NEW CANAAN, CT — Michelle Troconis' bid to have her conviction overturned in the Jennifer Farber Dulos case was denied by a state judge on Monday.
Troconis had filed a habeas corpus petition to have the conviction thrown out in the disappearance and death of Dulos on the ground of "ineffective assistance of counsel" by her former attorney Andrew Bowman.
In March 2024, Troconis was convicted on six charges in the case, and was sentenced to 14-and-a-half years in prison.
Troconis' habeas challenge had argued that Bowman did not provide adequate counsel when he allowed her to be interviewed three times by Connecticut State Police; much of the content from those interviews were subsequently used against her at trial.
Monday's ruling by Judge Carl J. Schuman found that Bowman acted appropriately in defending Troconis, through he did not seek immunity for his client before she spoke with investigators.
"Bowman certainly performed the minimum and essentially mandatory tasks expected of an attorney in this situation," Schuman wrote. "Bowman advised the petitioner that she had a right to remain silent and that she did not have to talk to the police. He told her in no uncertain terms that, if she decided to talk to the police, she absolutely had to tell the truth."
During her the interviews with investigators, which Bowman attended, Troconis appeared to contradict herself, which prosecutors highlighted during the trial and contributed to her conviction.
"Because Bowman’s advice to the petitioner fell within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance and because he was competently acting as her advocate at all times, the petition has not proven ineffective assistance of counsel," Schuman wrote.
Troconis' family is reportedly "deeply heartbroken" by Schuman's ruling, the Greenwich Time wrote.
On May 24, 2019, Jennifer Farber Dulos, a mother of five, vanished from her New Canaan home, and is presumed dead. Prosecutors believe she was the victim of a brutal attack at the hands of her estranged husband, the late Fotis Dulos. Her body has not been found.
Though he was charged with kidnapping and murder, Fotis Dulos never stood trial, because he took his own life in January 2020.
The Duloses were in the midst of a contentious divorce and child custody fight at the time of her disappearance, and prosecutors successfully tried Troconis as an accomplice of Fotis. Troconis was Fotis Dulos' girlfriend at the time of Jennifer Dulos' disappearance.
Kent Mawhinney, a third suspect in the case, pleaded guilty to a single count of interfering with police in 2025, but he avoided a prison sentence. He is a former friend and attorney of Fotis Dulos.
The Dulos case:
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