A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigator walks out of the fire-damaged multimillion-dollar home in northwest Washington, Wednesday, May 20, 2015, where four people were found dead May 14. (Photo by Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP)
A jury determined on Thursday that Darron Wint was guilty in the 2015 quadruple homicide in Northwest D.C. that has been dubbed the “Mansion Murders.”
He was convicted of 20 counts of murder, kidnapping, burglary, and arson after a six-week trial and three days of deliberation. The man from Lanham, Md., who also goes by Daron, was the only person charged in the crimes.
The four victims were Savvas and Amy Savopoulos, a married couple, their 10-year-old son Philip, and Veralicia Figueroa, their housekeeper. According to police and prosecutors, the victims were beaten with baseball bats, strangled, and stabbed on May 13, 2015, and firefighters discovered their bodies inside the burning home the following day.
“Today’s verdict holds Darron Wint accountable for the cold-blooded murders of four innocent people, including a 10-year-old child, in a senseless home invasion that ended with him setting fire to the crime scene,” said U.S. Attorney Jesse Liu in a release.
Prosecutors said that Wint, who formerly worked for Savvas Savopoulos’ company American Iron Works, killed them because he needed money and sought $40,000 in ransom. They said his DNA was on pizza crust found in the home, as well as on a knife in the basement and a hair on the bed, The Washington Post reports.
Wint pleaded not guilty in February of 2016. Defense attorneys made the case during the trial that the suspect’s half-brother, Darrell Wint, was the one who orchestrated the crimes and tricked him into entering the home, where he ate the slice of pizza.
“I know District residents were particularly outraged by this case because of the extreme atrocities that were inflicted on the Savopoulos family and Ms. Figueroa,” Metropolitan Police Department Chief Newsham said in a release. “Acts of violence such as this are unacceptable and not welcomed in our city. As promised, the individual who committed this heinous crime was brought to justice today.”
Sentencing is scheduled for February 1. Wint faces a potential life sentence without the possibility of release.
Rachel Kurzius