In ‘Fitbit’ trial, friend recalls message just before killing

Kate Frost cried as she read aloud the last communication she received from her good friend the morning Connie Dabate was killed in her Ellington home in 2015.

Connie Dabate, 39, was inviting Frost and her husband as well as a few other couples to her home for a “potluck supper,” which the Ellington mother said was probably a better choice than giving everyone “food poisoning” if she had prepared the meal alone.

“Connie was great at a lot of things, but cooking wasn’t one of her strong suits,” Frost testified this week in state Superior Court in Rockville.

Connie Dabate ended the message by saying, “If I don’t get to see you, Merry Christmas,” Frost recalled.

About 30 minutes after the message was sent on the morning of Dec. 23, 2015, Connie Dabate’s husband hit the panic alarm on their home’s security system and then called 911 for help.

Richard Dabate was found by police and firefighters tied to a metal folding chair while lying on the kitchen floor. Minutes later, the lifeless body of Connie Dabate, who had been shot in the head and abdomen, was discovered in the basement.

More than six years later, Richard Dabate, 45, is on trial for his wife’s murder, dubbed the “Fitbit” case since the device on her wrist kept track of her movements for nearly an hour after her husband claimed to investigators that she was killed by an intruder around 9 a.m. that day.

More than three weeks into the trial, Tolland State’s Attorney Matthew Gedansky is still laying out the case against Richard Dabate based on a state police investigation that resulted in a 48-page arrest warrant. He’s called dozens of witnesses and submitted more than 600 pieces of evidence. Gedansky declined to say this week when he would rest his case.

The warrant revealed that Richard Dabate was having an affair with a woman who became pregnant with his child. Dabate repeatedly told the woman he was about to divorce his wife, the warrant stated. The woman, who testified for the prosecution last week, was due to give birth about eight weeks after Connie Dabate’s death, the warrant said.

Family and friends who testified Tuesday said they had no knowledge of a pending divorce and they had never seen Richard Dabate abuse his wife.

Richard Dabate told state police that he dropped off his children at school that morning and then headed to work. But he turned back when he realized he had forgotten his laptop, the warrant said. Richard Dabate also claimed to investigators that the alarm on his home also pinged that there was a problem, according to the warrant.

Based on electronic evidence, including his cellphone and alarm, police believe Richard Dabate never attempted to go to work the morning his wife was killed, the warrant said.

However, Richard Dabate claimed that when he returned to the couple’s Birchview Drive home, he heard a noise upstairs and presumed it was a family cat, according to the warrant.

But when he went to investigate, Dabate claimed he encountered an intruder who was going through his bedroom, the warrant stated.

Connie Dabate had gone to a local gym, but returned home because the class was canceled, the warrant said. Richard Dabate claimed the intruder threatened him with a knife and demanded his wallet and PIN numbers for his bank cards, the warrant stated.

Richard Dabate said when he heard his wife home, he alerted her that someone was in the house, the warrant stated. He told her family the next day that he believed she was trying to save him by going for his guns, which were in the basement of the home, according to testimony this week.

Connie Dabate was shot by one of her husband’s guns, the warrant said. There were no items taken from the home and Richard Dabate’s wallet was found in the yard, but nothing was missing, state police said.

The day after the killing, Richard Dabate showed up at the Ellington home of his in-laws to explain what happened, her family testireturn fied this week.

“I didn’t do this, they said I need a lawyer,” Leslie Garabedian, Connie Dabate’s sister, testified her brother-in-law saying when he arrived at the home.

“His body language was unemotional, he was really flat,” she said. “It was as if he was speaking any story without emotion.”