The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Attorney charged in Jennifer Dulos case released on bond
STAMFORD — A lawyer charged in the Jennifer Dulos case declined to comment Monday following his release on bond after more than nine months behind bars.
Kent Mawhinney, who has pleaded not guilty to a conspiracy to commit murder charge, has been held at the Cheshire Correctional Institution since his arrest in January.
He was in state Superior Court in Stamford on Monday morning and posted bond, which was reduced earlier this month from $ 2 million to $ 246,000 in cash and real estate after a judge granted a request from Mawhinney to visit his sick father in Florida.
Mawhinney’s attorneys, Lee Gold and Jeremy Donnelly, surrendered their client’s passport before he was released and declined comment on the case.
About an hour and a half later — after Mawhinney changed into a suit brought by his lawyers and was fitted with a GPS monitoring device — the trio left the courthouse without commenting to about a dozen reporters and photographers.
Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo did not object to a reduced bond or the trip to Florida, but stipulated in a court filing this month that Mawhinney would need to seek the court’s permission before otherwise traveling out of state.
Gold and Donnelly also submitted an itinerary of Mawhinney’s trip with the court prior to his release.
In a court filing earlier this month, they said their client’s 86-year-old father is battling lymphoma and prostate cancer that spread to his spine and ribs.
Mawhinney also faces charges of spousal sexual assault, disorderly conduct and seconddegree unlawful restraint, as well as violation of a protective order, stemming from incidents involving his estranged wife last year. His next court appearance on those charges is in January.
Mawhinney is the former attorney and longtime friend of Fotis Dulos, who died in January from an apparent suicide while facing murder, kidnapping and other charges in connection with his estranged wife’s death and disappearance.
Mawhinney allegedly eluded law enforcement for hours on Jan. 7 while a warrant was out for his arrest in the case before being taken into custody at gunpoint during a traffic stop in Tolland.
He has been accused of trying to create an alibi for Fotis Dulos the morning his wife vanished, according to his arrest warrant.
Police said Mawhinney was also associated with an East Granby gun club where witnesses described finding a “human grave” in the days before Jennifer
Dulos went missing, the arrest warrant states. The hole was closed up and there were no signs of a body when police searched the area, the warrant states.
Jennifer Dulos has never been found and is presumed dead based on blood evidence found in the garage of her New Canaan home, according to arrest warrants in the case.
Police believe Fotis Dulos was “lying in wait” for his wife to return home from dropping off their five children at school on May 24, 2019, arrest warrants state.
Police said Jennifer Dulos was the victim of a “serious physical assault” and the state’s chief medical examiner determined her injuries were so severe based on blood evidence found in the garage that she would not have survived the attack without immediate medical attention, arrest warrants state.
Later that night, police said Fotis Dulos and his former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, were seen on surveillance video making a series of stops in Hartford, arrest warrants state. Fotis Dulos was seen on the video dumping bags that were later determined to contain his wife’s blood and clothing, arrest warrants state.
Troconis has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. She is free on $ 2.1 million bond.