Day seven of the Michelle Troconis trial in Stamford focused on video obtained along Albany Avenue in Hartford, the day Fotis Dulos was caught on camera dumping trash bags along the road.
New angles and video were shown in court Monday followed by evidence obtained from Albany Avenue.
Prosecutors pointing to Michelle Troconis’ first true appearance in the trial.
“There was a clink noise,” Sgt. Michael Beuton with Connecticut State Police said, describing the sound a pair of license plates obtained along Albany Avenue made when they were pulled from a storm drain along the road.
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Fotis Dulos is seen on surveillance video, obtained by investigators, discarding something into that storm drain.
“There was some effort made to alter their appearance,” Beauton said, continuing to describe some of the alterations, “this 't' here was actually not there, it was some kind of blue tape with adhesive.”
After running the registration relevant without the alterations, the plates matched with a 2007 Chevy Suburban formerly registered to Fotis Dulos, but later canceled.
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Before testimony about the contents of the surveillance videos, prosecutors walked the jury through how all of this video was obtained and scrubbed through with the help of Hartford police and the City of Hartford.
“Specifically, the trash being dumped in multiple garbage cans in the city to get an evidence collection team,” said Brett Attmore, who at the time of the alleged crimes in 2019 was sent to recover the video from Hartford’s capital city command center, or “C4” for short.
Also seen in the video, a female figure investigators believed to be Troconis, leaning out of the passenger side of the Ford Raptor toward a storm drain. Beauton describes what investigators saw in the video compared to the description they were given of Troconis.
“It appears to be a white female, looks like wearing a short sleeve shirt, and maybe her hair is in a ponytail, and her right hand appears to be reaching down toward the break in the pavement,” Beauton said.
Defense attorney Jon Schoenhorn continued to raise concern about testimony coming in, arguing the prosecution is putting him in a position where he needs to defend Fotis Dulos and not his client.
“There is a guilt by association problem that’s arising,” Schoenhorn said.
There was also concern in the middle of the day that another juror would have to be dismissed. He raised concern during the lunch break that he recognized a name, Michael Beauton, that came up in earlier testimony.
The two were from the same town, and he testified their fathers were friendly growing up. Beauton was the next witness scheduled to appear.
The judge ultimately decided the juror could stay after he testified, he could still remain impartial and he noted he has had no contact with the witness in what he believed to be over 20 years.
