The socialite convicted of helping her boyfriend cover up the murder of Connecticut mother-of-five Jennifer Dulos appeared in court Monday as hearings began on her bid to be released from prison.
Michelle Troconis was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in 2024 after she was convicted of helping her lover — the victim’s estranged husband — Fotis Dulos plot the mom’s May 2019 killing and then hide the crime after the fact.
Troconis’ team has argued that her case should be tossed on the grounds that she got bad legal advice from her former lawyer, according to a report by NBC Connecticut.
Her prior defense attorney, Andy Bowman, was grilled on the witness stand Monday about why he allowed Troconis to talk with police multiple times in 2019 after he spoke with prosecutor Richard Colangelo.
“She’s innocent. [Colangelo’s] threatening to charge her with murder, and there was urgency because the body, if it was found, he was going to charge her with murder,” Bowman testified. “And she was persuasive, so I made a judgment to recommend to her that she talk to them. But in the end, it was her decision.”
Troconis’ new team also claimed she wasn’t informed about the fact that Bowman spoke with the prosecutor. They charged that he didn’t lay out for her the legal implications of talking with cops.
Her statements to the investigators were then used against her at trial when jurors were shown evidence about them.
Troconis’ team must prove that her rights were violated by ineffective counsel and because of those violations, she didn’t get a fair shake at trial, resulting in her conviction on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, evidence tampering and hindering prosecution.
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Bowman has denied the claims that his former client was convicted as a result of his alleged bad legal advice.
The judge overseeing the hearings will have 120 days to issue a decision on Troconis’ petition to be freed. If he sides with Troconis, her case would be overturned and prosecutors would decide whether to put her on trial again.
The hearings will continue on Jan. 9 and Jan. 16.
Troconis’ lover and co-conspirator Fotis Dulos killed himself in 2020 after he was charged in his wife’s murder. Her body was never found.
Prosecutors claimed that Dulos — a luxury home builder originally from Greece — killed his estranged wife because the pair where in the middle of a bitter child-custody battle.
Troconis went along with the murder plot because of her frustration over the Dulos divorce proceedings, prosecutors claimed.
