Ex-Husband Arrested In Shooting Deaths Of Woman, Boyfriend While Their Children Hid In Fear
A Florida man was arrested Saturday on suspicion of murder in connection to the killings this summer of his ex-wife and her boyfriend at their Maryland home, where the woman’s four children hid in the house for hours.
David Phillip Turner, 33, will be extradited on suspicion of murder in the shooting deaths of Crimea Malita Baker, 33, and Sean Lange, 34, which Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins called a “crime of rage and anger.”
Turner is the father of three of Baker’s four children, Jenkins said. Lange was the father of the fourth, a baby boy who was born earlier this year.
Jenkins said the shooter fired more than 42 rounds at the couple, whose bodies were found in their bed by deputies who arrived at their New Market house at around 7 a.m. on Aug. 25.
In a news conference Monday, Jenkins said that deputies believed Turner snuck into a back door of the house sometime after 1 a.m., and that the couple were shot at around 1:25 a.m.
The children, ages 13 and younger, told deputies that they had waited for hours before they felt safe enough to emerge from hiding. They were not injured in the shooting, authorities said.
“This was a heinous, targeted double murder, a crime of rage and anger,” Jenkins said in a statement after the killings.
Turner, a Miami resident, was arrested Saturday at around 6:20 p.m. on a beach in Fort Lauderdale, Jenkins said. Multiple law enforcement agencies assisted in the investigation, including the Fort Lauderdale Police Department and the FBI.
Jenkins said that the children are currently staying with relatives.
“They’re devastated, their lives will never be the same, but they are with family, and they are safe,” he said.
Baker had previously posted online about being a domestic violence survivor and sought a lawyer to assist in her divorce and custody proceedings. More recently, she had posted happy photos of milestones and vacations with her children. “Beyond blessed for new beginnings and enlightened transitions,” she wrote in one post shortly before her death.
A fundraiser to support Lange’s children, which include three daughters who were not staying with him at the time of the shootings, described him as hardworking and generous.
“Sean was a man who loved deeply and lived passionately,” the fundraiser said. “He was known for his warm heart, infectious smile, and the way he could light up a room just by being in it.”
Turner is also suspected of home invasion and gun charges in connection to the killings, Jenkins said. He is currently being held at the Broward County Sheriff’s Office Jail in Florida awaiting extradition back to Maryland. A spokesperson for the Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office told HuffPost that they do not know how long that will take.
It is unclear whether Turner has an attorney representing him.