VERNON, Included. (AP) – A Connecticut man was convicted Tuesday of manslaughter in 2015 for the murder of his wife, a case based partly on evidence provided by his Fitbit device.
A Rockville Supreme Court jury found Richard Dabate guilty on all three counts – murder, tampering with evidence and misrepresentation to authorities – after a five -week trial and a second day of deliberation. The murder case carries a maximum penalty of 60 years in prison. He will be sentenced on Sept. 16.
The marshals handcuffed Dabet and pulled him out of the courtroom after Judge Corinne Klatt raised his bail to $ 5 million. He was released on $ 1 million bail after his arrest.
Dabate’s lawyer, Trent Lalima, said he was looking forward to the sentencing appeal.
“I think we have a very strong argument as to why Rick didn’t commit this crime,” he said after the verdict was announced in court.
Wayne Rume, spokesman for Connie Dabat’s family, said Richard Dabat’s inmates got justice.
“There’s no test on the Fitbit yet,” he said. The case was settled out of court in connection with the planned murder of Connie Margot Dabate. … There is no closure for Margot’s family, but ultimately there is justice for Connie.
Dabate remained innocent and revealed that a large masked male actor wearing a diesel-like voice and transvestite shot his wife Connie Dabate, and took him to the couple’s home in Ellington in December 2015.
Police said Connie Dabate’s information about Fitbit contradicted her husband’s story and showed he was moving nearly an hour after he said he was murdered.
Prosecutor Matthew Gedansky said in his concluding argument that Dabate had made a plan to kill his wife and organize a home invasion because his life included another woman after the baby was born.
LaLima questioned the reliability of Fitbit’s tracker data, saying the devices were not designed with the precision required for court testimony.
Lalima also pointed to unknown DNA found in Dabate’s home, including a weapon that killed Connie, and testimony from a cleaner who says he saw a dark green figure moving behind a window during a crime. .
The jurors in the case were elected in early 2020, before state courts closed due to a corovirus pandemic. The judge fired these jurors in August and said they had been on staff for too long and some jurors had moved out of state and a new jury was elected at the end of February.
Source: Huffpost
