Attorney Says Client's Brothers Did Savopoulos Killings: Report

WASHINGTON, DC -- The case of the brutal murder of the Savopoulos family and their housekeeper three years ago has been full of twists and turns, but the trial has just taken a new one: the public defender representing the man charged with their killings says that his client was set up by his brothers, according to a report.

The Washington Post reports that Jeffrey Stein, the public defender who represents 36-year-old Daron Wint, said in court that his client's brothers "deceived him, abandoned him, and left him to take the fall" in a robbery that went bad.

Wint was the only person arrested after the May 2015 killings of 46-year-old Savvas Savopoulos, 47-year-old Amy Savopoulos, 10-year-old Philip Savopoulos, and 57-year-old Veralicia Figueroa, the family's housekeeper. Prosecutors claim Wint held his victims hostage inside their Northwest D.C. home before beating, strangling, and stabbing them to death and then setting the house on fire after getting $40,000 in ransom.

Stein proposed Wint's brother Darrell and half-brother Steffon as alternate suspects, neither of whom have been charged in the case, according to the Post report. Stein claims that there is evidence both were in the home.

A judge ruled earlier this summer that there is sufficient evidence that a second suspect was involved for it to be introduced at trial. WTOP reports that investigators have long thought that it would take multiple people to pull off the hostage situation in the Savopoulos family's Kalorama mansion, and Judge Juliet McKenna reviewed evidence presented by the defense of a second suspect.

It was on May 14, 2015 when a fire erupted at the home of Savvas and Amy Savopoulos near National Cathedral, leading to the discovery of their bodies and that of their 10-year-old son, Philip. Their 57-year-old housekeeper, Vera Figeroa, later died at the hospital.

Police believe the four of them were held hostage beginning on May 13, and eventually they were killed via blunt and sharp force trauma, with Philip also experiencing thermal injuries, meaning he was still alive as the house burned.

Police arrested Daron Wint a few days later, claiming he committed the murders and made off with $40,000 in ransom money. He had worked for Savopolous' company in Hyattsville, Md. at one time.

Investigators had a hard time believing that just one person could pull off the elaborate crime. But so far, Wint had been the only person identified as the culprit. His DNA was found on a pizza crust at the home, prosecutors say.

Wint, who was discharged from the Marine Corps due to medical reasons, reportedly had a long rap sheet that included being convicted in 2009 of second-degree assault, pleading guilty to malicious destruction of property in 2010, and facing a number of other theft, assault, and weapons charges over the years.

Prominent D.C. attorney Robin Ficker has said that Wint's family does not believe that Wint was responsible for the killings, saying that authorities had arrested the wrong person and the Wint did not even like pizza.

Wint's trial finally began this month after numerous delays.

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 19: District of Columbia Metropolitan Police maintain a perimeter around the house on the 3200 block of Woodland Drive NW May 19, 2015 in Washington, DC. Firefighters discovered the bodies of Savvas Savopoulos, 46, his wife Amy, 47, their 10-year-old son Philip, and the housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, 57, last Thursday afternoon when they responded to a blaze at the house. Two Savopoulos daughters were away in boarding school at the time. Investigators have ruled the deaths homicides and say they could continue to collect evidence at the house for another week. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)