Mersea murderer Luke D'Wit sentenced to 37-year jail term

Luke D’Wit, of Churchfields, West Mersea, was convicted by a jury on Wednesday for the murder of Carol and Stephen Baxter.

The jury retired on Monday afternoon and returned a unanimous verdict on Wednesday morning at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Stephen Baxter 64, and Carol Baxter, 61, were murdered at their home in Victory Road, West Mersea, last April after Luke D’Wit poisoned their drinks with doses of a lethal painkiller.

Questioned - Luke D'Wit spoke to police on Easter Sunday last year, the day Stephen and Carol Baxter were found dead (Image: Essex Police)

The Baxters’ deaths were initially treated by police as unexplained, but after toxicology results showed the two had deadly levels of fentanyl in their systems, a murder investigation was opened.

A six-week murder trial followed, running from February 14 until March 20, when D’Wit was found guilty.

During the course of the trial, D’Wit claimed to have no knowledge of a will – created on his phone the day after the Baxters were poisoned – which handed him control of Carol Baxter’s shower mat business.

D’Wit also claimed that fake personas he fabricated to communicate with Carol Baxter had been created at Stephen Baxter’s request.

When cross examined by the prosecution about the fentanyl patches found on D’Wit at the time of this arrest, he told the court they had been prescribed to his late grandfather and he had been intending to get rid of them.

But it was established D’Wit had kept the patches for two years after his grandfather had died.

He said: “My dad was on fentanyl for years leading up to his passing in 2021.

“After he died, we were very slow going through all of my dad’s stuff.

Murdered - Stephen and Carol Baxter 'had everything to live for' according to Chief Superintendent Rob Kirby (Image: Press Association)

“I put [the patches] into a Tesco bag - we kept finding more, I kept putting more in the bag, and eventually I would take them to the pharmacy to dispose.”

Detective superintendent Rob Kirby, head of major crime at Essex Police, said after D’Wit’s sentencing the defendant could have used the fentanyl patches to kill again.

He said: “For me, that goes to say why he would have [the patches] on him some time later when the obvious thing to would be to dispose of them, because he would like to use it in the future.”