnson said.

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