Dulos Case: Confusion Over Mawhinney Not Testifying In Troconis Trial

STAMFORD, CT — Though he was expected to testify, former attorney Kent Mawhinney did not take the stand for the prosecution during the Michelle Troconis trial in the Jennifer Farber Dulos disappearance and death case.

Mawhinney and Troconis both face charges of conspiracy to commit murder in the case, accused of assisting the late Fotis Dulos in the plot to kill his estranged wife and cover up the crime. Closing arguments in Troconis’ trial are expected next week, but a date has not yet been set for Mawhinney’s trial.

There is reportedly some confusion whether Mawhinney invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege by not testifying, though his attorney, Jeff Kestenband with Butler, Norris & Gold, told Patch, no.

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“Kent Mawhinney has not invoked his Fifth Amendment right,” Kestenband wrote in an email to Patch. “That is all I am willing to say on the record at this point.”

The Stamford Advocate reported that Stamford Superior Court Judge Kevin Randolph, and Assistant State’s Attorney Sean McGuinness, both seemed to indicate that Mawhinney invoked the privilege.

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Under the Fifth Amendment, a defendant is protected from testifying in a trial, if testifying could incriminate them.

Fotis Dulos was accused of brutally murdering Jennifer Dulos at her New Canaan home in May 2019, and then disposed of her body, which has never been found. The Duloses were in the midst of a bitter divorce and custody fight at the time of her disappearance.

A probate judge officially declared Jennifer Dulos was dead late last year.

Fotis Dulos was arrested and charged with kidnapping and murdering Jennifer Dulos, but he never stood trial, because he died after a suicide attempt in January 2020.

Mawhinney is a former friend of Fotis’, and Troconis was Fotis’ girlfriend at the time of Jennifer Dulos’ disappearance.

The Dulos case:


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