Michelle Troconis was sentenced yesterday in Connecticut to 14 and a half years in prison for conspiring to murder the ex-wife of her boyfriend Fotis Dulos, who committed suicide in January 2020 after being accused of kidnapping and murder.
The victim, Jennifer Dulos (50), disappeared exactly five years ago, on May 24, 2019, in the midst of a bitter divorce and fight for custody of her five children. She was pronounced dead, although her body has not been recovered. Yesterday Troconis, who has dual U.S. and Venezuelan citizenship, was also sentenced to five years of probation in addition to her prison sentence. Her lawyer told the court they intended to appeal.
Following a dramatic trial in Stamford Superior Court, Troconis was found guilty in March of conspiracy to commit murder, hindering prosecution and tampering with physical evidence. She faced a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison.
Jennifer Dulos was officially declared dead in a declaration by a Connecticut judge in October 2023. She likely suffered a combination of “traumatic blunt force injuries,” according to the state’s chief medical examiner, detailed CNN.
Troconis (49) had pleaded “not guilty” and denied any involvement in the dramatic crime. His ex-partner, Fotis Dulos (52), died on January 30, 2020 after dying for two days in a hospital in The Bronx (NYC) due to self-poisoning with carbon monoxide in the garage of his home in Farmington (Connecticut) after be accused of killing his wife.
Although the Dulos spouses were embarked on a bitter battle for divorce and custody of their five children, no one imagined the rugged end of both of them, opening up a still unsolved mystery.
Before committing suicide he left a handwritten letter proclaiming his innocence and wrote: “I want it to be known that Michelle Troconis had nothing to do with Jennifer’s disappearance. And neither did Kent Mawhinney,” his former lawyer.
Troconis is a psychologist (UCV 1988) and athlete, she has a daughter, she had lived in several countries and at one point she was host and producer of an ESPN program from Argentina. In March her family said they were devastated by the guilty verdicts.
“This is definitely a devastating day because my sister is innocent of all the charges she has been convicted of. And we are sure that she is innocent, and I know that time will prove it to her,” Claudia Mármol then told reporters outside the court. “I know everyone wanted answers. “I know that maybe the State is happy that she was finally convicted, or that someone is paying the price, but she is not the one.”
Following that verdict, the victim’s friend, Carrie Luft, issued a statement on behalf of Jennifer’s family and friends: “Today’s verdict is a crucial attribution of responsibility, not a victory. There can be no victory when five children grow up without their mother. This verdict represents the meticulous collection, analysis and presentation of evidence to illuminate a series of unconscionable crimes. That immense body of evidence also serves to highlight the gaps that remain in this case; the most important is that Jennifer Farber Dulos has not yet been found. We have lost a mother, a daughter, a sister, a cousin and a dear friend. “Jennifer’s loved ones cannot bury her next to her father.”
The couple’s five children, whom the father could not see by legal order, went to the hospital to say goodbye before he was taken off life support in 2020. The children remained living in Manhattan (NYC) in the custody of their maternal grandmother, Gloria Farber.
Mawhinney, a close friend of Dulos who represented him in the $2.5 million civil lawsuits brought by his mother-in-law, has also been charged with conspiracy in incidents related to the dramatic case. He is awaiting his own trial for conspiracy to commit the murder of Jennifer Dulos and did not testify at Troconis’ trial, he recalled. NBC News.
Police believe Dulos attacked his estranged wife at their elegant home in New Canaan, Connecticut, on May 24, 2019, after she dropped the children off at school. Then, according to authorities, he took her body away in the victim’s truck.
In May 2020, Troconis broke his silence for the first time in the case, professing his innocence in a statement.. “I don’t know anything about the whereabouts of Jennifer Dulos or what may have happened to her (…) It is possible to err in judging others. I don’t know if Fotis Dulos was capable of doing the things that the police and prosecutors accused him of doing. But based on what I learned in the last year, I think it was a mistake to have trusted him.”
- Missing mother, suicidal father, Latina girlfriend and 5 orphans: open tragedy in New York and Connecticut