Troconis attorney says he's received sought-after forensic evidence

Michelle Troconis returned to court remotely Tuesday where her attorney said he's finally received evidence that he's been requesting in the case.

Marissa Alter

Mar 29, 2022, 10:21 PM

Updated 986 days ago

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Michelle Troconis returned to court remotely Tuesday where her attorney said he's finally received evidence that he's been requesting in the case.
"The state lab sent me two gigabytes of material which has been represented to me as the missing forensic materials I've been asking for. I obviously didn't get a chance to review. It's thousands of pages of documents. I just started flipping through them this morning," Troconis' attorney Jon Schoenhorn said.
Schoenhorn has filed several motions for discovery going back nearly two years as he defends Troconis on charges including conspiracy to commit murder, evidence tampering, and hindering prosecution in the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos in May 2019. At the time, Troconis was the girlfriend of Fotis Dulos, Jennifer Dulos' estranged husband. Fotis Dulos was charged with murder but killed himself weeks later.
Schoenhorn said Tuesday he's still waiting for materials from a federal investigation into Fotis Dulos and his friends in Greece.
"There's apparently financial records, interviews, that the Department of Homeland Security conducted," Schoenhorn told the court.
Assistant State's Attorney Michelle Manning, who recently took over the Troconis case, said that information is on its way from Homeland Security.
"They're in the process of making external drives and copying anything and everything and have been extremely cooperative," Manning said.
Troconis' appearance before Judge Gary White came one week after Schoenhorn's motion to dismiss evidence tampering and hindering charges. Schoenhorn had argued those arrest warrants contained false statements and omitted key information. In a written ruling, White called the errors "inadvertent" and said, "At most, the defendant has highlighted minor inconsistencies that collectively are inconsequential to findings of probable cause."
In response, Schoenhorn filed a motion Monday asking White to explain his reasoning and allow him to reargue. White did not take up that up Tuesday.
But White did hear yet another request from Schoenhorn to remove Troconis' GPS ankle monitor. That's been a condition of her release since her first arrest in June 2019. Schoenhorn argued that wearing an ankle bracelet that long "at some point constitutes punishment."
"You're mischaracterizing the pretrial conditions as punishment. They're regulations," White responded. He pointed out Troconis has been allowed to travel throughout the country and no longer remains in Connecticut. At a previous hearing, Schoenhorn said she was splitting her time between Florida and Colorado.
"The court has an interest and the state has an interest in knowing where she is at any particular time. She's charged with a serious offense," White said in denying the request.
Troconis's next hearing is set for June 7 and will be virtual again. Looking ahead to an expected trial, Schoenhorn told the court, "I estimate that it could be two or three months that it's going to take--just based on the amount of exhibits and amount of evidence, the amount of witnesses and the circumstantial nature," Schoenhorn said.