Juror dismissed in Troconis trial over ‘Gone Girl’ reference
By Liz Hardaway and Ethan Fry
STAMFORD — A second juror in the Michelle Troconis trial was dismissed Friday after referencing the novel “Gone Girl” in relation to the Jennifer Dulos case.
Judge Kevin Randolph said he received an anonymous note from a juror, handed to him from a marshal, saying that an alternate juror had discussed something about the case.
“One of the jurors discussed something about the case and it was all over social media,” Randolph quoted the note as saying. “Said it was like ‘Gone Girl.’ A brief mention, several other jurors said, ‘Don’t discuss this.’ ”
After reading the note, Randolph said he first needed to determine who wrote the note and then would inquire with that juror about what occurred.
Randolph closed the courtroom for about 45 minutes, but did have a court reporter transcribing the proceeding, as he questioned the jurors. While talking to the juror who made the “Gone Girl” reference, Randolph said the comment could have affected other jurors’ abilities to be fair and impartial to the state and defense.
Randolph said he dismissed the juror and asked the other jurors if they could still be fair. He said the other jurors assured him they could be fair and would avoid news and social media posts.
The “Gone Girl” novel and movie was first referenced in the case by attorney Norm Pattis, who represented Fotis Dulos on murder and other charges in his estranged wife’s death and disappearance until his client died by suicide in January 2020.
About a month after Jennifer
Dulos vanished, Pattis suggested the mother of five could have staged her own disappearance to frame her husband, similar to the plot of “Gone Girl.”
Shortly after the claims, an attorney for Jennifer Dulos’ mother, Gloria Farber, called Pattis’ comments a “classic act of desperation to slander the victim,” the New York Post reported. A friend of Jennifer Dulos also told the Post that the New Canaan mother was “afraid for her life” before she disappeared.
The juror on Friday was the second dismissed in the Troconis trial. The first juror was dismissed after making a comment to prosecutors that could be perceived as favoring the state’s case, Randolph said.
After the juror was dismissed on Friday, Kristen Madel, a nearly 20-year employee with the Connecticut State Forensic Laboratory, returned to the stand. Madel spent the entire day on Thursday testifying about DNA evidence collected at Jennifer Dulos’ New Canaan home and inside her Chevrolet Suburban after she vanished in May 2019. Her testimony concluded Friday, though prosecutors said she is expected to return later in the trial.
Defense attorney Jon Schoenhorn continued cross-examining Madel on Friday, first emphasizing that his client’s DNA was not found in the home or in Jennifer Dulos’ Chevy Suburban.
“All of those results were negative as to Michelle Troconis, isn’t that right?” Schoenhorn asked Madel.
“Or insufficient or inconclusive,” Madel answered.
Schoenhorn also asked Madel about the so-called “transfer” of DNA and how long DNA can be detected when impacted by factors such as weather.
The state then called Lt. Col. Mark Davison, the commanding officer of Connecticut State Police’s Office of Administrative Services, to testify. He described how he used blood-stain pattern analysis to evaluate Jennifer Dulos’ Welles Lane garage the day after she went missing.
Davison told Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Michelle Manning that he found “altered stains” on the garage floor and some had “characteristics of a swipe mark.” Manning displayed photos of the stains, one of which Davison said seemed to have been transferred to another object.
Davison said there was a minimum of 26 stains found on the left side of the garage. He used seven of these suspected blood stains to create a reconstruction of what he called the “bloodshed event.” The reconstruction showed pink strings coming from each stain, demonstrating the suspected blood’s path of travel and coming together in front of the driver’s side door of the Range Rover parked in the middle of the garage’s three bays.
After analyzing the stains found on Jennifer Dulos’ Suburban, which was found abandoned on nearby Lapham Road the night she disappeared, Davison said it was likely that the vehicle was parked on the left side of the garage facing forward at the time of the bloodshed event.
Davison also reconstructed suspected blood stains found on the Range Rover.
Based on his analysis of the scene, Davison determined there were mutually exclusive, or separate, bloodshed events. When Manning asked if there were two of these events, Davison replied “at the minimum.”
Troconis, 49, was living with Fotis Dulos when police said he attacked his estranged wife in the garage of her home and then disposed of her body and evidence. Fotis Dulos died in January 2020 while facing murder, kidnapping and other charges in the case.
Troconis is accused of conspiring with her former boyfriend to kill his estranged wife. Troconis is accused of trying to create an alibi for Fotis Dulos the morning of the disappearance and helping him to clean a truck belonging to one of his employees that police said was used in the crime.