In court, Mawhinney’s ex-wife claims he abused her for years
Kent Mawhinney — charged in the death and disappearance of Jennifer Dulos — was given a fiveyear suspended prison sentence and three years of probation on a domestic violence charge following an emotional court proceeding Friday afternoon.
Mawhinney is also required to have no contact with his ex-wife for five years, seek mental health and substance abuse evaluations and attend domestic violence counseling.
Mawhinney, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in the Jennifer Dulos case, was accused of sexually assaulting his then-estranged wife while the two were living together in South Windsor months before the disappearance.
That charge was nolled, meaning it was dropped as long as he remains out of trouble for the next 13 months. But under an agreement forged between his attorneys and Hartford State’s Attorney Sharmese Walcott, Mawhinney pleaded guilty under the Alford Doctrine to one count of violating a protective order. Under the plea, Mawhinney does not admit guilt, but agrees there is sufficient evidence to potentially be convicted.
His former wife spoke for nearly an hour during Friday’s sentencing, detailing episodes of financial and sexual abuse she claimed Mawhinney committed during their five-year marriage.
“The once kind man I fell in love with was slipping away,” the woman said while crying. “I found myself making excuses more and more for his poor choices.”
The woman used graphic language to describe their intimate life and the abuse she contends she suffered in hopes of getting Hartford Superior Court Judge Kevin Doyle to issue a standing protective order, barring Mawhinney, a suspended attorney, from having any contact with her for life.
But Walcott intervened as the woman was speaking to explain the sexual assault allegations couldn’t be proven and were deemed not credible by a family judge during the couple’s divorce and by a civil judge who heard the woman’s request for a restraining order in July 2020.
“These were events that occurred over a five-year marriage,” Walcott told Doyle. “I just want to make sure the court understands all of the facts.”
The woman said she met Mawhinney when she hired him to deal with her immigration status. Within a few months, he began pursuing her with flowers and gifts, but she refused to date him until he filed for divorce from his previous wife, she said.
When the two finally dated in 2012, Mawhinney treated her three children as if they were his own, she said.
“He made me feel special and loved,” she said. The woman agreed to quit her job so she could be a fulltime mother to her own children and his three kids, she said.
They eloped in 2013 and continued an idyllic lifestyle until Mawhinney began drinking frequently and often frightened the children with his behavior, the woman said in court.
When they fought, the woman said Mawhinney would “force himself ” on her and she would submit to keep the peace. Mawhinney filed for divorce in early 2019 without her knowing, the woman said.
“I was heartbroken,” she said. “I felt the kids’ lives were being shattered.”
In the days after Mawhinney filed for divorce, she accused him of forcing her to have sex in exchange for rent, court documents said.
A court issued a protective order, barring Mawhinney from contacting his estranged wife after his arrest in January 2019 on sexual assault charges. Mawhinney allegedly violated the order months later by asking his friend Fotis Dulos, the prime suspect in the Jennifer Dulos disappearance, to reach out to his ex-wife to see if they could reconcile, Walcott said during an earlier court appearance.
After Jennifer Dulos vanished, Mawhinney drove by his estranged wife’s house after she rejected his attempt at reconciliation through Fotis Dulos, court documents said. Mawhinney pleaded guilty to violating a protective order in February.
However, the deal is not connected with any potential help Mawhinney is providing prosecutors in the Dulos case,Walcott said at the time.
Mawhinney’s attorney Jeffrey Kestenband told Doyle he wasn’t going to “dignify” what his client’s ex-wife had to say during her prolonged statement. Kestenband pointed out that up until the South Windsor arrests, his client had successfully practiced law for nearly 30 years.
He also asked the judge not to require Mawhinney to attend domestic violence counseling.
“He is presently in a relationship, which is going well,” Kestenband said. “There are no claims of domestic violence.”
Doyle agreed with Walcott that based on the facts, a five-year protective order, barring Mawhinney from having any contact with his ex-wife was an appropriate resolution.
“I can’t change the terms of the sentence without allowing the defendant to change his plea,” Doyle said.
The two cases charging Mawhinney with spousal sexual assault and violating a protective order had been repeatedly continued for three years without a resolution. Evidence from the cases were also the subject of court documents filed by the attorney representing Michelle Troconis, who also faces a conspiracy to commit murder and other charges in the Dulos case.
Attorney Jon Schoenhorn, representing Troconis, wanted all the evidence from the Hartford cases to determine if Mawhinney was offered a deal to testify against his client.
Mawhinney, whose divorce was finalized in December 2020, was a longtime friend and former attorney of Fotis Dulos.
Fotis Dulos was embroiled in a contentious two-year divorce and child custody dispute when his estranged wife vanished in May 2019. He died by suicide in January 2020 while he was facing murder, kidnapping and other charges the death and disappearance.
Mawhinney has been accused of trying to provide an alibi for Fotis Dulos the morning of the disappearance on May 24, 2019, according to a warrant for his arrest.
Mawhinney was arrested in the Dulos case in January 2020 and held on $2 million bond until he was released in October that year on a reduced amount of $246,000. The release came weeks after Mawhinney was interviewed by state police about Jennifer Dulos, Schoenhorn said in court filings.
A prosecutor has said Mawhinney will be one of the state’s witnesses if the Troconis case goes to trial.
Troconis, the former live-in girlfriend of Fotis Dulos, has also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and other charges in the Jennifer Dulos case. She has been free on $2 million bond.