Wife killer jailed for life with help of Alexa

Serial abuser told smart speaker ‘to stop’ before he strangled partner and slit her throat in the bedroom

A SERIAL domestic abuser has been jailed for life for murdering his wife after an Alexa device made voice recordings during the course of the attack.

Daniel White, 36, kicked open Angie White’s locked bedroom door and strangled her before cutting her throat with a Stanley knife on Oct 22 last year.

The couple had an Amazon Alexa device, which can control household electrical items when activated by a voice prompt.

Detectives discovered voice commands made by White and his wife at the time of the murder had been stored in the Cloud, Swansea Crown Court heard. William Hughes KC, prosecuting, said: “As a consequence, police have been able to discover that at 3.03am Angie in her bedroom said, ‘Alexa, volume three’. At 3.16am Daniel White’s voice can be heard saying, ‘Alexa stop’. He then goes back downstairs into the living room and says, ‘Turn on – Alexa’ but what can also be heard is that he is out of breath and these appear to be the moments when, the Crown say, he has gone to get the knife. He then returns to the bedroom at 3.18am when he says, ‘Alexa, turn on the electric light’, and at 3.19am he says, ‘Alexa, turn off the TV’.

“So, the Crown’s reasonable interpretation is after 3.03am and before 3.16am Daniel White had burst through the door and initially strangled Angie, then went downstairs to get the knife, and thereafter cut her throat.” The court heard they had begun arguing on Whatsapp and the last message between the pair was exchanged at 3.11am. White then fled the house in Swansea in his wife’s car and hours later phoned police to confess to murder.

Officers went to their home in Plasmarl and discovered the front door unlocked and the body of Mrs White, 45, in her bedroom.

Swansea Crown Court heard that White, a labourer, had a long history of domestic violence, including against Mrs White.

At the time of the murder, he was on licence from prison after receiving a 10-year extended sentence for rape and assault. Neighbours heard banging, shouting and screaming at about 3am before hearing a front door and a car drive away.

Shortly before 6am, White called police, telling a call handler: “She’s in the house, she’s dead. I’ve strangled her and cut her throat. She’s dead.”

White previously admitted murder but refused to attend court for sentencing. Imposing a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years and 10 months, Judge Paul Thomas KC described White as a coward.