Michelle Troconis, whose boyfriend was accused of killing his estranged wife nearly five years ago in a Connecticut case that attracted national interest, was found guilty on Friday of six related counts, including conspiracy to commit murder, evidence tampering and hindering the prosecution.
The verdict was the latest development in a case that began when Jennifer Dulos, a 50-year-old mother of five from New Canaan, Conn., went missing on May 24, 2019, after dropping her children off at school.
The search for Ms. Dulos saw drones, dogs and helicopters deployed across Connecticut and quickly garnered widespread attention, eventually leading to new domestic violence legislation in the state.
She and her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, 52, were in the midst of a bitter divorce and custody battle when she disappeared, and she had accused him of threatening and controlling behavior. At the time, Ms. Troconis lived with Mr. Dulos in the Dulos family home in Farmington, Conn., while Ms. Dulos lived in a rented house in New Canaan.
Mr. Dulos waited for Ms. Dulos at her home and attacked her after she returned from the school run, restraining her with zip ties after she got home at around 8 a.m., according to his arrest warrant.
Ms. Dulos did not respond to texts and calls after that point, and missed appointments in Manhattan, which led family members to conclude that she was missing. Investigators determined she had been attacked after blood stains and splatters were found in her home.
The police presented evidence to Connecticut’s chief medical examiner, Dr. James R. Gill, who found that Ms. Dulos had sustained an injury or injuries that would have been “‘non-survivable’ without medical intervention,” according to the warrant.
Mr. Dulos was the target of the criminal investigation surrounding Ms. Dulos’s disappearance and likely death before he died by suicide in January 2020. Ms. Dulos was declared legally dead last October; her body was never found.
With Mr. Dulos dead, Ms. Troconis, 49, was one of two people connected with the case left to face a jury. The other is Kent D. Mawhinney, a friend of Mr. Dulos’s who was previously his lawyer. Mr. Mawhinney is awaiting his own trial on one charge of conspiracy to commit murder. He did not testify in Ms. Troconis’s trial.
As the jury foreman read the verdict on Friday, Ms. Troconis sobbed and leaned on her lawyers. At one point, she rested her head on the desk in front of her as one of her lawyers, Audrey Felsen, rubbed her back.
Ms. Troconis then stood and her hands were handcuffed behind her back. Her other lawyer, Jon Schoenhorn, asked for a sentencing date and after some hesitation the clerk provided one: May 24.
“Perhaps that would be an inappropriate day, your honor,” he said, referring to it being the five-year anniversary of Ms. Dulos’s disappearance.
The date was changed to May 31. Ms. Troconis was then led out of the courtroom by a group of sheriffs.
Ms. Troconis, who has been free on bond since 2019, faces up to 50 years in prison.
The judge set her bond at $6 million on Friday, and ordered her to remain on house arrest while she awaits sentencing if she posts it.
The case against Ms. Troconis centered on her actions the night Ms. Dulos was declared missing, when prosecutors said Ms. Troconis and Mr. Dulos drove to Hartford and dumped trash bags filled with evidence, including zip ties, clothing and a kitchen sponge stained with Ms. Dulos’s blood.
In her first two interviews with detectives, Ms. Troconis appeared to be cooperating, but in a third, on Aug. 13, 2019, she admitted to not having been truthful in the earlier conversations.
She eventually provided information that led to a new evidence-tampering charge against Mr. Dulos: He cleaned up a red Toyota truck believed to have been used in Ms. Dulos’s disappearance, a warrant said.
In footage from the third interview that was shown during the trial, Ms. Troconis said she had lied at the direction of Mr. Dulos.
“He set me up because he used me,” Ms. Troconis said.
Ms. Dulos had claimed in court documents related to her divorce that Mr. Dulos and Ms. Troconis had been involved in a yearlong extramarital affair, a charge Mr. Dulos did not deny. Ms. Troconis moved into the Dulos home shortly after he and Ms. Dulos separated.
Ms. Dulos, a writer and blogger, and Mr. Dulos, a luxury real estate developer, reconnected in New York City years after they first met at Brown University. They married in 2004.
Ms. Dulos filed for divorce in 2017, citing Mr. Dulos’s “irrational, unsafe, bullying, threatening and controlling behavior.”
Ms. Dulos immediately sought an emergency custody order for the couple’s five children, fearing that Mr. Dulos would try to harm them, according to court documents. The children have been in the custody of Ms. Dulos’s mother, Gloria Farber, since Ms. Dulos disappeared.
In March 2021, the Connecticut General Assembly introduced “Jennifer’s Law,” a bill named after both Ms. Dulos and Jennifer Magnano, a Connecticut woman killed by her husband, that expanded the state’s definition of domestic violence to include coercive control. The bill was signed into law and went into effect that October.
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