KELLY SUTTON

Kelly Sutton was an employee at the Phoenix Foundation and a friend of MacGyver and Pete Thornton. He was a proud father of three children, two in college and one in grad school, and he had worked hard all his life and carefully saved his money to provide for his family and his children's education. However, he had recently been conned out of his life savings of $35,000 by James Crowe, a career criminal who had scammed at least seven other retirees in a similar land fraud deal. Distraught and hopeless, Kelly had come to believe that he was worth more dead than alive.

As Kelly turned 60 years old, his friends at the Phoenix Foundation threw him a surprise birthday party, but when Kelly failed to show up, MacGyver knew something was wrong, and he rushed to Kelly's home only to find him attempting suicide by releasing the gas from his fireplace. MacGyver arrived in time to break into the apartment and to revive him just as he was losing consciousness.

Upon learning how Kelly had been cheated, MacGyver, Thornton, and Joanne Remmings, a new Phoenix employee and expert on bunko scams, concocted a sting of their own to recover the $400,000 that Crowe had stolen from all of his land fraud victims. The scenario involved Thornton as a dirty narcotics cop and Kelly in the role of a drug kingpin in a cocaine deal that required Crowe to provide one pound of 90% pure cocaine.

The fake drug deal took place at the Beverly Canyon Hotel in suite 1609, with Thornton in the role of the drug dealer and Kelly, suitably disguised with a beard, a Stetson, and a southern accent, as the buyer. Crowe had brought the bag of cocaine, which was added to Thornton's case of nine pounds of powdered milk, and he joined MacGyver and Joanne in the adjoining suite 1611 to watch the deal unfold through a two-way mirror. As rehearsed, Kelly tested the cocaine, made the payment, then drew a gun, at which time Thornton fired blanks to "kill" him. However, Crowe feared the deal had gone wrong and he fired his own gun at Kelly through the mirror. Fortunately, Crowe's bullet missed, and Kelly only appeared dead as Crowe was rushed out of the room leaving the cash and the cocaine behind.

The final stage of the con took place at the Decker Street Police Station where Kelly drove the van in which MacGyver and Thornton apprehended Crowe, exchanged clothes between Crowe and MacGyver, bound and gagged Crowe, and stuffed him into a trunk which they delivered to the property room cage of the police station. Once inside the cage, MacGyver rewired the button to open the door, and they cut the bottom out of the trunk and filled it with random electronics. They then left Crowe locked in the cage and left the trunk outside to be collected by Crowe's henchmen. When a police officer sounded the alarm, the swarm of responding officers found not only Crowe in a compromising position but also his partners outside the building trying to recover the electronics that had fallen out of the bottomless trunk.

With Kelly driving the getaway van, MacGyver, Thornton, and Joanne were reunited, now in possession of the $400,000 that Crowe had stolen, and leaving behind enough evidence to finally arrest and convict Crowe and his partners.

Portrayed by: Al Fann

Cross Reference: Beverly Canyon Hotel, James Crowe, Decker Street Police Station, Joanne Remmings

Episode Reference: Twice Stung