MURDER DEFENDANT ASKS FOR NEW LAWYER

A Norwich man charged with fatally stabbing his pregnant wife in June 2016 because he thought she was practicing Voodoo and planning to kill him was expected to tell a judge Wednesday whether he would be pleading guilty or taking his case to trial.

Instead, Patrick Antoine’s lawyer, Public Defender Kevin Barrs, told a New London Superior Court Judge that Antoine no longer trusts him and that their communications have broken down. Barrs asked the judge to appoint a different lawyer.

Judge Hillary B. Strackbein granted the request to appoint another attorney and continued the case to April 12. His new lawyer is likely to need time to study the case prior to advising Antoine, who is 41, whether he should accept a plea offer or risk being convicted at trial and sentenced to up to 60 years in prison.

Antoine is charged with murdering his wife, Margarette Mady, on June 2, 2016, also causing the death of her unborn baby girl, and setting fire to their apartment on Franklin Street. He turned himself in to police the same day and was charged with murder and first-degree arson after admitting he had killed his wife, according to court documents.

Police said Antoine told them he believed Mady was “a voodoo priestess” who planned to kill him later that summer as a sacrifice before her baby girl was to be born.