Attorney asks for Michelle Troconis to be released on bail pending appeal

Michelle Troconis’ attorney is asking a judge to allow her to bail out of jail as her defense team works to pursue an appeal of her conviction.On May 31, Troconis was sentenced to 14½ years in prison for her role in the disappearance and death of New Canaan mother and writer Jennifer Farber Dulos in 2019. Troconis had been free on bond for years as her case moved through the courts but was taken into custody on a $6 million bond following her conviction.A jury in March found Troconis guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with evidence, conspiracy to tamper with evidence and hindering the prosecution following a weeks-long trial. Troconis, her lawyers and her family have steadfastly maintained her innocence and quickly announced plans to appeal the conviction.On the day the verdict came down, Troconis was placed into handcuffs and taken into custody, her bond significantly increased. She was brought to the York Correctional Institution in Niantic where she has been held since.On Monday, Troconis’ attorney Jon Schoenhorn filed a motion for petition to review a denial of appeal bond, asking the court to consider a release or lower bond while her appeal is being prepared.In summary in the motion, Schoenhorn said that while Troconis no longer benefits from the presumption of innocence following her conviction, “no evidence suggests she poses a risk of flight. Nothing suggests she is a danger to anyone.”Troconis was sentenced by Judge Kevin A. Randolph to 20 years in prison, suspended after 14 1⁄2 years, followed by five years probation. Just after Randolph handed that sentence down, Schoenhorn announced intent to appeal and asked the court to set an appeal bond, but the court denied the motion.In this week’s motion, Schoenhorn wrote that there were more than two dozen issues in the case that would be addressed on appeal, “including insufficiency of evidence for the most serious crimes.”The appeal, he wrote, “may result in reversal, a new trial, or a reduced sentence.”He said that because there are numerous “legal and evidentiary issues in the trial court record” and “an immense record spanning five years of litigation,” an effective appellate brief will take a long time.“Such delay while Ms. Troconis sits in prison is one consideration why appellate bail should be granted,” he wrote in the motion.Schoenhorn also noted that since Troconis’ initial arrest in 2019, “she always remained compliant with all terms” of her release.“In the nearly five years since Ms. Troconis was first arrested, there has been no occasion when she was out of compliance with any conditions of release,” Schoenhorn said. “Moreover, the trial court made no findings — nor did the state argue — that custody was necessary to provide reasonable assurance of her appearance in court pending the outcome of her appeal.”During her release, Troconis maintained a business and residence in the Farmington area but was allowed to travel to Miami, Florida often to visit family and to Aspen, Colorado for her daughters’ ski training. Schoenhorn said that she has surrendered her passport.A judge ruled that if released from custody during an appeal, Troconis must become resident in Connecticut and remain on 24/7 house arrest.Schoenhorn wrote that that stipulation means “”she would have to pay for her own jail.”He also told the court that the $6 million bond amount “was well beyond the means of the defendant and her family and she remained incarcerated on that condition alone” and that an excessively high bond amount by infringe Troconis’ right to due process.Schoenhorn said in the motion that a successful appeal will “not only result in reversal of the conviction but to dismissal of charges.”Troconis was the first person to go to trial in connection to the death of Farber Dulos, a mother of five.Farber Dulos vanished while entangled in an intense divorce and custody battle with her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos.Troconis was dating and living with Dulos at the time of her disappearance and death. Dulos was charged with his wife’s disappearance and death but died by suicide in 2020.During Troconis’ trial, prosecutors said that they believe she and Dulos plotted to kill Farber Dulos and that Dulos violently attacked his wife in her New Canaan garage. The couple, they said, then tried to cover the tracks, dumping evidence into trash bins along Albany Avenue in Hartford.Prosecutors and detectives say Troconis lied for Dulos, while Troconis maintains that she did not know what her partner was doing, covering up or plotting.Troconis, who is from South America and speaks both Spanish and English, sat through multiple interviews with police in English, which her lawyers said led to confusion and misunderstandings. Prosecutors, on the other hand, say she was intentionally lying.Farber Dulos was legally declared dead just last October. Her body has never been found.

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