Ellington Murder Case Nearing 3rd Anniversary

ELLINGTON, CT — The three-year anniversary of a murder case in which an Ellington man is accused of killing his wife will pass this weekend without another court appearance by Richard Dabate. So will the rest of 2018.

His next appearance is scheduled for Jan 4, according to judicial system records. Richard Dabate has been free on a $1 million bond since several family homes were leveraged for the bail money in April 2017,shorly after his arrest.

The case itself dates back to two days before Christmas in 2015, when Connie Dabate was found dead. The warrant by which Richard Dabate, who is now in his early 40s, was charged with murder, reads like a Hollywood script with an alleged home invasion gone haywire.

A 50-page warrant not only accuses Richard Dabate of having an affair, but getting a girlfriend pregnant and then scripting an involved story that included him being tied to a chair with an intruder "manhandling" him before shooting his wife.

State police begged to differ with Dabate's account of what happened and, after what they called a "long and exhaustive" investigation, arrested Dabate several months later, according to a warrant.

State police remained even-keeled during the investigation, despite the Internet's keyboard cowboys essentially playing cop, judge and jury in accusing the husband of the killing. The details of that investigation were then released once Richard Dabate was in custody.

See the full story on Richard Dabate's arrest, including details on the arrest warrant, here.

Richard Dabate also came under fire after a probate court official said Connie Dabate had $76,958.07 to her name shortly after her death, but her accounts showed a balance of $6.42 in late October 2017. See the details here.

Richard Dabate filed a civil complaint against the probate court in November 2017 while defending the use of the funds to support the Dabate children, court records show.

In all, Richard Dabate has filed 15 court appearances between April 28, 2017 and Nov. 30, 2018, according to the case file at Rockville Superior Court.

Photo Credit: Chris Dehnel

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