A ‘sadistic’ small-time drug dealer who hunted down his ex-girlfriend and stabbed her to death in the street in front of friends was jailed for life today.
Obsessive Logan Burnett, 27, carried out what a judge called the ‘personal execution’ of petite mother-of-three Courtney Mitchell, who had moved towns to try and escape his coercive and violent behaviour.
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.
When he was arrested for the ‘cold and deliberate’ knife attack he smirked at the camera for his mugshot and told police: ‘I don’t know why this is taking so long. I would rather admit it and go straight back to prison.’
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.’
