Prosecutors expected to rest case this week
Defense team reveals its strategy
State prosecutors are expected to rest their case this week in the trial of Michelle Troconis, which goes into its 24th day Tuesday.
Troconis’ long awaited trial began on Jan. 11. Since then, the jury has heard weeks of evidence from prosecutors, who are burdened with proving their accusations that Troconis conspired with her former boyfriend to kill his estranged wife Jennifer Farber Dulos and then helped him cover up the crimes.
Troconis is charged with conspiracy to commit murder, hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence in connection to Farber Dulos’ disappearance and presumed death. Troconis and her defense attorneys, Jon Schoenhorn and Audrey Felsen, have maintained her innocence throughout the trial.
On Friday, attorneys argued back and forth about reports that needed to be prepared ahead of certain expert witness testimony in the defense’s upcoming case. During those arguments, the defense team gave a glimpse into what they’ll likely hinge their case on: the reliability of memory.
Schoenhorn said he planned to call two professors, one from California and one from Chicago, who will testify as to whether things such as stress, sleep deprivation and speaking more than one language can impact one’s memory.
He also said he’ll likely ask about whether investigators’ interrogation tactics, such as having more than one person asking questions or suggesting certain things happened, could impact a person’s recollection.
Jon Schoenhorn said that the concerns about memory constitute “the main point” of the defense.
“It’s the soul basis of the defense, other than there is no evidence of her involvement on any of these charges,” he said.
The state argued that the defense should not be able to call those witnesses because it had not yet sent prosecutors reports on their expected testimony, and therefore, the state could not prepare to cross examine them.
Judge Kevin A. Randolph, who is seated in the trial, ruled on that issue on Friday. In doing so, he also remarked that the issue of memory will carry the most weight in the defense.
“This case is about the credibility of the defendant and the physical evidence,” Randolph said.
He said memory is “the gravamen” of the case — or the essence of it.
“If this is just a matter of slipped memory, and not willful failure to disclose information, that’s a substantial slice of the defense,” he said.
However, he also said Friday that he wanted to make sure that the jury was not “ambushed” by testimony about memory if prosecutors weren’t properly prepared
to cross examine the witnesses who are called to talk about it.
State prosecutor Sean Mcguiness had filed a motion Friday arguing that the defense had not provided reports that gave them enough information about the witnesses’ expected testimony, and said the two professors allegedly weren’t on the defense’s witness list.
“There is no if ands or buts about it, the defense is playing games,” said Mcguiness. “That’s all this is.”
He said that the state had received lengthy resumes for the witnesses, but no further information indicating what they’ll discuss.
“How can we possibly prepare adequate cross examination under these circumstances?” he asked.
“We are really at a real disadvantage here, judge.”
Schoenhorn countered that such reports would be expensive to prepare and were not required by the defense. He also accused prosecutors of giving him short notice to prepare his own cross examinations.
“We’ve been given the name of the witness the night before,” he said.
Mcguiness said that was not true.
Ultimately, Randolph found that the issue at hand was “whether the state in fairness and in the interest of justice can mount an effective cross examination based on a 45-page curriculum vitae.”
“And the court’s view is that they cannot,” he said.
He gave the defense about eight hours to get those reports in, with a deadline until midnight Friday
Felsen told the The Courant Monday that they did get those reports filed by the deadline.
Also on Friday, Mcguiness said there may be a need for a Porter hearing in the near future as the defense calls their witnesses. The purpose of a Porter hearing in Connecticut is to determine what evidence is reliable and relevant.
The state has so far spent 23 days presenting evidence as they build their case against Troconis.
The jury has heard from detectives, local police officers, an FBI agent, DNA experts and forensic examiners, who have walked the jurors through evidence recovered from places such as Farber Dulos’ garage in New Canaan and trash bins along Albany Avenue in Hartford.
That evidence included blood spatter in the garage and a Range Rover parked there, blood soaked shirt and bra, and a boxcutter, zip ties, trash bags, and other items with bloodlike stains.
The jury has also heard from the Dulos children’s nanny, a guardian ad litem for the Dulos children and a court ordered parenting supervisor who oversaw Fotis Dulos’ last visit with his children on May 22, 2019.
Farber Dulos vanished after dropping her children off at school in New Canaan the morning of May 24, 2019. Her body has never been found but she was declared legally dead in October, 2023.
Investigators allege Fotis Dulos — with whom she was entangled in a length divorce and custody battle — was laying in wait in Farber Dulos’ garage that morning, then attacked and killed her. They allege he got rid of evidence connected to the crimes in trash bins along Albany Avenue in Hartford later that night, while Troconis rode in the passenger seat.
It is also alleged that Dulos urged his employee, Pawel Gumienny, to get rid of seats in his red Toyota Tacoma pick up truck — which investigators believe Dulos drove to New Canaan that day — and that he and Troconis later shuttled the truck to an Avon car wash to further destroy evidence.
On Feb. 6 and Feb. 7 , the jury heard at length from former Fore Group project manager Gumienny, who has been given immunity from the state in connection to the case in exchange for his testimony. He testified that on May 24, Troconis briefly had the keys to his truck and that Dulos pressured him at length to take out the seats and put them somewhere no one would ever find them.
He also testified that Dulos took his truck to be washed and detailed without his permission.
Prosecutors have also played hours of video of Troconis’ three interviews with police, which they are expected to continue doing as their case comes close to wrapping up. The jury Friday saw the first part of her third interview with police in August 2019, during which she admits to not being entirely truthful in her first two interviews with law enforcement.
The rest of that hourslong video is expected to be shown to the jury first thing Tuesday morning.
The state is expected to rest their case early this week. Then, the defense will begin their case.