A Connecticut jury on Friday found Michelle Troconis, girlfriend of Jennifer Dulos' estranged husband, guilty of conspiring to murder the New Canaan mother of five in May 2019.
After four days, the jury found Troconis guilty of all charges filed against her, including conspiring to murder Jennifer, conspiring to commit evidence tampering, tampering with physical evidence, conspiring to commit tampering with physical evidence, tampering with physical evidence as an accessory and hindering an investigation.
Troconis bent over a table in the courtroom with her head in her arms as the verdict was read aloud on Friday morning.
Prosecutors said Troconis conspired to kill Dulos with the late Connecticut mother's estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, who was charged with murdering Jennifer in New Canaan. Fotis died by suicide in January 2020, after leaving a note insisting he was innocent.
"It is about a mother being taken away from children, in life or in death," Assistant State's Attorney Sean McGuinness said in closing statements Tuesday in Connecticut Superior Court. "It is about [Jennifer's children] Petrus, Theodore, Christiane, Constantine and Noel, who went to bed on May 24, not knowing where their mother was. And she has still not arrived. That's what this case is about."
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Authorities still have not recover Jennifer's remains, but a judge declared the mother of five dead just days before Troconis' trial began.
Police suspect Fotis violently attacked Jennifer in her New Canaan garage and then drove away with her body. Prosecutors say Troconis sat in the front seat of his truck while he threw away trash bags containing Jennifer's bloody clothing and a glove with his DNA on it throughout Hartford.
Prosecutors also argued that Troconis then helped create alibi scripts with Fotis so that they were on the same page about their schedule on the day Jennifer disappeared.
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"I pose this question to you: Do any of you doubt that Fotis Dulos is responsible for the death of his wife?" McGuinness asked. "Do any of you doubt that he was in New Canaan on May 24, 2019, murdering his wife? How else could he have had her bloody bra, her bloody shirt, blood all over the bags, his DNA in a glove found inside the trash? How?"
McGuinness then noted Troconis' alleged role in Dulos' death, saying she "hated" the New Canaan mother of five and "referred to her as a b---- who should be buried next to the dog."
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Meanwhile, defense attorneys argued that there was no evidence to prove Troconis had a motive to kill Dulos. They also pointed fingers at Fotis, saying he killed his estranged wife, allegedly motivated by money, and Troconis was not involved at all.
"She did not know that Fotis Dulos planned to harm her. Everything suggested that things were going well, and ... she didn't know that Fotis was capable of doing something like this," defense attorney Jon Schoenhorn said in closing statements. "A man who is dedicated to his five children had been in court for years trying to get custody. The state has made what I would suggest are unfounded and unfair assumptions … that Michelle Troconis had to know what was going on, that … because she was romantically linked with Fotis, that she was somehow involved in this nefarious, murderous plot."
Despite a mountain of evidence presented in court, Schoenhorn said it was still unclear what exactly happened to Jennifer, and therefore unclear what Troconis' alleged role in Jennifer's death could have been.
"There [were] surveillance cameras. There were multiple interviews. There were family court pleadings. There were the interrogations. You heard eight or nine hours of interrogations of Michelle Troconis. Even in hindsight, even now, major questions remain about what happened, and it's still unclear. It's unclear what happened. And unfortunately, this trial will not solve that puzzle," he said, adding that jurors "must find beyond a reasonable doubt that Michelle conspired with Fotis Dulos not just to cause harm to Jennifer Dulos, but to murder her."
The defense attorney later noted that "everyone wants closure," but "Michelle is not the remaining half of a scheming plot."
Troconis' family, including her sister, who testified on her behalf, have stood by the Venezuelan national since the beginning of her trial.
