STORY: "Michelle Troconis jury won’t hear from medical examiner about Jennifer Farber Dulos’ death," by Reporter Taylor Hartz, published by The Hartford Courant, on February 14, 2024.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Troconis appears in court on Day 21 of her criminal trial at Stamford Superior Court on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024. Troconis is on trial for charges related to the disappearance and death of New Canaan resident Jennifer Farber Dulos."
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Michelle Manning argued that Gill’s testimony was absolutely relevant and that he still could testify as an expert witness regarding the likely manner of Farber Dulos’ death, even without her body. “Just because a body has not been found does mean that a medical examiner cannot make a determination,” she said. “I do not think that makes sense in any way, shape or form.” But Judge Kevin A. Randolph granted Schoenhorn’s motion. Randolph said that the issue at hand was whether or not there was a homicide and that the jury had heard more than enough evidence to draw their own conclusion without Gill’s testimony. “It is clear to this court, based on four weeks of evidence that the jury has heard, that the jury can come to its conclusion and it need not rely on expert testimony,” he said. “The jury has heard more than Dr. Gill could testify to.”
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GIST: "A judge ruled Wednesday that the jury in the trial for Michelle Troconis will not hear from Connecticut’s chief medical examiner regarding his findings in Jennifer Farber Dulos’ presumed death — findings made without an autopsy, as her body has never been found.
Troconis’ defense attorney, Jon Schoenhorn, moved to prevent the jury from hearing Dr. James R. Gill’s ruling that Farber Dulos likely died by “homicide of violence.”
He argued that a medical examiner could not testify based solely on the examination of police records without actually examining a body — or at least parts of a body.
Farber Dulos disappeared in May 2019. Her remains have never been found but evidence of a violent event police allege led to her death was found in her New Canaan garage and she has since been declared legally dead. Troconis is charged with conspiring with her then-boyfriend Fotis Dulos to kill his estranged wife and helping him cover up the crimes.
Records show that Gill’s findings came after he looked at evidence collected by investigators in 2019, including crime scene photos. According to a warrant for Troconis’ arrest, Gill said that evidence showed Farber Dulos likely sustained an injury, or multiple injuries, that he would consider “non-survivable.”
He concluded that a person could not survive the amount of blood loss that the evidence indicated without getting medical help. Gill was scheduled to take the stand as a witness for the state on Wednesday afternoon, the 21st day of Troconis’ trial in Stamford Superior Court. Before he did, attorneys went back and forth about what he would be allowed to testify about and whether his testimony was relevant.
Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Michelle Manning argued that Gill’s testimony was absolutely relevant and that he still could testify as an expert witness regarding the likely manner of Farber Dulos’ death, even without her body.
“Just because a body has not been found does mean that a medical examiner cannot make a determination,” she said. “I do not think that makes sense in any way, shape or form.”
But Judge Kevin A. Randolph granted Schoenhorn’s motion. Randolph said that the issue at hand was whether or not there was a homicide and that the jury had heard more than enough evidence to draw their own conclusion without Gill’s testimony.
“It is clear to this court, based on four weeks of evidence that the jury has heard, that the jury can come to its conclusion and it need not rely on expert testimony,” he said. “The jury has heard more than Dr. Gill could testify to.”
After that ruling, Gill was not called to the stand as planned and court adjourned early for the day after brief testimony from a few witnesses, including Cederic Candiotti, a general manager at Russell Speeder’s Car Wash on West Main Street in Avon.
Dulos was seen on surveillance camera footage bringing a red Toyota Tacoma pickup truck to this same car wash in the days after his wife’s disappearance. Investigators believe Dulos drove that Tacoma to New Canaan on the morning of May 24, 2019, when they allege he killed the mother of his five children.
The Tacoma belonged to Dulos’ employee, Pawel Gumienny, and has been at the center of much testimony in Troconis’ trial so far.
Candiotti testified about the cleaning process at the car wash — including the cleaning products used — and walked the jury through where surveillance cameras are located.
The jury saw surveillance footage of the Tacoma pulling into the car wash and of Dulos in the lobby, talking to a clerk and later paying a clerk in cash.
The jury also saw brief surveillance video of a person investigators allege was Dulos riding a bike near Waveny Park in New Canaan — where Farber Dulos’ Suburban was later found abandoned — the morning of Farber Dulos’ disappearance.
Also on Wednesday, Sgt. Jamie Pearston from Connecticut State Police returned to the stand and described a search of a property owned by Dulos’ company, Fore Group, on Sturbridge Hill Road in New Canaan.
She testified that they did not find anything of evidentiary value there. Much of Wednesday’s court proceedings involved attorneys arguing motions, including the admission of data connected to Troconis’ phone and whether a guardian ad litem involved in the custody battle between Dulos and Farber Dulos would be allowed to testify.
Randolph ruled that information from Troconis’ phone obtained from a second search warrant in 2023 would be allowed. He previously ruled to suppress evidence from Troconis’ phone that was collected in 2019 without explicit permission in a search and seizure warrant.
The court also ruled that attorney Michael Meehan, then guardian ad litem for the Dulos children, will testify in the trial. Meehan’s testimony will not include anything about the five Dulos children but will include information deemed relevant to the case, including apparent frustration in Troconis and Dulos’ relationship related to the ongoing divorce and custody proceedings between Dulos and his estranged wife.
Meehan is also expected to testify about a conversation involving Troconis and Dulos, which the state indicated will lend to their state of mind around the time of Farber Dulos’ disappearance.
Schoenhorn has said that at the time of Farber Dulos’ disappearance, Dulos had told Troconis and others that the custody study was going well and favorably.
“The heart of the defense is what Dulos told not only Michelle but friends, family, third party, about how well things were going in the custody study,” he said.
He said that including only some information from the custody proceedings painted an incomplete picture, while Manning said it was important to show the jury what was going on leading up to the alleged homicide.
“I think everyone wants to know why,” Manning said.
Troconis’ trial is set to continue at 10 a.m. on Thursday in Stamford."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.courant.com/2024/02/14/michelle-troconis-jury-wont-hear-from-medical-examiner-about-jennifer-farber-dulos-death/PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resurce. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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