Overview
- Aurin Makepeace was found guilty of murdering Steven Rothwell at Chester Crown Court on Wednesday, March 25, after a three-week trial, and she will be sentenced on Friday, April 10.
- Prosecutors tied her to the killing with a kitchen knife bearing Rothwell’s blood and her DNA on the handle, CCTV and phone data mapping her movements, and voice notes where she said she had “murdered my boyfriend.”
- Investigators said she stayed in the flat overnight after the stabbing, left the next morning for North Wales, and was captured on CCTV buying sweets and vodka during the rail journey.
- That night she called 999 using a false name and claimed she was still at the flat, and a pathologist testified Rothwell’s single chest wound would have killed him within about ten minutes.
- The pair had met in prison and split around 2023, and hours before the stabbing police had attended a street row involving Rothwell, Makepeace, and his recent ex-girlfriend near his Macclesfield home.