Fotis Dulos will not be out on bail Wednesday after being arrested Tuesday of murder charges in the death of his estranged wife.
Dulos, 52, was expected to spend another night locked up due to a paperwork issue that could not be resolved in time for him to post bond and be released Wednesday, officials said.
During a brief hearing Wednesday in Superior Court, Judge John Blawie also issued a protective order barring Dulos from having contact with his five children and their current guardian, Gloria Farber, the mother of Farber Dulos.
Dulos’ attorney, Norm Pattis, asked the judge to lower Dulos’ bond to $1 million, saying the state is “groping in the dark and grasping at straws” with their case against him.
“The state believes he engineered and caused his wife’s death,” Pattis said. “We don’t.”
But prosecutors fought back.
Stamford State’s Attorney Richard J. Colangelo argued for the bond to remain at $6 million. Blawie agreed and also granted the state’s request for the protective order barring Dulos from trying to contact his five children, Farber and Lauren Almeida, the children’s nanny.
Two of Dulos’ alleged accomplices, former girlfriend Michelle Troconis, 44, and his friend, lawyer Kent Mawhinney, 54, of South Windsor, also made appearances Wednesday in Superior Court in Stamford. Both faces charges of conspiracy to commit murder.
Blawie agreed to lower Troconis’ $2 million bond to $1.5 million after her attorney, Andrew Bowman, argued that she had never missed earlier court appearances tied to her previous arrest in connection with Farber Dulos’ disappearance. Blawie said he took into account “some levels of cooperation” Troconis is having with state police.
Bowman said that his client “had no benefit from the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos.”
The judge ordered Mawhinney held on $2 million bond following arguments from prosecutors who said he is a flight risk.
“Mawhinney, knowing about this warrant, did evade state police for a period of time yesterday and was found near the Massachusetts border,” Colangelo told the judge.
Attorney Jeremy S. Donnelly, who represented Mawhinney, said the state’s case against his client is weak.
“I struggle to find the case the state will eventually prove here,” Donnelly said in arguing for a lower bond.
Neither Mawhinney nor Troconis spoke during the brief hearings.
In a press conference outside the courthouse, Pattis said they’ve known the murder arrest for Dulos was coming and were expecting more from the state’s case.
“I anticipated a forensic display of evidence that was breathtaking and I didn’t see that,” Pattis said. “What we have is a circumstantial case with no weapon and no body. Mr. Dulos is looking forward to his day in court.”
