Richard Dabate found guilty in Fitbit murder trial, bond increased to $5 million

A jury has found Richard Dabate guilty on all charges in connection to the 2015 murder of his wife Connie Dabate and the subsequent staging of a bloody home invasion.

The jury deliberated for only a few hours and returned their verdict less than 24 hours after attorneys for both sides argued their cases. They found Dabate guilty on all charges: murder, lying to police and tampering with evidence.

Family members on both sides, who were once knitted together by Connie and Richard Dabate’s marriage, were holding back tears when the word “guilty“ rang out three times.

Connie Dabate’s family, who packed the courtroom, reached out to comfort one another. Dabate’s defense lawyer, Trent LaLima, placed his hand on his client’s shoulder in a show of support.

Dabate was led away in handcuffs after Judge Corinne L. Klatt increased his bond to $5 million, up from the $1 million bond that has allowed him his freedom for years as he awaited trial.

With their hands clasped tightly in unison, the family of Connie Dabate — formerly Connie Margotta — stood outside the courthouse on Tuesday and talked about the loss they suffered six years ago and the justice they felt Tuesday.

“There will be no closure for the Margotta family, but there is finally justice for Connie,” said Wayne Rioux, a longtime friend and neighbor of the family, spoke on their behalf.

Connie’s mother, siblings and family friends wore yellow ribbons on their lapels — honoring Connie’s favorite color — affixed with bright sunflowers in stark contrast to the sorrow they endured.

“The pain of Connie’s loss and the length of this trial has been especially hurtful to the family. Connie is no longer for family gatherings, holidays, for her children’s milestones,” said Rioux. “Connie was essentially sentenced to death, while this convicted murder has been living his life while out on parole for six and a half years.”

Connie Dabate’s older brother, Keith Margotta, stepped forward to talk about his sister. He said hearing the verdict — especially so quickly — was a relief but was traumatic. He said he was in shock and “felt like he was going to hit the floor” when he heard that the jury had made their decisions so quickly.

“I didn’t think it would happen this soon, it’s a weight lifted off my shoulders,” he said. “Everything kind of hits home, everything we went through and tried to put behind us six years ago, is right in front of us right now.”

State’s Attorney Matthew C. Gedansky, who argued the case, said that while the technology like Connie Dabate’s Fitbit data helped them prove Dabate guilty, Connie Dabate’s murder was a striking example of domestic violence.

“The thorough and thoughtful examination of technology was key to this investigation and was significant in proving that the defendant was guilty of this crime,” said Gedansky in a statement on Tuesday evening.

“In the end, though, this was another case of domestic violence. And though much progress has been made in recent years to support victims and survivors and to hold abusers accountable, these domestic violence homicides are still happening so we must continue to work together to end domestic violence.”

A defeated LaLima also spoke outside the courthouse on Tuesday afternoon, less than an hour after the verdict was delivered, and said he was “very disappointed.”

“I think we put on a very strong case for Rick as to why he was not guilty of this offense,” he said.

When asked how Dabate was feeling after being convicted, LaLima said, “he knows we’re going to be back and keep fighting, so he’s ready for it.”

Dabate’s defense team said they will appeal the conviction.

After five weeks of testimony, and more than six years since the alleged crimes, attorneys for each side delivered lengthy and impassioned closing arguments in Rockville Superior Court on Monday.

The prosecution painted a picture of a man plagued by the pressure of an unplanned pregnancy who planned to kill his wife.

The defense argued a botched police investigation that was prejudicial toward their client and asked the jury to consider the veracity of 2015 technology — like Connie Dabate’s Fitbit — and to place weight on a house cleaner’s testimony that she may have seen a large, green figure rush by a window while she was dusting the day of the murder.

On Monday, the jury asked to review Connie Dabate’s autopsy report and gunshot residue reports — which the judge said were in evidence and would be flagged for the jury via sticky note — and to re-listen to testimony about DNA testing and Dabate’s statement to police in the hospital the day of the murder. More than 600 pieces of evidence were introduced during the trial.

For hours on Tuesday, jurors returned to the courtroom to hear testimony about that DNA evidence. After hearing only part of the testimony, they went back to deliberate for only about 30 minutes before returning with their verdict.

Connie Dabate, Richard Dabate’s wife and the mother of his two young sons, was found shot to death in their Ellington home just two days before Christmas in 2015.

Gedansky told the jury that Dabate’s seemingly perfect life — large homes, vacations and his family-man image paired with a doting wife — was a lie that was about to unravel. A woman named Sara Ganzer with whom he was having an affair was pregnant and due to give birth to their child in February.

Gedansky said Dabate’s carefully curated life was “coming to an end in a crash, a loud crash. And he couldn’t stop it.”

His solution, Gedansky said, was to bring his marriage to an end with two bullets fired by an intruder the state says never existed.

Throughout the trial, Dabate stuck to his story that he came home that morning after realizing on his way to work that he’d left his laptop at home. When he got home, he told the jury that he heard a noise upstairs.

When he went upstairs, he says he was met by a masked man much larger than him who was wearing a hunting-style suit and had a voice like Vin Diesel. The man robbed him, then chased his wife into the basement where he shot her before zip tying him to a metal folding chair, stabbing him in the legs, setting a pile of papers on fire and fleeing on foot.

Gedansky repeatedly poked holes in his story, pointing out repeated changes in his timeline of events and bringing forth forensic evidence from cellphone GPS data and Connie Dabate’s hip-worn Fitbit that negated his story.

In his closing argument, LaLima said the investigation of the case was mishandled. That key locations of interest weren’t investigated and that not enough DNA evidence was collected. He said that he thinks police picked Dabate as their suspect and then molded their investigation around making him look guilty.

“Police made up their mind. They already know what they need to prove, they’re working backwards from there.”

The prosecutor said the investigation was as thorough as could be.

“Every stone was unturned. Every ‘T’ was crossed. Every ’I’ was dotted,” he said.

Dabate’s lawyer also laid out a six-minute timeline after the moment Dabate allegedly triggered the panic alarm, asking the jury whether it would have been possible for Dabate to, in that brief time, stage such an elaborate crime scene.

Gedansky said that Dabate had been plotting the events of that day for months, including his purchase of a second gun, the gun that killed Connie, that the state says she didn’t know about. The plot, he said, stemmed from his inability to decide between his mistress and his marriage.

Dabate testified that he told his wife about his affair, but Gedansky said that investigators, who combed through messages between the couple and messages between Connie and her family and friends, found no evidence of that.

They did, however, find evidence of her plans to leave him. A list in her phone’s notes apps and an email sent to herself that listed some causes for divorce. Infidelity was not among them.

Gedansky said that instead, Connie Dabate was “getting fed up” with her husband and was running out of patience with his lies and what he called a “lack of love and support.”

LaLima also brought into question the accuracy of technology the state relied on to build at least parts of their case, saying that Fitbits and cellphones are not designed with exact accuracy for court testimony in mind but rather to sell “a new Fitbit, a Fitbit 2.0, a year later at Dick’s Sporting Goods.” He asked the jury whether their smart phone causes them to miss a text, or if their GPS tells them they’re a street away from where they actually are. Then he asked them to consider the reliability of such devices back in 2015.

LaLima leaned one of the defense’s four witnesses’ testimony — an account from a house cleaner that she thought she may have seen a large green figure pass by the window, but it may have been a deer or reflection. He argued that, if like Dabate said, the intruder was wearing a mask, she wouldn’t have seen a face but said that he’d “never seen a green deer.”

Gedansky addressed the weight of that witnesses testimony in his rebuttal, pointing out evidence that the window the cleaner was dusting at the time had a UV filter on it that may have distorted her view.

Connie Dabate’s family thanked the jurors, who Rioux noted were tasked with reviewing “mountains of evidence,” along with investigators, the state’s attorney’s office and the many witnesses who took the stand for all their work.

They said they hope Dabate will be sentenced “to life behind bars so he can no longer hurt anyone like he did the Margotta family.”

Dabate will return to court on Sept. 16 following a pre-sentence investigation.