Focus shifts in Dulos case
STAMFORD — Now that Fotis Dulos will not stand trial for murder in the death of his wife, defense attorneys say the state’s attention has nowhere to turn but to his alleged accomplices.
“They are in a jackpot load of trouble,” said Westport criminal litigator Neal Rogan.
And as the glare intensifies on ex-girlfriend Michelle Troconis and former attorney Kent Mawhinney, both find themselves with substantially weaker hands to play against what could be convictions and harsh sentences.
Fotis Dulos’ apparent self-inflicted death will particularly hinder the woman who, according to arrest warrants, was caught on video helping him dump items stained with Jennifer Dulos’ blood on the day she was reported missing.
“There is a sense that we want resolution and justice and if he is gone the focus will be on Troconis, obviously,” said Norwalk defense attorney Frank DiScala.
After apparently trying to commit suicide at his Farmington home Tuesday, Dulos died late Thursday afternoon at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.
“If Fotis Dulos is unavailable she will take the greater weight because I don’t think the state will just let this wither away,” said Rogan.
Both Troconis and Mawhinney are accused of conspiring with Dulos to kill his estranged wife, and and mother of their five children, last May in New Canaan. Mawhinney, 55, is currently being held at the Cheshire Correctional Institution unable to post a $2 million court appearance bond. Troconis, 45, also facing charges of tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution, has posted a $2.1 million bond.
Several attorneys and other case-watchers had speculated that prosecutors would turn to Troconis to compensate for one vulnerability they had in their case — the fact that Jennifer
Dulos’ body has never been located.
“Without Troconis putting the pieces of the puzzle together there was always the possibility of a hung jury,” said Stamford litigator Mark Katz.
Discala said he now can’t see Richard Colangelo, the lead prosecutor on the case, offering Troconis much of a deal, even if she knows where the body is.
“Had he been available for trial she would be in a much better position to offer anything she knows about the location of the body, if there was a murder,” Discala said.
Colangelo, who was sworn in as chief state’s attorney at the Stamford courthouse Friday, could not be reached for comment on this article.
Mawhinney faces other, serious legal problems in addition to the conspiracy to commit murder case in Stamford. He is accused of sexually assaulting his estranged wife and violating a judge’s protective order, charges that could bring him as many as 25 years in jail. Katz said Dulos’ death actually might help him — relatively speaking.
“The long and short of it is without Dulos, I doubt the prosecution will seriously pursue the conspiracy to commit murder charge. It’s much more likely that they will go after him for his own marital problems, which are the cases pending in Hartford,” he said.
Greenwich attorney Mickey Sherman said Troconis and Mawhinney aren’t the only potential losers in Fotis Dulos’ death.
“The only ones who are upset at what is going on here are the Lifetime movie people,” said Sherman.
While Dulos still clung to life this week in a Bronx hospital, Sherman predicted prosecutors would still seek a deal, with either Troconis and Mawhinney.
“If they find he cannot recover,” Sherman said just before Dulos died, “then they will use one to testify against the other.”