20/20 - True Crime Vault: Murder in the Mansion

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

A beautiful family's future goes up in flames. Originally broadcast October 25, 2018. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices...

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Get unlimited grocery delivery with PC Express Pass. Meal prep, delivered. Snacks, delivered. Fresh fruit, delivered. Grocery delivery on repeat for just $2.50 a month. Learn more at pcexpress.ca. Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault, where heart-stopping headlines come to life.
Starting point is 00:00:33 A burning mansion. In the flames, a terrible secret. The fire appears to be intentionally set. It shook that community to the core, especially when those horrific details started to come out about what happened inside that house. A mother, father, 10-year-old son, and the family housekeeper all held hostage for almost 20 terrifying hours. Finally, a ransom in cash.
Starting point is 00:01:00 But it doesn't save the helpless captives. Only the smoke escaping out a window. This in a wealthy Washington enclave. The vice president's neighborhood. This could happen there? What about the rest of us ordinary Joes? What chance do we have? Tonight, 2020 takes you inside the court case that just wrapped.
Starting point is 00:01:24 New details. new voices. My guess is they used the 10-year-old to get whatever they wanted out of the adults. I can't stop thinking about that day. We'll hear from the surviving housekeeper about life at the mansion. Was there anything in the Sevopolis' life that suggested they had enemies?
Starting point is 00:01:43 Room by room, clue by clue, the burning Porsche, the shadowy figure caught on surveillance cameras, the bizarre late night pizza delivery. Tries to burn the house down but guess what doesn't burn? The pizza with his saliva on it. Boom they get a hit. We've got a name, we've got a face. Police have their target. Thus begins an intense 48-hour nationwide manhunt. 18 seconds. We really had a lot of motivation to catch this guy. One charge in the movie.
Starting point is 00:02:16 The high stakes capture of suspect Darren went through the eyes of the US Marshal, who stalked him up and down the East Coast. So this is where it happened? At the red light, that's where we made our move. So you had to block him in from all four sides in some way. That's right. Tonight, the long-awaited verdict in the case that outraged the country.
Starting point is 00:02:35 You can't take your eyes off of this case because it's just that horribly incredible. This is 2020. Reporting tonight, Ryan Smith with the breaking verdict and the story he's been covering now since it began some three years ago. 8911, what is your emergency? I think there's a house fire at 3201 Woodland Drive. And we begin with that breaking news right now out of DC. Four people confirmed dead in a house fire.
Starting point is 00:03:01 When firefighters arrived, it was engulfed in flames. This investigation continues as we speak. We have firefighters. We have DC police. Police say the call came in Thursday at 1.30 in the afternoon. It's coming from a looks like initially from a bedroom, but it's going sweeping across the whole overhang
Starting point is 00:03:16 on the front of the house. Nobody can't see the door, and there's a lawn going off inside. I've turned quick. We're out on a story, something else. They said, hey, there's a fire on Woodland Drive. Get over there right away. Got there. Whoa, big fire. And then moments later, the realization, something's going on here. Something really bad is going on here. A $3.5 million mansion engulfed in flames. The second floor is completely burned.
Starting point is 00:03:47 Where there is now an unusual intensity. Firefighters and police combing through the scene. On the street, sheer panic, says WJLA reporter Stephen Sheeta. Investigators do believe this fire was deliberately set. Arson, oh dear. Nothing like this ever happened. So it's really kind of just rattling. This woman comes up and she's distraught and she's like,
Starting point is 00:04:09 I'm so afraid, you know, I was supposed to be there, they texted me, they told me not to come and I work here, I know this family and she's frantic and hysterical. That woman is Nelly Gutierrez. For the past two decades, she's worked for the homeowners, Amy and Savvas Savopoulos. What were they like together? They love each other. She says the Savopoulos'
Starting point is 00:04:32 were the picture perfect couple. In my 19 years, 20 years working for the family, they never fight. They were so good together. He really loved Amy, very, very deep. In the same way, you know, she was the same way. When firefighters arrived at this house, they thought it was just a fire. They were crawling around with their hands because this is their training.
Starting point is 00:04:58 He's feeling around the room and he feels a chair and he feels the chair is weighted. And then he feels for a head, and he feels the head. And he tries to pick the person up, and they slip right through his grasp. He's radioing in. We've now got a crime scene here. The room is a crime scene. These photos giving us a look inside the house,
Starting point is 00:05:18 inside the carnage. You could see the blood covering the floor. You could see one of the chairs that they had been restrained in. You could see it was just covered in blood. It's tossed blood covering the floor. You could see one of the chairs that they had been restrained in. You could see it was just covered in blood. It's tossed over on the side. Then the room where Philip was just charred. His bed charred.
Starting point is 00:05:36 It had sunken. It had collapsed. It had burned all the way through to the floor below. It was awful. Fire is definitely suspicious in nature. We have three adults and what appears to be possibly a child that were deceased inside of the home. Amy and Savasavopoulos, their posh home, now boarded up. Newly surrounded by a locked chain-link fence, starkly out of place in this quiet, leafy D.C. neighborhood. An abrupt ending to a love story that seemed destined to play out as happily ever after.
Starting point is 00:06:15 They both attend the University of Maryland. Savas had a crush on her for all four years, and pursued her and pursued her and pursued her, and she would never say yes until the very end. She finally agreed to go on a date and they seemed like a perfect match for each other. After college, the couple has a large Greek Orthodox wedding, pictured here on an Instagram tribute page. Sava, known for a strong work ethic and gentle manner, succeeds his father as CEO of American
Starting point is 00:06:46 Iron Works. As a young wealthy Washington couple, they settle in this red-bricked home with its own library and music room surrounded by manicured lawns, hedges and gates. Helping maintain the inside of the home, Veda Figueroa, a mother of two supporting her family back in El Salvador. She wouldn't make it out alive. So tell me about Vera. What was she like?
Starting point is 00:07:11 Vera liked, first of all she liked to work hard and she was a very happy lady. The couple have three children, Abigail, Katarina, and Philip. The two girls away at boarding school during the fire, Philip, unfortunately, losing his life in the flames. What about Philip though? He's 10. He was very mature. He was very funny. You know, when I always talk to him in Spanish, he gets so excited. But then when I talk to him a little bit more, he says, no, no, no, no, no, I don't understand. Ten-year-old Philip, known as Flip, is a fan of Harry Potter and has an atypical hobby, go-kart racing.
Starting point is 00:07:59 This is not the thing your normal ten-year-old gets to do. Philip had a coach and he had a top-of-the-line go-kart, and Amy made her son do his homework between races. And it's at one of these go-kart tracks that Sabah Sabopolis meets this man. I feel good. Fellow racing enthusiast, 28-year-old Jordan Wallace. Wallace creating his own website with videos of the extreme sport. My life is awesome. Like, I have nothing to complain about.
Starting point is 00:08:28 Their friendship would lead to a job as Savas' personal assistant. Wallace will later end up playing a pivotal role in those final hours. That assistant says he got a call from Savas Savopoulos to bring $40,000 cash to the house. Was it an armed robbery gone wrong, or a calculated murder for hire? Questions that would confound police and this once peaceful neighborhood. I talked with several neighbors who said
Starting point is 00:08:55 that they saw Philip playing in the driveway. They would see Amy walking around the neighborhood, exercising. Now passing by that house is an eerie feeling for these neighbors, one that will never go away. So this had to shake them to their core. It shook that community to the core. It shook the city to the core. Next, a family held hostage for nearly 20 desperate hours. The calls they were forced to make during those hours. Hey Jordan, it's Saba. Slight change of plans tomorrow.
Starting point is 00:09:23 I've got a package that I'm going gonna need you to bring down to me. Stay with us. The moments of sweat and sacrifice towards the composition of champions. An unforgettable journey is nearing its finale. Four more wins to take home the trophy. The NBA final presented by YouTube TV begins June 5th on ABC. This is the next phase in my therapeutic work. Nicole Kidman returns for the Hulu original 9 Perfect Strangers season 2.
Starting point is 00:10:08 Breathe in, breathe out. This is safe. We take you back to a core trauma. Breathe in, breathe out. She is manipulating us. Breathe in, breathe out. Why are you resisting? Is it too late to get a refund?
Starting point is 00:10:24 The all-new season of 9 Perfect Strangers is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu and Disney+. Why are you resisting? Isn't it too late to get a refund? The all new season of 9 Perfect Strangers is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu and Disney Plus. New episodes Wednesdays. It's Wednesday, May 13th, around 6pm. As Washington DC is closing for the night and people are sitting in traffic, the Sevopolis family, with the teenage girls away at boarding school, are trying to survive the most desperate night of their lives. It begins with a terrifying home invasion.
Starting point is 00:10:50 Also inside the mansion, the family's housekeeper, Vera Figueroa. She had been with the Sevopolis since her friend and the family's other housekeeper, Nelly Gutierrez, got her the job. You helped her work with the Sevopolis family, right? Yes, and I took her over there. And it was like almost five years ago. Authorities now believe that Housekeeper is the first person to encounter the intruder. She actually tried to fight him off, and he used a bat because her DNA was found on the handle of one of the baseball bats. Longtime crime reporter Jennifer Donilon covered the story.
Starting point is 00:11:24 This started out as a story about a fire, right? We're trying to figure out, did something more sinister happen before the fire? That evening, one of the captives, Savvas Savopoulos, leaves a voicemail telling Gutierrez not to come in the next day. Hey, it's Savva. I hope you get this message. Amy is in bed sick tonight, and she was sick this afternoon afternoon. And Vera offered to stay and help her out. So she's gonna stay the night here. But Gutierrez doesn't get the message until the next day. When I got that message on Thursday, I was thinking.
Starting point is 00:11:56 And I start calling them. So I call her and I say, hi Vera, what's going on? No answer. Vera's husband, Bernardo Alfaro, telling reporter John Gonzalez from ABC Washington station W. J. L. A. He begins to worry at five o'clock Wednesday afternoon. He goes home, starts calling her nonstop on her cell phone until the cell phone really stops ringing. But at about nine p.m., the strangest call by far.
Starting point is 00:12:26 A call for a food delivery. We can confirm that we made a delivery to the house. Police say it's Amy Sabopoulos calling Domino's Pizza. She orders two pies, gives a credit card number, and special instructions. Don't ring the doorbell. I'm caring for a sick child. Just leave it on the front door.
Starting point is 00:12:43 The Domino's driver leaves the pizza, rings the bell, and drives away, taking with him an opportunity to end the ordeal for the terrified people just inside. There were things that happened that, of course, now we can look back on and say, what if? This Domino's pizza box later found inside the burned home, seemingly innocuous evidence of a horrifying night.
Starting point is 00:13:05 And to think that the killer actually ordered and ate a pizza during the middle of all this, I couldn't even eat after I heard about it. This guy's eating a pizza in the middle of it. That night, Savvas Savopoulos calls his assistant, Jordan Wallace, the man the family met at that go-kart trap. Hey, Jordan, it's Savva. Savva leaves a Jordan Wallace, the man the family met at that go-kart trap. Police say that Wallace responded by text.
Starting point is 00:13:45 Got your message. I'll call once I get the package. The longest night passes on Woodland Drive. As Thursday dawns, housekeeper Vera Figueroa's husband, after working an overnight shift, finds his wife still not home. He goes to the mansion looking for her. Knocks on the door, rings the doorbell, nothing.
Starting point is 00:14:05 But it's interesting. He says, it felt to me like someone was inside. Could he hear them? He just says he heard like noises, like someone shuffling inside. Just then, his phone rings. It's Savvas Savopoulos inside the house. They're just a few feet apart. He says, Lito, I'm sorry I didn't call you last night.
Starting point is 00:14:27 Vera stayed the night with us. And he said that he was apologizing profusely. So the husband, a little more satisfied with that, the fact that he's heard from someone, he goes home. That morning, the next phase of the plan becomes apparent. Jordan Wallace meets another employee at a bank near Sevopolisos' company, American Ironworks. Couple hours later, we see surveillance video
Starting point is 00:14:49 of Jordan Wallace and another colleague of his taking out $40,000 from a Bank of America. And Jordan later testifies that, you know, I'd never seen that much money in my entire life. Savopoulos tells his assistant to bring the cash to his house, come into the garage, the car is unlocked. Not to give it to him, but to put it in a car, which you would think would set off alarm bells.
Starting point is 00:15:11 And then you wonder, why didn't that person call police? At 10.26 a.m., Wallace sends this text message to his boss, package delivered. The cash is dropped, but for some reason, that doesn't stop the crime. Police say the killing begins. We were getting source information that there was blunt force trauma to the bodies, that there were stab wounds to the bodies, that the bodies also had been tied up.
Starting point is 00:15:39 Authorities will later piece together the family's terrifying final moments alive. The three adults, Savva and Amy Savopoulos and Vera Figaroa, are held in an upstairs bedroom. The little boy, Phillip, separated from the grownups in another bedroom. The sun is where it appears, according to court documents, is where they set that fire. With the house on fire, the killer flees. To think that a human would torture and murder a 10-year-old little boy while his mother and father sit in the next room hearing him scream in order to get money, it's heinous. Before the fire can spread to where the adults are,
Starting point is 00:16:25 the fire department gets the alarm. It's 1.30 p.m. on Thursday. The story blows up. The case that is shaking the neighborhood to its core tonight. The media descends on the neighborhood. Crime scene investigators have been here all day long. Early that afternoon, someone notices Amy Sabopoulos'
Starting point is 00:16:41 blue Porsche is missing from the house. Police ask the public for help, but it wasn't hard to find. Just follow the smoke. The Porsche torched in a church parking lot in Maryland. Back at the mansion, authorities are already sifting through the grisly scene. How much more difficult is it for them to try to figure this out with that house being burned so badly? The whole reason why you set something on fire in a case like
Starting point is 00:17:06 that is to get rid of evidence. When we come back a microscopic clue in the strangest place and the daring late night manhunt and take down us marshals tell us they're forced to do something they've never tried before. I said move go go go stay with us. Whether it's a family member friend or furry companion Go, go,000. Conditions apply.
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Starting point is 00:18:18 So sorry. FX's Adults, Wednesdays on FX. All episodes streaming on Hulu. Police are on the scene of a deadly house fire. Four people were found dead inside. It is the case that is shaking the neighborhood to its core tonight. If the fire at 3201 Woodland Drive in Washington, DC had burned faster, if the Washington, DC firefighters had responded a little slower, the key evidence in the case might have been
Starting point is 00:18:43 destroyed. But the location of the crime, the nation's capital, gives authorities a special advantage. This is Washington, D.C. We're unique in that sense. Our Metropolitan Police Department and our D.C. Fire Department is backed up by federal agencies. The arson task force at the mansion includes the ATF,
Starting point is 00:19:02 which boasts perhaps the one lab in the country best equipped to extract DNA from fire damaged evidence. Greg Zarnopis is the deputy assistant director who runs the lab. Typically we're looking at debris from a fire scene. This is where that strange delivery, the Domino's Pizza and those discarded pieces of crust comes back to bite the mansion home invader.
Starting point is 00:19:24 A slice of pizza crust broke this case wide open. Crime scene specialists recover the leftover crusts. Nothing more than household garbage to you and me, but for them, the perfect serving of prime evidence. They rush the crust to the ATF lab, working around the clock. Looking at food, when someone takes a bite of it, we could see if there's any DNA present. Todd Bill, an ATF analyst, lifted the DNA profile off that pizza crust.
Starting point is 00:19:50 If there's something like in this situation where there's a violent offender, we can call the FBI and they will do an immediate search for that profile. I have never seen a DNA hit turned around that quick. Never. Tuesday, May 19th, only five days after the fire and the murders, a breakthrough. Boom, they get a hit. We've got a name. We've got a face. Darren Wint, 34 years old. Because of that lengthy criminal record, his DNA was on file. And now we knew at least one person who was allegedly inside that house. Now all they have to do is find him.
Starting point is 00:20:26 Thus begins an intense 48 hour nationwide manhunt. From what I understand, the cars were right over here. Robert Fernandez with the U.S. Marshals Service is part of the task force now hunting for wind. We try and draw a picture of relatives, locations where he's lived, friends, patterns of life. Then, Wednesday night, exactly one week after the family had been taken captive in their mansion, authorities get a line on Wint.
Starting point is 00:20:54 We were able to determine that he had fled the DC area. Two days after he commits these murders, Darren Wint takes a road trip and he goes to New York, of all places. Gets on a bus and goes to his fiance's apartment. Took her on shopping sprees, paid off her credit card, all the while paying with $100 bills. Always $100 bills. So while DC police are looking for the killer of these three adults and child, Darren Wint is living it up in New York City. Police have identified the suspect accused of killing four people and they think he is in our area. They're sitting in bed together in their, in her New York apartment
Starting point is 00:21:29 and see his face come on the news. He saw himself on the news from what we understand and then fled the area. And you just missed catching him. That's right. Eventually he takes a taxi, a $900 taxi from New York City to D.C. back to his father's house. And that's where he and his brother concocted a plan
Starting point is 00:21:47 They're gonna get a lawyer and they're gonna turn him in but whence brother and a cousin who say they had nothing to do with the Crime begin plotting to deliver Darren to the police Immediately at that point the plan changes and Darren isn't aware that the plan changes Thursday night a week after the murders, US Marshals track Wint to this Howard Johnson's in the DC suburbs. You're going in ready for anything. That's right. And immediately, a surprise.
Starting point is 00:22:14 The US Marshals advance team notices Wint leaving the hotel, but he isn't alone. That advance team radioed to us. They had a suspicion that he was in one of two vehicles that were right over here. In one of those vehicles, Wint and three women. In the other, Wint's younger brother Dorrell and their cousin. At that moment, both of those vehicles left and turned northbound. Didn't see that coming. Not at all. But we're ready to roll with it. Air support is called in from Prince George's County PD. Authorities tail the group,
Starting point is 00:22:45 now traveling in a two-vehicle caravan, a box truck with North Carolina tags, followed by a white Chevy Cruze. How many cars are following him at this point? Altogether, it could have been 25, maybe 30 vehicles. Moments later, authorities spring the trap, employing a daring maneuver to stop the cars cold. It's called a vehicle pin blocking maneuver.
Starting point is 00:23:06 The Marshall's cars surround the white Chevy in the box truck on all sides, and on the commander's go, the front car reverses, the rear car speeds forward, and four more cars surround the target vehicles on all sides. Basically pinning the car at four points and immobilizing it. They were looking in their mirrors, they saw the lights, and they put their hands up. Immediately. Immediately.
Starting point is 00:23:28 I think they were completely and totally startled and surprised. So this is where it happened? Yeah, right here. In the rear passenger seat of the white Chevy, Darren went, trapped. He followed commands, he got out, he crawled, he got on the ground, he was immediately handcuffed and brought over to a police vehicle and he didn't say a word. It was the end of a painstaking 48-hour manhunt. No sleep. The nation has quite frankly watched the search go from D.C. to New York, now back here to the D.C. area and now he is in custody. In the car Wint was driving in, police report finding clothing, an iPad,
Starting point is 00:24:06 two knives, cash, and thousands of dollars in money orders. What did you see? In the truck I saw, in the side compartment of the passenger door, a big wad of cash, and it was $100 bills, you could tell it was hundreds. But the strangest find? In the truck with Wint's brother and cousin,
Starting point is 00:24:23 a crumpled piece of paper scribbled on it, 300 Indiana Avenue. Which is the address for the headquarters of the DC police. That may be another piece of information that would suggest the relatives are working with the marshals and we're going to ultimately drive him up to the front door possibly of the DC police. Wint appears in Superior Court the next day, charged with first degree murder while armed. The community wanted to see everybody who was responsible locked up at once, case closed.
Starting point is 00:24:53 But this case is not closed, not by a long shot. When we come back, a man who came face to face with Darren Wint at the wrong end of a knife. Stay with us. face to face with Darren Wint at the wrong end of a knife. Stay with us. A vexing criminal case. Four people murdered. The house apparently torched to destroy any clues.
Starting point is 00:25:13 But some evidence seems to have survived the blaze. Hair, DNA, and fingerprints were removed from the scene. And yet only one suspect in custody, 34-year-old Darren Wint, linked to the case by the DNA evidence found on that Domino's Pizza crust. Wint's family and friends have ducked the cameras. But out of the blue, a new player emerges. His former attorney Robin Ficker, who takes the national stage to go out on a limb for
Starting point is 00:25:40 Wint without landish observations. He never eats pizza. He doesn't like pizza. The bombastic Ficker makes sweeping statements about the innocence of a man he defended on a handful of traffic tickets. I know him to be a kind, gentle, non-aggressive person, someone you wouldn't mind your grandmother
Starting point is 00:26:00 going to lunch with. Mr. Ficker says that he's really a gentle giant, that you'd want to sit down and have tea with your grandmother. Well, not my grandmother. Clearly, Ficker hasn't done his homework. He's got a fairly impressive number of arrests that involve assault, there's some, I believe, domestic violence charges, and more importantly, there is the use of a knife. Yet when Wint emigrated from the South American country of Guyana to the U.S.,
Starting point is 00:26:28 his future seemed bright. Twelve years before the mansion murders, he landed a well-paying job as a welder at American Iron Works, the company owned by Savasavopoulos. But for reasons unknown, Wint left the company after only two years, and that's when things went south for him. While living in suburban Maryland, Wint's own father, shown here on his Facebook page,
Starting point is 00:26:51 feared living with him, getting a protective order after he says Wint threatened to shoot him. A relative who didn't want to be named said Wint was known for his hair trigger temper. He's very hostile, he's arrogant. Everywhere he went, he fought with people. He fight with his father, with his brother, everybody. By 2006, Wint picked up stakes and moved here
Starting point is 00:27:16 to the quiet upstate New York town of Oswego, living in this apartment building. It's in this port city, nestled along Lake Ontario, where Michael Babcock is about to see Wint's temper up close. We brought him back to the scene of his cousin's house where Babcock was trying to get Wint to leave after his cousin complained. After an altercation Wint suddenly attacked. Darren had come out and was windmilling with the knives and I went up like that and blocked and
Starting point is 00:27:43 this is where he stabbed me in the wrist. Wind was arrested in order to stay away from Babcock, but while waiting for trial, he suddenly ambushed Babcock a second time on this bridge. Babcock was rushed to the emergency room, where he was told he was lucky to be alive. When Darren stabbed me in the neck, if it would have been a little bit lower,
Starting point is 00:28:03 the doctors told me that I would have died before I made it to the first hospital. He was convicted and jailed briefly, only to assault again. Another man in Oswego and a girlfriend back in Maryland. He has a rap sheet as long as my arm. And that gives a perfect example to the claim of revolving door justice. Wint dates another woman, but the script is the same. He's arrested after threatening to kill her, her daughter, and her friends. Telling her he's good with a knife and could kill them easily. But despite that graphic threat, Wint is convicted only for smashing the windows of his girlfriend's car. And as the years pass, Wint apparently had not for smashing the windows of his girlfriend's car.
Starting point is 00:28:45 And as the years pass, Wint apparently had not forgotten his former employer. In 2010, he made a bizarre and menacing return to American Iron Works, the company he had left five years earlier. He's found outside the American Iron Works with a machete, a BB gun, and a can of beer. So there's this weird incident that occurred outside of the very place where Sava Savopoulos was president and CEO. Although charged with concealing a deadly weapon, Wynn was allowed to simply plead guilty
Starting point is 00:29:17 to having an open container of alcohol and find $919. I wonder what those prosecutors are thinking now. I let that guy go on a lesser offense. Wynn was able to avoid the courts for the next five years, but along the way, his own siblings kick him out. Searching for shelter, he is increasingly desperate. The suspect in that brutal murder at a Washington, D.C., mansion arrested,
Starting point is 00:29:43 he was on the run. The next time he surfaced was when he made national news as the prime suspect in the Sevopoulos murder case. For him to then take that a step further and get involved in potentially killing four people with a knife is really not a stretch based on his background. Coming up next, a courtroom family feud. Wint points the finger at his background. Coming up next, a courtroom family feud. Wint points the finger at his brothers. He couldn't pull this off on his own.
Starting point is 00:30:10 No way. I don't think he's got it up here. Stay with us. Three years after he walked into this posh mansion, Darren Wint finds himself in another unfamiliar house, a D.C. courthouse. Darren's defense strategy, a curious one, pointing the finger at his own brothers.
Starting point is 00:30:37 The defense's argument was just that, that Darren Wint was duped by his brothers, Stephon and Darrell Wint was duped by his brothers, Stephon and Dorrell Wint, into coming to the house, into loaning his minivan to be part of this whole crime, that Darren Wint had nothing to do with it. It will be an uphill battle for Wint as his friends and family come to testify, not for him, but against.
Starting point is 00:31:08 Darren Wint's stepmom testified against him, saying that, you know, I don't know where he was for the entire day of May 13th and most of the day on May 14th. Where was this man for that entire time that this crime was taking place? There was the ex-fiancee who testified under immunity. That was a very key testimony because, again, she testified that he spent all this money on her.
Starting point is 00:31:32 Obviously, she didn't want to be there. She still obviously very much cares for Darren Wint. But it was also the first time that we saw emotion from Darren Wint Derren Wint began crying when she began crying. MUSIC The notion of brotherly love is put to the test as Wint's own siblings take the stand. Stefana and Daryl, these two individuals are key to this story because Derren Wint, on the first day of trial, he implicated both of his brothers as being the actual ones involved in this crime and not himself.
Starting point is 00:32:13 Stefan Wint testifies first. Stefan, credible, answered the questions forthright, has a job, works really hard. He presented his employment records, which showed he was at work on the 13th, he was at work on the 14th. What was interesting about Stefan Wynn is that the defense attorney said he was the one who was in that bedroom,
Starting point is 00:32:38 whose hair was found in the bedroom where the three adult bodies were found. And that's key because siblings who have the same mother also have the same part of a DNA. Next up was Darrell Wint, the defendant's half brother who initially appeared half asleep. During the lunch break, it was a 75 minute lunch break and he was outside the courtroom taking a nap.
Starting point is 00:33:04 But eventually his testimony heats up. He said, you know, Darren went, that's my big brother. And you put me in this situation. You're throwing me under the bus. He really looked at Darren and just said, I can't believe you're doing this to me. Whether you believe Darren or whether you believe Darrell, you saw this sort of brotherly fallout playing out in front of everybody. Whether you believe Darren or whether you believe Darrell, you saw this sort of brotherly fallout playing out in front of everybody. The defense strategy also includes other alternative suspects.
Starting point is 00:33:33 On the first day of trial, not only did they implicate Wint's brothers, but they also implicated Jordan Wallace. Jordan Wallace, you'll remember, is the young man who dropped off the $40,000 at the house. Jordan Wallace, I believe, was simply an innocent person who got roped into this, seen on video, getting the $40,000, driving it there, the day they were being held hostage, seen on video shopping for Sava, the day they were murdered. But on the stand, he was credible, he was emotional. He was believable.
Starting point is 00:34:10 Prosecutors insist Darren Wint acted alone. But as the alternative suspect strategy begins to implode, the defense throws a Hail Mary. The defense said, we're going to call one witness and then Mr. Wint. People are like, what? What did she just say? It's very rare to see a defendant charged in a murder case, unless they're claiming self-defense, take the witness stand.
Starting point is 00:34:37 They're opening themselves up for a lot of potential questioning, which could implicate them. And he just decided he's sharp enough, he's shrewd enough, he could take on that prosecutor. For about five hours, Darren Wint talked about his role in all of this. He was very calm, very yes ma'am, no ma'am. You know, prosecutors coming at him,
Starting point is 00:35:04 drilling, throwing questions at him, left to right, throw left to right. By most accounts, Darren Wint was a cool customer on the stand, perfectly prepped to explain it all away. His testimony was so precisely crafted to counter every single prosecution piece of evidence. Oh yeah, that was me. I walked into the house,
Starting point is 00:35:26 but that was because my brother brought me over there and I didn't even know, you know, what was going on in that house. Try as he might, Darren Wint cannot fully explain that slice of pizza. The slice he could not finish. The slice that may finish him. Right now Darren Wint's fate in the hands of a jury.
Starting point is 00:35:43 That after impassioned and emotional closing arguments from attorneys on both sides in the mansion murders case. The jury deliberating right now it could continue to deliberate through tomorrow perhaps for several days. That prediction was accurate. Two days later the verdict was in. A verdict in the mansion murderous trial. Just moments ago, one word echoed through the courtroom. That word, guilty, guilty, guilty. All 20 counts guilty. And on the first guilty delivery,
Starting point is 00:36:17 Sava Savopoulos' father, his shoulders just start to shake. And you can tell he's weeping. And I looked over to Darren Wind. He just drops his head and it just stayed there the entire time. Prosecutors recommending a sentence of life without parole. We cried and say well now Vera's gonna rest in peace and the whole family. Providing some measure of comfort for the woman who still holds on to the house keys to that mansion long after it was demolished. I worked for them for so many years
Starting point is 00:36:53 and I miss them so much. And why? Why bad things happen to good people? Because they were such a good family. At long last justice for those two surviving daughters in that family. Thanks for listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. We hope you'll join us Friday nights at 9 on ABC for all new broadcast episodes. See you then Hi, I'm Brad Milky I'm the host of the crime scene weekly a new show from ABC audio about the latest headlines in true crime this week
Starting point is 00:37:41 I'm talking about a major development in the Murdoch murder trial. The allegations that a court clerk lied on the stand. Could this mean a retrial for Alec Murdoch? Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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