Fotis Dulos’ death won’t stop conspiracy cases against two others facing charges.

Hartford — The death of Fotis Dulos brought an abrupt end to his high-profile criminal case, but legal experts said he does not need to be alive for the state to continue its prosecution of the others accused of conspiring with him to kill his estranged wife.

Prosecutors will now shift their focus to Dulos’ former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, 45, and Kent Mawhinney, 54, a lawyer and friend to Dulos. Both face charges of conspiracy to commit murder. Troconis also has pleaded not guilty to charges of hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence.

Legal experts said Dulos does not need to be alive for the state to proceed with its prosecution of Troconis and Mawhinney.

“If there was an agreement and if one of them committed the overt act, that’s enough to establish the conspiracy against the surviving defendant,” Quinnipiac law professor William Dunlap said.

At times, Dunlap said, accused conspirators, including unindicted co-conspirators who are alleged in an indictment to have engaged in a conspiracy, don’t get charged criminally for a number of reasons, including death.

“These cases are far from over,” William Paetzold, a longtime defense attorney in Connecticut, said.

Going forward, Paetzold said, the question shifts to how much the defense can negotiate against, and how hard prosecutors will pursue stiff sentences.

“It puts the defense behind the eight ball because their negotiation tool was taken away from them,” Paetzold said. “On the flip side, now that his case is over with, is the state going to be much interested in going after these two with harsh punishment?”

Questions of cooperation

Chris Morano, a former chief state’s attorney, said Dulos’ death will make it hard for Mawhinney and Troconis to get plea deals resulting in lighter sentences because they can no longer cooperate with the state to help get Dulos convicted.

“If they were hoping to seek credit for cooperating with the government in Mr. Dulos’ case, that case is going to be over,” Morano said.

However, since Dulos’ death Thursday raises questions about whether authorities will ever find Farber Dulos’ body, there’s still the potential for cooperation from Troconis or Mawhinney.

“If either of those defendants know where Jennifer Dulos’ body is located, that would be the ultimate example of cooperation,” Morano said.

In lengthy arrest warrant affidavits, state police investigators said Troconis and Mawhinney conspired with Dulos to kill Farber Dulos on May 24, the day she went missing after dropping her children off at their New Canaan school.

Troconis, who was living with Dulos at his Jefferson Crossing home at the time Farber Dulos went missing, spoke with investigators several times, but was caught in lies about her interactions with Dulos that day, the affidavits said. She initially said they spent part of the morning together, but later admitted that she had not seen him that morning at his office inside his Farmington home.

Investigators wrote in the affidavits that Troconis was seen on surveillance video from Albany Avenue in Hartford with Dulos, who was throwing away garbage bags the evening of May 24. The bags were later found to contain items with Farber Dulos’ blood.

While in Hartford that night, Dulos placed a call to Mawhinney, the affidavits said.

‘Alibi Scripts’

Inside Dulos’ Farmington home, investigators said they found outlines written by Dulos and Troconis of activities on May 24 and May 25, notes that detectives called the “Alibi Scripts.”

Mawhinney, who worked in the past as an attorney for Dulos, was named on the scripts, and Troconis said that she saw him in Dulos’ office on the morning of May 24.

In the arrest warrant affidavit for Mawhinney, investigators describe the discovery of a grave dug at Mawhinney’s former gun club in East Granby. Mawhinney’s cellphone twice pinged near the gun club, once in March and then again on May 25, the day after Farber Dulos went missing. A member of the gun club told investigators that Mawhinney had previously reached out about getting onto the club property.

Dulos was accused of traveling to New Canaan the morning of May 24, lying in wait at Farber Dulos’ home and killing her that morning, before leaving in her car, court records said. He met later that day with Troconis at a property he owns in Farmington.

Dulos, Troconis and Mawhinney were each arrested by state police on Jan. 7.

Farber Dulos’ disappearance stoked intense public interest, which in turn may have influenced how aggressively prosecutors pursued the case, legal experts said. Paetzold said the widespread publicity surrounding the case may also influence how vigorous prosecutors are with the cases of Troconis and Mawhinney.

“The state had to take a very hard position in the (Dulos) case, and they may continue to take a hard position with these cases,” Paetzold.