Fotis Dulos wants probable cause hearing in murder case

Fotis Dulos wants a Superior Court judge to schedule a hearing to determine whether police had probable cause to arrest him for the murder of his estranged wife, Jennifer Farber Dulos.

Dulos, 52, a Farmington luxury home builder, is expected to appear in court next week and make the request. Probable cause hearings, mandatory under state law in cases punishable by life in prison, require judges to determine whether sufficient evidence exists to proceed with the prosecution. Defendants usually waive such hearings because they can give the prosecution insight into the defense's case. Judges rarely rule that probable cause is lacking.

Dulos has been charged with felony murder, murder and kidnapping and is currently free on a combined $7 million in bonds.

In Connecticut, a defendant charged with murder is eligible to have a probable cause hearing before a judge within 60 days of their arrest. At such hearings, prosecutors usually present limited evidence. In this case, Stamford State's Attorney Richard Colangelo would likely call Chief State Medical Examiner James Gill as a witness because he has to prove that Farber Dulos, 51, is actually dead and was murdered in the garage of her New Canaan home on the morning of May 24.

According to court records, state police said they met with Gill and presented him with a summary of facts that shows Farber Dulos was killed. Authorities said Farber Dulos' blood was found splattered n multiple locations in the garage of her New Canaan home and that someone tried to clean up the scene. They also provided Gill with photographs of the crime scene and items found in garbage bags detectives recovered in Hartford that contained her blood.

Gill concluded, based on the degree of blood loss and other factors, that "Jennifer Dulos had sustained an injury (or multiple injuries) which he would consider non-survivable without medical intervention. Gill categorized the event as a “homicide of violence” that included some combination of traumatic, blunt-force injuries such as a bludgeoning/ beating, and/or sharp-force injuries such as a stabbing/ slashing, the arrest warrant affidavit for Dulos said.

Gill has not issued a death certificate for Farber Dulos because her body has never been found.