Michelle Troconis sentenced to 14-and-a-half years in prison for her role in Jennifer Dulos' disappearance

Michelle Troconis has been sentenced to serve 14-and-a-half years in prison for her role in the disappearance and presumed murder of Jennifer Dulos.

Judge Kevin Randolph sentenced Troconis on Friday to 20 years, with execution suspended after 14-and-a-half years.

Her sentencing comes five years and one week after Jennifer Dulos disappeared after dropping her five children off at school, on May 24, 2019.

Troconis, 49, faced up to 50 years in prison. Her defense team asked for probation during sentencing on Friday.

Troconis spoke during her sentencing, crying.

“Your honor, I am deeply saddened by this tragedy that has affected so many lives. I found out things before and during trial about a man, Fotis Dulos, I thought I knew and loved," she said.

You can watch Troconis' full statement here.

"I deeply regret ever being in a relationship with Fotis Dulos and bringing my daughter,  my family and myself into his life. I am a person of profound faith and I have been praying  and will continue to pray for those who suffered and still suffer."

It was an emotional day in court as the family and friends of Jennifer Dulos, who disappeared from her New Canaan home in 2019, offered emotional testimony Friday ahead of the sentencing for her estranged husband’s former girlfriend for helping to plan and cover up her killing.

Before the sentencing, the court vacated one count of conspiracy to commit tampering with physical evidence.

“Now this court finds that there can be a conviction on only one count of conspiracy to commit tampering with physical evidence because each incident of tampering follows only one unlawful agreement,” Randolph said during the sentencing hearing.

The prosecution then asked for permission to appeal the court’s ruling and it was granted.

Prosecutors say Dulos’ husband, Fotis Dulos, killed her at her home in New Canaan and drove away with her body, which has never been found. He died by suicide in 2020 shortly after being charged with murder. He had denied killing his wife.

Troconis was Fotis Dulos’ girlfriend and was living with him at the time Jennifer Dulos vanished.

Troconis was convicted by a jury in March of conspiracy to commit murder, hindering prosecution and evidence tampering.

She insists she is innocent and intends to appeal her convictions. She is detained at the state women's prison.

About 80 people packed the courtroom, with Jennifer Dulos’ family and friends on one side and Troconis’ supporters on the other.

All five of Dulos’ children, as well as Jennifer's mother, Gloria Farber, attended. They spoke of their heartbreak and anger.

Farber said she knew “something terrible had happened” when her daughter did not return calls or texts on that day. Farber said her daughter “only wanted to give and get love and be a loving mother” to her children, who are now 13 to 18.

The oldest child, Petros, 18, said his mother’s death has left him with “a hole inside of me that I know I will never fill.”

Petros Dulos said he had been close to his mother but had struggled during his parents’ divorce.

“The defendant's actions mean that I will never be able to tell my mom how sorry I am for not being a better son when she needed me,” he said.

Lauren Almeida, the Dulos family's nanny, said she and Dulos’ friends had been afraid for the safety of themselves and the children after her disappearance.

Almeida asked Troconis, “Where is she, Michelle?,” referring to Dulos’ body.

Jennifer's longtime friend Carrie Luft, who has become the spokesperson for the Farber family and the Dulos children since Jennifer's disappearance, also spoke in court Friday.

Luft released a statement on behalf of Jennifer's family and friends after the sentencing, thanking Judge Kevin Randolph.

"For us, there is some relief in knowing the defendant will serve substantial time for her crimes, starting now. This painful chapter has come to a close, but the legal process continues, and none of it will bring Jennifer back. The courageous, eloquent, and powerfully loving statements from her five children today made that achingly evident. We will continue to honor Jennifer’s memory and spirit in every way we can, day by day," the statement read.

The state's attorney for the Stamford/Norwalk Judicial District released a statement after Friday's sentencing:

“After listening to the victim-impact statements, especially from Jennifer’s children, we had hoped for a more stringent sentence, yet we accept Judge Randolph’s decision and respect it,” State’s Attorney Paul Ferencek said. “Although Jennifer’s family and friends will probably never experience full closure from the trauma Troconis has thrust upon them, hopefully today’s sentence will afford them at least some sense that justice has been achieved.”

Ferencek praised the prosecutors who tried the case and thanked the many law enforcement agencies and investigators who have worked on the case for the past five years.

“Most importantly, we thank Jennifer’s five brave children who came to court today to speak about their mother and to face the woman who conspired to murder her,” he said. “Our hearts go out to you, especially, and as we have said in the past, we will never stop looking for your mother.”

The case was the subject of news documentaries and a made-for-TV movie, Lifetime’s “Gone Mom.”

Jennifer Dulos was a member of a wealthy New York City family.

Her father, the late Hilliard Farber, founded his own brokerage firm, Hilliard Farber & Co., after running Chase Manhattan Bank's bond trading desk. She also was a niece, by marriage, of fashion designer Liz Claiborne.

“We miss her every day, in every way,” some of her relatives and friends said last week in a statement released by Dulos' friend, Carrie Luft. “For us, five years is not a milestone but a marker of cumulative loss and longing. Life goes on, yet grief goes on alongside it, a shadow, a current, the presence of absence.”

Troconis, a dual American and Venezuelan citizen, has described herself as a co-founder of horse riding therapy programs who once had her own TV production company in Argentina and hosted a snow-sports show for ESPN South America. Fotis Dulos was a luxury home builder originally from Greece.

Troconis’ family and friends described her Friday as an upright and caring person.

Her pastor, the Rev. Christopher Solimene of Avon Congregational Church, said Troconis attended Bible study and cooked for the church soup kitchen.

"Empathy and compassion are at the center of her being, in my estimation," said the Rev. Christopher Solimene, her pastor at Avon Congregational Church. "I've heard her prayers for Jennifer and her children and all her anxieties related to this harrowing ordeal."

Solimene said his testimony on Friday comes at great risk for him and his church.

"I had nothing to gain and perhaps, on many levels, much to lose by offering any pastoral counseling to Michelle or opening the doors of my church to her," Solimene said.

"But today I can honestly say before God and indeed the world, Michelle Troconis is a woman of not only substantive character but with an ethic and kind-heartedness that is almost singular."

Troconis’ mother, Marisela Arreaza, said her daughter was a loving mother to her teenage daughter and was not the homewrecker portrayed by Dulos’ friends.

“When Michelle met Fotis Dulos, he presented himself as a family-oriented man going through an amicable divorce,” Arreaza said. “Michelle believed Fotis and had no reason to doubt him. However, we were all deceived by Fotis.”

Troconis' lawyer, Jon Schoenhorn, said in March when his client was convicted that he couldn't understand how the jury reached guilty verdicts.

Troconis’ family, including her parents and sisters, expressed the same disbelief.

“Choosing and putting my sister as the guilty person is not the right thing to do because she is innocent,” Claudia Troconis-Marmol said tearfully outside the courthouse shortly after the convictions.

Authorities suggested Fotis Dulos killed Jennifer Dulos because of his growing frustration with their divorce and child custody proceedings.

At the time, Jennifer Dulos was living with the children in New Canaan while Fotis Dulos stayed in the family’s 10,000-square-feet home about 70 miles away in Farmington.

Hours after Jennifer Dulos was last seen alive, Troconis was recorded on surveillance video accompanying Fotis Dulos on a trip to Hartford, where he discarded trash bags from the back of his pickup. Police later found some of the bags after seizing Fotis Dulos' cellphone, looking at its location data and obtaining the surveillance video from the locations.

In one of the most jarring moments in Troconis’ trial, the prosecution and state forensic experts showed a shirt, bra and zip ties with blood-like stains on them that were found in one of the trash bags. Testing showed that DNA on the items was highly likely that of Jennifer Dulos.

Troconis told police she didn’t know what was in the bags or why Fotis Dulos was dumping them in Hartford.

Prosecutors also said Fotis Dulos left his cell phone at his home on the day Jennifer Dulos vanished and Troconis answered a call to it from his friend that morning.

They said that was evidence Troconis was in on the plot and tried to help him create a bogus alibi. She denied the allegation.

Another defendant in the case, Kent Mawhinney, a friend of Fotis Dulos and his one-time lawyer in a civil case, is awaiting trial on a murder conspiracy charge. He has pleaded not guilty.

Although Jennifer Dulos’ body has never been found, a probate judge declared her legally dead last year.

The Dulos children have been in the custody of Jennifer Dulos’ mother in New York City since she vanished.

The charges

She was found guilty of the following charges. The sentences are to run concurrently.

• Count 1: Conspiracy to commit murder: 20 years, execution suspended after 14.5 years. Five years probation
• Count 2: Conspiracy to commit tampering with physical evidence (May 24, 2019 events): five years, execution suspended after four years. Five years probation.
• Count 3: Tampering with physical evidence (May 24, 2019 events): five years, execution suspended after four years. Five years probation.
• Count 4: Conspiracy to commit tampering with physical evidence (May 29, 2019 events) - this conviction was vacated.
• Count 5: Tampering with physical evidence (May 29, 2019 events): five years, execution suspended after four years. Five years probation.
• Count 6: Second-degree hindering prosecution: five years, execution suspended after four years. Five years probation.

Learn more about the charges and the potential sentencing here.

Get more background on the investigation into the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos here.

How to watch 'Inside the trial of Michelle Troconis'

Watch full episodes of "Inside the Trial of Michelle Troconis" here.