Michelle Troconis complains in court that prosecutors delayed giving her records of mystery phone call from Greece to Fotis Dulos

The lawyer for Michelle Troconis complained in court Thursday that the prosecution has been slow in providing her defense team with evidence they intend to use against her, including details about a telephone call she took from Greece on the day authorities claim she helped her ex-boyfriend Fotis Dulos kill his wife and cover up the crime.

The call, the subject of substantial investigation, was made on May 24, 2019, by Dulos’ childhood friend Andreas Toutziaridis to Dulos’ cellphone. Troconis answered the call at the home she and Dulos then shared in Farmington.

Troconis’s lawyer, Jon Schoenhorn, argued in a new court filing Thursday that information he has been provided by the prosecution suggests that Toutziaridis was “a potential co-conspirator” in Jennifer Farber Dulos’s disappearance and apparent murder.

Troconis denies any involvement in the disappearance and Schoenhorn said he needs all investigative records concerning the call to determine whether the records support her claim of innocence.

At a remote, video hearing in Superior Court in Stamford on Wednesday, Schoenhorn renewed a demand that the prosecution provide him with more information about its case, including what he described as a “parallel investigation by agents of the Department of Homeland Security” into any connection between the Toutziaridis call and the disappearance of Jennifer Farber Dulos.

Investigators believe Fotis Dulos killed his wife during the couple’s contentious divorce and fight for custody of their five children. Jennifer Farber Dulo was living in New Canaan at the time of her presumed murder, and Dulos was living in Farmington with Troconis.

State police investigators believe Dulos drove from Farmington to New Canaan to kill his wife. Based on bloodstained car seats and other evidence collected through searches across the state, detectives believe Dulos may have dismembered the body of his estranged wife and the remains have never been found. Later in the day, police believe he returned to Farmington where he met Troconis, who helped dispose of evidence in storm drains and trash receptacles in Hartford.

Dulos was charged with murder in January 2020 but died in a New York City hospital a month later after trying to take how own life by carbon monoxide poisoning in the garage of the home he shared with Troconis. The state police have charged Troconis with conspiring with Dulos to commit murder and trying to help him avoid arrest by concealing evidence. She is free on a $2.1 million bond and could be tried this fall.

Investigators began looking into the Toutziaridis telephone call on suspicion that it could have been arranged by Dulos as an attempt to establish an alibi for the time his wife disappeared, records and people familiar with the matter said. According to the police theory, Dulos would argue that phone records would allow him to claim he was talking on his cellphone in Farmington at the time police claim he was killing his wife in New Canaan.

After learning of the call, Connecticut investigators arranged to have the Department of Homeland Security stop Toutziaridis and seize his cellphone as he arrived for a visit to the U.S. Attached to Schoenhorn’s court filing is a page from a Homeland Security Department affidavit in support of a warrant to search the Toutziaridis telephone for evidence of obstruction of justice and other crimes associated with Jenifer Farber Dulos’ disappearance.

Dulos, who claimed he had nothing to do with his wife’s disappearance, left a suicide note in which he implored investigators to stop harassing Toutziaridis, who he called an “honorable” person. He also wrote he was killing himself not because he was guilty, but because “I refuse to spend even an hour more in jail for something I had NOTHING to do with.”

Schoenhorn said in court Thursday that investigative reports about the Toutziaridis call are an example of the prosecution foot dragging he has encountered while representing Troconis, who also participated by video link but said nothing.

In October, Schoenhorn pressed in court for an order requiring prosecutors to provide him with specific evidence they claim supports the charges against Troconis of hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence and conspiracy to commit murder. The request was denied after the prosecutors said the state had provided Troconis with everything it had.

On Thursday, Blawie said he was unaware last fall of the existence of a federal investigation of the call from Toutziaridis. He said he will decide whether to order more material disclosed to Traconis after hearing in coming days from the prosecution.

“I’ve been practicing law for a long time, and I’d say it has been at least 10 or 20 years where I have had difficulty other than in this case in obtaining materials, even the existence of those materials, without having to fight for them,” Schoenhorn said.

Michelle Manning, an assistant state’s attorney recently assigned to the Troconis case, said she intends to open the prosecution files to Troconis.