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By
D.C. Witness Staff
- October 25, 2018
Court
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Homicides
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Suspects
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A jury found Daron Wint guilty Oct. 25 of murdering a family of three and their housekeeper in Northwest DC in 2015.
Wint, 34, was found guilty of all counts, including felony murder while armed, first-degree murder while armed, kidnapping, first-degree burglary, extortion, arson, and first-degree theft for killing Amy, Philip and Savvas Savopoulos, and Veralicia Figueroa, their housekeeper, on the 3200 block of Woodland Drive, NW.
The prosecution began closing arguments on Oct. 22 by going through key pieces of evidence that pointed toward Wint as the murderer. The prosecutor displayed digital records of Wint’s web browsing history. “His first instinct when he gets stuck in a corner is to lie … the first thing he did was look up how to beat a lie detector test,” the prosecutor said, referencing Wint’s actions after he realized that he could be a person of interest in the case.
According to court documents, on May 14, 2015, the District of Columbia Fire and EMS Department reported to a house fire. While extinguishing the fire, firefighters found Savvas, Amy and Figueroa unconscious in a bedroom on the second floor. Firefighters also found Philip, the Savopoulos’ 10-year-old son, unconscious in an adjacent bedroom, which is where the fire is believed to have begun. All three members of the Savopoulos family were pronounced dead on the scene. Figueroa was later pronounced dead at Georgetown University Hospital.
According to the prosecution’s theory, Wint, 37, kidnapped and brutally killed the four individuals after obtaining a $40,000 ransom. The prosecution also said that Wint tried to destroy evidence, referring to the fact that the house was set on fire and the Porsche that was also set on fire near an apartment complex in Maryland.
The prosecution concluded their closing statements urging the jury to act on the findings presented and punish Wint for the brutal killing and kidnapping of the family and their housekeeper.
However, Wint’s defense attorney, Judith Pipe, said the crime could not have been done by one person since the hostages were held in separate rooms throughout an entire day.
“There is no way one person could do this, and that’s reason to doubt the government’s theory,” she said. The defense’s theory was that Wint’s brothers Darrell and Steffon committed the murders.
Pipe also said the prosecution left out witnesses because their testimonies didn’t work with the prosecution’s theory of Wint being the sole murderer.
According to the defense attorney, there was a witness who saw the Porshe drive away from the mansion. The witness said the driver had short hair. Wint has dreadlocks. Pipe also referenced another witness who said she saw a suspicious man walking in the neighborhood before the murders. The witness said that man did not have dreadlocks. The prosecution did not call on either witness to testify.
Pipe said Wint’s brothers set him up. The defense cited phone records, saying the brothers’ calls to each other kept lining up with the timing of the crime.
“The fact that there’s a chance that Steffon or Darrell did it, means Daron Wint didn’t,” said Pipe.
The prosecution dismissed the defense’s theory about the brothers by showing phone records from Darrell and work records from Steffon to confirm their whereabouts during the time of the crime.
“Hold him accountable for a 10-year-old who never got a chance to live his life,” the prosecutor said. “Hold him accountable for parents who couldn’t save their little boy.”
After six weeks of listening to counsel, recordings, witnesses and experts, the jury began deliberating on Oct. 23. The guilty verdicts were reached on the second day of jury deliberations.
Read D.C. Witness’s coverage of the case, here.
Shams Sohani reported on this story.