'She was a good person' | Murder victim's daughter recounts grisly killing as death row inmate works to get exonerated
Tommy Griffin and Connie Branam were shot and killed in 1992.
Sandy Branam
Connie Branam was 34 years old when her body was found in a burned-out car in Sevier County.
It was in the winter of 1992, just a week after the body of her brother, Tommy Griffin, 24, was found along the banks of the Little River in Walland. Both of them had been shot and Griffin's trailer had burned to the ground around the same time.
Now one of the men convicted in their killings is working to get off Tennessee's death row. Inmate Gary Wayne Sutton's loved ones have hired a private investigator, who said she's uncovered evidence that shows someone else killed Griffin and Branam.
The wounds have never healed for her daughter, Sandy Branam.
Sandy said the right people were arrested for killing her mom and uncle, but her opinion on the conviction might be surprising to some people.
"She was a good person" Daughter remembers mom, uncle
She still lives in the same Sevier County holler she grew up in, and it's where her mom and uncle lived until they died. Sandy was a teenager when her mom was murdered, and her memories of when her mom was alive are fond.
They're kept in a photo album, full of pictures of her parents together and of trips the entire family took out of town.
"She was a good person, I'd love to go camping with her," Sandy said. "We'd go hiking, we'd do things like that. She was a family person we'd have cookouts all the time together."
Sandy's world was rocked when her uncle, Tommy Griffin, went missing in 1992, and so was her grandmother, Viola Griffin.
Viola told 10News in 1992 that her daughter, Connie, went looking for her brother, Tommy Griffin, and said she was worried something was wrong. Sandy said she remembers that morning vividly.
"That morning I was so upset about everything, that I went to my grandmother's," Sandy said. "I was a mama's girl, I was my grandmother's girl. I stayed with her most of the time. She called and told us, and my granny was going to go with her. Thank the Lord she didn't. She called and told us she had to look for him, she just felt like something was wrong."
"She was scared to death" Veteran East Tennessee journalist covered the case from the start
Jamie Satterfield, a veteran East Tennessee journalist, lives in Sevier County and was working for its newspaper, The Mountain Press, as a reporter in 1992. She said it's a close-knit community, and back in the early 1990s there was no social media, so there wasn't too much information available about the case at first.
"We were alerted more as a media organization to the fact Connie Branam went missing after she went in search of her brother, Tommy," Satterfield said.
Tommy and Connie are buried in the Martin Justus Cemetery in Sevier County, just steps away from Viola Griffin. Viola died two years after they were killed, and before anyone could be tried for Tommy's death.
"Connie's mother, and of course Tommy's mother, was beside herself because now two of her children are missing," Satterfield said. "And she was one of the first family members I talked to — to this day I feel so sorry for her. She had no idea what was going on, and she was scared to death."
Viola told 10News about the relationship between the siblings in a 1992 interview.
"The hardest part, it was awful to give up Tommy because, in 1986, I believe it was when he had a car wreck and he was in the hospital for two years. His sister stayed right by his side, the one that's gone," Viola said.
"We were just really close" Death row inmate fights for exoneration
Gary Wayne Sutton is on Tennessee's death row, convicted in the killings of Connie and Tommy.
Police arrested Sutton, and his uncle James Dellinger, and charged the pair with their murders. Sutton and Dellinger were also tried together in both murder cases.
Connie's body was found in Sevier County and Tommy's body was found in Blount County. A Blount County jury sentenced the pair to death row in 1996. Dellinger died of natural causes on death row in 2023.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee paused executions in 2022, citing issues with the lethal injection process. Sutton could be up next to die if executions resume in the state.
10News has spoken with Sutton twice over the phone after the Tennessee Department of Correction denied an in-person interview. Sutton maintains his innocence in the case.
"I remember the week before this happened, me and Tommy sat down and had a conversation. He was more like a brother to me than a friend," Sutton said. "He came out and stayed with me and Carolyn some. We were just really close, never a harsh word between us. I remember telling him like a week before, it was just a natural instinct, everything in me was screaming just really stay away from all of them, even Tommy. But I don't know. I didn't listen to it."
"It's still hard to deal with" Daughter hurts years after killings
Sandy said she's sure the right people were punished for the killings, however she wishes one thing was different.
"Even though it's been 30-something years, it's still hard to deal with it," Sandy said. "To me, I wish they did life without parole, so we don't have to sit here and go through this every so often. Back then we wanted the death sentence because of what they done. And now we still have to live with it."
Satterfield said the way Sandy feels is something a lot of people don't realize about death penalty cases.
"Beyond the killing itself, is the suffering that happens on the part of the family, because they have someone they love who's been snatched from them, and they're faced with all these questions of why," Satterfield said. "And if someone is charged, they have to go through these God-awful court proceedings where they have to see these photographs of their loved ones on an autopsy table. They have to hear all of this proof, and they have to sit in the same room with the person they believe killed a loved one, and show no reaction."
Carolyn Miller is leading the charge to get Sutton off death row. She's hired a private investigator and is asking for Lee to meet with them to discuss the case.
The private investigator told 10News she's uncovered evidence that shows someone else killed Tommy Griffin and Connie Branam. The investigator said she's talked to witnesses who recant their testimony in the case. You can read more about that here.
Miller was dating Sutton when he was arrested and eventually broke up. She said she noticed his demeanor when they reconnected.
"He was the same person I've always known, because I was ready for this person to be mad, and hate the world. And no, he's not." Miller said. "He's the same person as the day he got arrested."
Lee hasn't responded to requests for a meeting, and Satterfield said she doesn't think Sutton will be exonerated, but she feels for everyone who's involved with these cases.
"I will also say the family members of the people accused in these crimes, they suffer too, in a different way," Satterfield said. "But they also suffer, because now you have this shame. Their family member's on TV and on the front page and people look at them differently as a result. They love this person and even though they may not love what they did."