Danita Tutt
Danita Tutt
Danita Thetford Tutt is a mother of two from Cleburne, Texas which is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area. She is married to Clint Tutt. In 2018, she was sentenced to five years in prison for abusing her son and making him look terminally ill for attention in a munchausen syndrome by proxy case. The case was covered by A&E's Accused: Guilty or Innocent? in April 2020.
Child Abuse Allegations
Danita Tutt allegedly starved her 13-year old son Colby and lied about his medical history so that it would appear that he was terminally ill.
Authorities believe that she did this for attention.
Danita lied about her 13-year-old son's medical condition to doctors, misleading them into performing unnecessary surgeries on her son and giving him unneeded pain medications.
The surgeries included the placement of a central line which caused Colby to catch a life-threatening blood infection.
Child Protective Services took emergency custody of Colby on May 6, 2016 that same day after hospice workers reported to the state agency that the Danita had removed Colby from their care the night before without doctors’ permission and in disregard for the boy’s heath and well-being.
Danita allegedly starved Colby by refusing to feed and provide water for him and made funeral arrangements for him, even going as far as to buy him a casket.
CPS took Colby to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth.
When Colby was removed from his mother's care his health improved greatly.
Dr. Osuntokun told police that the change was indicative of starvation.
Police said “When Dr. Osuntokun was asked if he had seen such a rapid recovery before, he said only in cases of munchausen syndrome by proxy."
Mubchausen by proxy cases are cases where parents or caregivers fake or induce and illness in a child to gain attention.
Sentence
In October 2018, a Tarrant County jury found Tutt guilty of one count of causing her child serious bodily injury and one count of attempted murder for withholding nutrients and food from her child. The jury deliberated for five days before returning the verdict. A few days later, on October 26, 2018, Tutt was sentenced to five years in prison for injury to a child and a recommended 10 years of probation for attempted murder.[19]
According to inmate records at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice site, Tutt is sentenced to jail until October 17, 2023. She is serving her sentence in the William P. Hobby Unit, a prison for women in Falls County, Texas. She is eligible for parole on April 18, 2021. According to her record, she was already denied parole on May 25, 2019, due to the nature of the case.[19]
Attention
The Tutts got local and national attention after social media was flooded with messages regarding Colby’s "final wish" to attend WrestleMania 32 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
A Go Fund Me page was started and in the end, Colby got his wish and wrestler Erick Rowan made a surprise visit to Colby at his Cleburne home in late March, and the WWE arranged a limo to take the family to the event.
Several media outlets did stories about Rowan’s visit.
Soon after, friends put together a benefit featuring the Josh Weathers Band and Sonny Burgess to raise money for the family.
The Cleburne Times Review published an article on Colby and his family titled “Fight of his life.”
Danita's friend said:
“Danita is the strongest person I’ve ever known,.
She is just always at the hospital and she will listen to what the doctors have to say, but if she didn’t agree she would see another doctor to get more answers.
She just never settles for what they have to say.”
In April 2020, A&E's Accused: Guilty or Innocent? returned with its second episode titled "Attempted Murder or Protective Mother?" The show explores the case of Danita Tutt from the perspective of the person accused of a crime through the trial, their defense and their verdict, all seen through the lenses of the defense team and the accused and their family.[19]