Fentanyl double murderer may have been driven by desire to control, says judge
An IT worker who poisoned a married couple with fentanyl may have been motivated by a desire to control others, a judge said as he jailed him for life with a minimum term of 37 years for their murder.
Luke D’Wit, who befriended and worked for Stephen and Carol Baxter, created a gallery of fake personas to manipulate them in the two years before their deaths.
The 34-year-old had pretended to be a doctor from Florida and members of a fake support group for the thyroid condition Hashimoto’s, which Mrs Baxter had been diagnosed with.
He later changed their will to make him a director of their shower mat company.
Mrs Baxter, 64, and her 61-year-old husband were found dead at their home in West Mersea in Essex by their daughter Ellie on Easter Sunday last year.
D’Wit, of West Mersea, arrived soon after and described himself as a “friend” to a 999 call handler, before calmly giving a false account, as Ellie was heard in distress in the background.
Prosecutors said D’Wit created a fake will on his phone the day after the Baxters were found dead, making him a director of their shower mat company Cazsplash.
Another fake persona – a solicitor – was used in connection with the new will, prosecutors said.
On Wednesday, D’Wit was found guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court of murdering the couple following a trial lasting more than a month.
The judge, Mr Justice Nicholas Lavender, sentencing D’Wit at the same court on Friday, described the defendant’s actions as “cruel and senseless”.
He said although D’Wit “made some attempts to secure an indirect gain” for himself after the Baxters’ death, “I am not sure that that was your principal motivation for killing them”.
“I consider that it is distinctly possible that what really motivated you was a desire to control others, as you had manipulated and controlled Carol Baxter in the two years before her death, and as you continued to manipulate Ellena Baxter after her parents’ death,” said the judge.
“Deciding whether another person lives or dies is the ultimate form of control.”
D’Wit, who wore a patterned blue short-sleeved shirt as he sat in a wheelchair in the secure dock, appeared to show no reaction as his sentence was read out.
