Ex-Firefighter Pleads Guilty To Manslaughter In Fairfield Crash That Killed 32-Year-Old

FAIRFIELD, CT — A former Easton firefighter pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges in a Fairfield hit-and-run crash that killed a 32-year-old woman last year on the Fourth of July. As Declan P. Kot stood before the judge and entered his plea, a crowd of the victim’s family and friends, joined by several Fairfield police officers, looked on.

“He had zero regard for all of the lives that he had destroyed that night,” prosecutor Tiffany Lockshier said of Kot, who pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter, evading responsibility for a death and evidence tampering.

Lockshier detailed how on July 4, 2020, Kot had six drinks and, according to a recovered dashboard camera recording, admitted to being intoxicated. The camera captured Kot’s truck swerving, she said, almost hitting another vehicle before he struck Marileidy Morel-Araujo with the side mirror of his white Dodge Ram pickup and fled, leaving Araujo in the 2000 block of Redding Road.

Another driver saw Araujo, stopped and stayed with her until emergency crews arrived, Lockshier said. Despite about 40 minutes of CPR, Araujo succumbed to blunt force trauma to her head and neck, according to Lockshier.

Later that night, Kot, who was 22 at the time, sat in a commuter parking lot, where the dashboard camera recorded him talking to himself, saying he had an addiction and that Araujo didn’t deserve what had happened, according to Lockshier.

Kot tampered with evidence by replacing his broken mirror, Lockshier said. He was stopped by police three days after the crash while driving his pickup and arrested the following evening. Kot initially said he thought he had hit a branch, before admitting two hours into a police interview that he had seen Araujo, according to Lockshier.

“I have received hundreds and hundreds of letters on her behalf,” Lockshier said. “It’s clear to me that to have known Mari was to have loved her.”

Araujo, of Matamoras, Pennsylvania, was celebrating the Fourth of July with family in Fairfield the day she died and was walking her dog when Kot struck her. She was engaged, and she and her fiancé were renovating a home, with plans to start a family.

Originally from the Dominican Republic, Araujo moved to New Jersey when she was 9. She worked in real estate marketing, earned a master’s degree in 2019 from William Paterson University and had recently started a travel blog.

Araujo’s family declined to speak Wednesday, but Lockshier noted they did not feel the plea agreement required enough prison time for Kot. When he is sentenced Nov. 10, Kot is expected to receive 20 years behind bars, suspended after seven years served, plus five years on probation, Judge Tracy Lee Dayton explained, adding that one condition of the deal was that Kot would be incarcerated starting Wednesday. Dayton raised Kot’s bond to $1 million and reminded him that he could face up to 35 years in custody should he break the terms of the agreement.

In June, Kot rejected a similar deal that would have seen his prison time suspended at eight years instead of seven.

Kot’s attorney, John Gulash, declined to comment, but said during Wednesday's proceedings that Kot intended to express remorse in the future.

Fairfield police issued a statement Wednesday night, crediting the efforts of the department's crash investigation unit, detective bureau and patrol division, as well as the state's attorney's office and members of the public who provided assistance.

"While no actions will ever bring the victim in this terrible tragedy back or heal her family’s wounds, we hope this conviction brings the family some closure and solace,” the statement said.