The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
FOTIS DULOS DEAD
Attorney Pattis: Family takes him off life support
NEW YORK — Fotis Dulos clung to life for more than 48 hours after his apparent suicide attempt before he died late Thursday afternoon, according to his attorney.
Attorney Norm Pattis said his client died at 5:32 p.m. Thursday at Jacobi Medical Center in New York, where he had been on life support and surrounded by family, friends and his legal team.
A source close to him confirmed earlier on Thursday that Dulos left a note proclaiming his innocence in the death and disappearance of his estranged wife, Jennifer Dulos.
Pattis said Dulos’ family decided to donate his
organs, and wants to have him cleared of the charges against him.
“The family is adamant that his name be cleared,” Pattis said.
Pattis said he plans to file an “unusual motion” to have Dulos replaced as a defendant by his estate to make the state show its hand in the case.
“It’ll be a difficult challenge,” Pattis said of the motion. “We intend to proceed on as if he were alive to vindicate him.”
Pattis claimed the state’s evidence in the case amounts to nothing more than “innuendo.”
He did not take any questions following his statement.
“Mr. Dulos was tried and convicted in the court of public opinion,” Pattis said in a statement later Thursday. “Now he has been executed. We remain committed to demonstrating he did not murder Jennifer.”
Carrie Luft, a spokeswoman for the family of Jennifer Dulos said in a statement later Thursday, “This is a horrific tragedy all around. Please respect the privacy of the families and loved ones involved.”
The news came after more than two days of media crews crowding Pelham Parkway South in the Bronx, N.Y., near Jacobi Medical Center, where Dulos was flown late Tuesday afternoon.
Dulos had been transferred to the New York hospital from UConn Health in Farmington, where he was initially brought after Farmington police responded to his home on a welfare check and found him unresponsive in his garage.
Dulos had been on house arrest on $6 million bond after being charged this month with murder, felony murder and first-degree kidnapping charges in the May 24 death and disappearance of his estranged wife.
After being notified of an emergency bond hearing where a judge could have sent him back to jail, Dulos attempted an apparent suicide Tuesday in his garage. When he didn’t show up for the hearing, Farmington police conducted a welfare check and said they found him inside his running Chevy Suburban.
Dulos was initially considered dead after police and medics administered CPR for 30 minutes before a faint pulse was detected. He was taken to the UConn Health center before being flown in critical condition to Jacobi Medical Center.
Last week, Judge Gary White ordered Dulos to be on strict home confinement after State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo said he removed items from a memorial for his estranged wife that was set up near his home.
White threatened to double the bond amount if Dulos violated the terms of his release again, pointing out he was previously warned about the battery running too low on the electronic device that is monitoring his movements.
This month, 469 pages of search warrants in the case were unsealed for the first time since the investigation began eight months ago.
The documents outline how police believe Fotis Dulos and his former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis,
45, and his close friend and former lawyer, Kent Mawhinney, 54, allegedly conspired to kill Jennifer Dulos and cover up the crime.
Fotis Dulos and Troconis were charged last year with two counts of tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. On the same day Fotis Dulos was charged with murder this month, Troconis and Mawhinney were charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
Troconis has been released on house arrest on $1.5 million bond, while Mawhinney remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bond.
According to arrest warrants, Jennifer Dulos was last seen on a neighbor’s security camera at 8:05 a.m. May 24, returning to her Welles Lane home after dropping off her children at a nearby school.
Police believe Fotis Dulos was “lying in wait” and attacked her in the garage, the warrants indicate.
Dulos and Troconis were caught on video that night in Hartford dumping bags that were later determined to contain Jennifer Dulos’ blood and clothing, according to arrest warrants.
Jennifer Dulos’ blood was also found on the seat of a pickup truck belonging to an employee of Fotis Dulos, according to arrest warrants. Police say Fotis Dulos used the truck on the day his wife was killed, arrest warrants said.