A small-time drug dealer described as ‘sadistic’ was sentenced to life in prison today for stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death in front of witnesses on the street.
Logan Burnett, aged 27, who was described as obsessive, committed what the judge labeled as a ‘personal execution’ of Courtney Mitchell, a mother of three who had relocated to a different town to flee from Burnett’s coercive and violent behavior.
Burnett became enraged after learning she had found a new boyfriend and boasted to friends how he would become ‘famous’ by killing both of them.
Upon his arrest for the knife attack, which was deemed ‘cold and deliberate,’ Burnett displayed a smirk in his mugshot and expressed impatience to the police, stating, ‘I don’t understand why this is taking so long. I would rather confess and return to prison immediately.’
Jailing Burnett for life with a minimum 24-year term, Judge Martyn Levett told him: ‘I am convinced that you are an obsessive and jealous man who decided to harass and intimidate Courtney Mitchell and hunted her down as if she was your quarry… you are, in my judgement, fuelled [by] and filled with jealousy.’
He added: ‘It was a personal execution of Courtney and I have to ask for what reason?’
Burnett was on bail at the time of the murder after repeated attacks on Miss Mitchell, 26, and her family criticised police for not keeping him behind bars.
In a victim impact statement her mother, Samantha, read to the court, she said: ‘If they had done their job correctly I believe my little girl would be alive today. But they didn’t. They let her down. Professionals let her down, time and time again.
Logan Burnett, 27, pictured, launched the frenzied attack on mother-of-three Courtney Mitchell, 26, after subjecting her to a campaign of harassment which included causing a flood in her home
Friends of Courtney Mitchell, 26, pictured, said at the time that she had two sons aged eight and one and a four-year-old daughter
Burnett, who fled the scene, was immediately identified as the suspect. Picture: Police cordon after the stabbing
‘I know Logan is the reason but she could have been saved if they had taken her abuse seriously. He is being fed in a warm cell while she is cold in the ground.’
Miss Mitchell’s father, William Hutchinson, added he had been left with a ‘massive void’ in his life, saying: ‘This person not only took my daughter’s life but they also robbed her children of their mummy and made them orphans.’
Burnett attacked his former partner in broad daylight on the evening of August 6 last year, a month after they split up.
A friend described how he had suddenly appeared on a street in Ipswich, Suffolk, and chased after Miss Mitchell before he pushed her against a hedge, punched her and ‘stabbed her three times in the belly’ with a large knife.
A passer-by said of the calculating killer: ‘It didn’t look like a frenzied attack. It was cold and deliberate.’
Miss Mitchell’s last words as she staggered away were: ‘I have been stabbed. Am I going to die?’
She was taken to Ipswich Hospital where she died from stab wounds to her chest, stomach, leg and back. One of the two knives Burnett, of Ipswich, was carrying was bent from the ferocity of the blows.
He dumped the knives in a nearby garden before fleeing the scene and getting his father to pick him up by pretending he was being chased by people in balaclavas.
Burnett, pictured, was identified and was arrested the following day at an address in the Suffolk town
The following day he admitted to his mother ‘he was glad he did it and didn’t regret his actions’.
When police arrived, he sneered: ‘What, so she died, yeah?’
Burnett, who admitted murder, had 24 previous convictions for 52 offences including assault, harassment, breaching restraining orders and criminal damage.
The court heard he regularly used cannabis and cocaine and had also taken heroin and crack, as well as ‘being involved in the selling of drugs’.
He had stopped taking prescription medicine for ADHD in the months before the attack and used synthetic drug Spice the day before the killing.
Miss Mitchell’s mother said Burnett had beaten her daughter and threatened to set fire to her hair on one occasion.
Another friend revealed he hit her ‘in private and in public’ and he had seen bruises on her ‘breasts, ribs and all over her body’.
She moved from Ipswich to Colchester in Essex on July 21 last year in an attempt to make a fresh start but allowed Burnett to visit her at her new home. Her mother said she was ‘in a bad place and wanted to see him’.
Police arrived within minutes following a 999 call to find her fighting for her life with critical stab wounds as she lay on a pavement. She died a short time later in Ipswich Hospital
Burnett ended up ripping the radiators off the wall in her new home, causing extensive flooding, and smashed her television.
In Snapchat messages to her sister, Charlie, he said he had done it because she ‘cheated on him and violated him’.
He was arrested because of the damage but was bailed on the condition that he stayed away from Miss Mitchell.
But a friend of Miss Mitchell received a series of messages from Burnett saying he was going to stab her and her new partner and would ‘kill her whole family’.
On the night before her murder, Burnett showed two knives to his housemate in Ipswich, telling him: ‘I am going to do him and her.’
Early the next morning, he told his housemate: ‘I am going to be Facebook and news famous before the end of the day.’
Just half an hour before the murder, Miss Mitchell’s new partner was also sent a message by Burnett which stated: ‘I have a s****y just thinking of stabbing you both up.’
Telephone records revealed that he also made 22 calls to each of them which went unanswered on the day of the murder.
A family statement said: ‘Courtney was a great mum with two beautiful sons and one beautiful daughter who love her immeasurably’
Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC told Norwich Crown Court Burnett had been ‘motivated by jealousy’ after the on-off relationship ended and Miss Mitchell started seeing her new boyfriend, Scott Alderton.
Friends and family described her as ‘quite a wild person’ but also ‘someone who was kind with a very big heart’ who put others first and would ‘go hungry to make sure her children were fed’.
In her victim impact statement, Miss Mitchell’s sister Charlie said Burnett was ‘manipulative and vindictive’, adding: ‘[He] is a monster and should not be trusted in society. Every woman should fear him. He should never be released.’
The family released a statement after the sentencing in which they called for ‘public services to listen to the cries for help regarding domestic violence’.
They added: ‘Women are dying every day at the hands of men. Enough is enough. It’s time we take a stand and fight back against violent men, violent relationships and knife crime.
‘This is a national problem that needs to be taken seriously. People are dying.’
Detective Superintendent Nicola Wallace said: ‘Suffolk police are committed to tackle domestic violence in all forms across our communities, with the aim of trying to prevent such horrific attacks and the impact on victim’s and families in future.’
