Jury in Michelle Troconis trial asks for clarification on tampering charge as deliberations continue

The six-person jury in the trial for Michelle Troconis continued its deliberations Thursday, coming into the courtroom once to ask a question about one of the charges Troconis is facing.

The six jurors were brought into the courtroom briefly around 12:30 p.m. after the foreperson sent a note to the court.

“Your honor, can we please receive clarification as to the verbiage of count three?” the note began.

The jury is deliberating on six counts against Troconis, who state prosecutors allege conspired with her former boyfriend Fotis Dulos to kill his estranged wife Jennifer Farber Dulos and assisted in the cleanup of his crimes.

That cleanup, they allege, happened during a trip to Albany Avenue in Hartford on May 24, 2019, the day Farber Dulos disappeared from New Canaan, and during a later trip to an Avon car wash.

Count three, which the jury asked about, is the charge of tampering with evidence as an accessory in connection to that trip to Hartford.

Is Michelle Troconis guilty of crimes or was it just a series of coincidences? The jury must decide.

Judge Kevin A. Randolph said that in that count, the state accuses Troconis of attempting to alter, destroy, conceal or remove evidence with the intent to prevent it from being used in an investigation.

State prosecutor Sean McGuinness said the jury only needs to find that the state proved Troconis solicited, requested, commanded, importuned or aided Dulos to find her guilty on that charge.

The jury has seen surveillance footage of Troconis riding in the passenger seat as Dulos drove along Albany Avenue, throwing garbage bags into trash bins.

The jury specifically wanted to know whether Troconis herself had to have physical contact with items of evidence that were thrown out on Albany Avenue in Hartford to be found guilty on that third count. The members of the jury also wanted clarification on the accessorial liability statute she is charged under.

Randolph said she did not.

“The answer is accessorial liability does not require physical contact,” he said.

That means that because Troconis is charged as an accessory, she did not have to touch the pieces of evidence Dulos was allegedly trying to get rid of.

Troconis is facing six counts in total: Conspiracy to commit murder, two counts of tampering with evidence, two counts of conspiracy to tamper with evidence and hindering prosecution in connection with the disappearance and presumed death of Farber Dulos.

Thursday was the second full day of jury deliberations, which Troconis’ defense attorney Jon Schoenhorn said could last a while “because nothing about this case is usual.”

Schoenhorn pointed to the number of evidentiary exhibits jurors may be reviewing in the deliberation room, including some that have multiple pages or parts.

“We’re really talking about really 300 exhibits, a lot of those are videos. And if the jurors are systematically going through everything it could take them several days just to get to the point where they’re going to discuss the charges,” he said.

Schoenhorn said he would not speculate on how long the jury might deliberate.

“This is not a usual case. There are, you know, almost two months of witnesses that they would have to talk about if they want to,” he said.

Troconis’ trial began on Jan. 11 and prosecutors called witnesses for 25 days. In building their argument, the state alleged that Troconis plotted with Dulos to kill Farber Dulos and cover up the crimes, but not that Troconis was actually present for the murder, which allegedly happened in Farber Dulos’ New Canaan garage.

Troconis and her defense team have maintained her innocence throughout the trial, arguing that she did not know what Dulos was doing or planning. Troconis provided receipts, photos and alibis from friends to prove to investigators that she was not in New Canaan that morning.

In explaining the accessory statute during the jury charge Tuesday, Randolph said that the state does not have to prove that Troconis was “actually resent or actively participated in the commission of the crime” to be found guilty as an accessory.

They have to prove instead that in the furtherance of a crime she solicited, requested, commanded, importuned or intentionally aided the principal to commit tampering with physical evidence. She had to know that a criminal investigation was underway or impending.

If the jury finds that the state proved those things, she can be found guilty “as though she had directly committed it or participated,” in the commission of the crime, Randolph said.

However, her just being there at the time of the alleged crimes does not mean she is guilty, and the jury cannot find her guilty based on “evidence of mere presence as an inactive companion,” Randolph said during the jury charge.

‘What’s the ending going to be?’ Michelle Troconis’ fate in the hands of the jury

The fifth charge Troconis faces is tampering with evidence as an accessory in connection with her alleged actions a few days after Farber Dulos disappeared when she and Dulos allegedly took Dulos’ employee’s Toyota Tacoma to Russel Speeder’s Car Wash in Avon.

Troconis and her family stood beside Schoenhorn outside Stamford Superior Court on Thursday afternoon as Schoenhorn gave a glimpse into how they are feeling.

“It’s a very stressful time, you know you’re waiting, you’re waiting,” Schoenhorn said. “Your family member’s fate rests on what people in a room that you cannot see or hear are thinking.”

Schoenhorn repeatedly said in his closing arguments earlier this week that Troconis did not know anything about Dulos’ plans or alleged crimes or cover-up. He also said that the state did not bring forth evidence that his client entered into an agreement, or conspiracy, with Dulos, let alone multiple conspiracies, as she is charged.

He argued that the state’s case was built on speculation and said that just because his client was dating Dulos, does not mean she knew what he was doing.

Schoenhorn said the state made “unfounded and unfair assumptions and had speculated that Michelle Troconis had to know what was going on, that because she was romantically linked with Fotis, that she was somehow involved in this nefarious, murderous plot,” he said.

Prosecutors in their closing arguments said everything they allege can be corroborated by surveillance video, cell phone data and receipts.

Throughout the trial, the jury saw dozens of clips from surveillance cameras, including many throughout the city of Hartford that captured Dulos driving up and down Albany Avenue, putting items from the bed of his Ford F-150 Raptor into various trash bins while Troconis rode in the passenger seat and was distracted on her phone.