STAMFORD, Conn. _ The DNA of Fotis Dulos was found mixed with Jennifer Farber Dulos' blood on a faucet in the kitchen of her New Canaan home, State's Attorney Richard Colangelo told a judge Tuesday during a brief court appearance.
Colangelo told Judge John F. Blawie there was no reason for his blood to be found on the faucet amid arguments from Fotis Dulos' attorney to have the bond lowered in the case.
Fotis Dulos pleaded not guilty to the charges, but Blawie kept his bond at $500,000. His attorney, Norm Pattis, said his client intended to post bail Tuesday using his retirement funds as collateral.
Pattis, who took the case this week, had argued for a $100,000 bond, saying the state's case was weak and he doubted his client would ever be charged with murder.
"Dulos has been tried and convicted for a crime that he hasn't even been charged for," Pattis said. "I'm somewhat surprised that we are even here at all since we've been able to account for almost all of his time that day."
Pattis said that while the state put some of Dulos' cellphone records in the arrest warrant affidavit for where he was after 1 p.m. on May 24, they have refused to say what his movements were that morning.
Pattis also questioned the seizure of Dulos' cellphone by New Canaan police and said it was "illegally seized... this was not a seizure but a theft."
The appearance Tuesday comes as investigators continued to search for Jennifer Farber Dulos, the New Canaan mother of five who went missing before Memorial Day weekend.
Fotis Dulos' girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, appeared first before Blawie Tuesday and pleaded not guilty. Her case was continued to July 18 in the brief appearance.
The two hearings before Blawie were the only items Tuesday on the docket. Ahead of the hearing, members of Troconis's family, including her mother and uncle, sat in the front row of the courtroom gallery after waiting for the courtroom to open with lawyer Andrew Bowman.
Sources told The Courant Monday that police are aware Troconis was not in New Canaan on May 24, the day Farber Dulos went missing. Troconis has been cooperating with authorities and has told them she does not know what happened to Farber Dulos or her whereabouts.
Outside the Stamford courthouse, the media presence was extensive with a number of television news crews waiting for Troconis and her family to come and go on Tuesday.
In the afternoon, attorneys in the two year custody battle between Jennifer Farber Dulos and Fotis Dulos were expected to meet with a judge in Superior Court in Stamford, judicial records show.
Both Fotis Dulos and Troconis are charged with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution stemming from video Hartford police recovered showing a man that looked like Dulos throwing multiple garbage bags into trash receptacles on Albany Avenue the same night that Farber Dulos disappeared, court records said.
While Dulos has been unable to post the $500,000 bond a judge ordered him held on before Tuesday, Troconis was able to and she was released on June 3 _ the same day she appeared in Norwalk Superior Court _ after her parents flew in from Florida and bailed her out. A judge ordered her to wear an ankle bracelet with GPS tracking.
Following her release, Troconis met with state police detectives and prosecutors at least twice, including once at her attorney Andrew Bowman's office in Westport where she talked to Stamford State's Attorney Richard Colangelo and state police detectives. Bowman on Monday declined to comment on Troconis' role in the case.
The next day, Troconis could be seen walking in the backyard of the Jefferson Court house in Farmington that she shares with Fotis Dulos pointing toward woods while detectives searched the area. It is unclear why they brought her to Farmington on Friday.
Sources said Troconis has told state police she has no idea where Farber Dulos may be.
The charges against Troconis and Fotis Dulos stem from video evidence captured by Hartford police that shows a man resembling Fotis Dulos dumping multiple garbage bags into trash bins and dumpsters along Albany Avenue at 7:15 p.m. on the day that Jennifer Dulos disappeared, court records said.
A woman resembling Troconis at one point is seen on video sitting in the passenger seat and either placing something on the ground or picking up an item as Dulos throws out the bags, according to court records. The documents don't say what she placed on the ground and there is no video evidence that she handled any of the trash bags.
State police detectives rushed to Albany Avenue on May 31 and found some of the trash bags that Dulos had thrown out. Court records said DNA testing on some of the bloody clothes, towels and sponges matched Farber Dulos.
Police were too late to get some of the garbage and have spent the last week painstakingly searching through a mountain of trash at the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority's trash-to-energy plant on Maxim Road in Hartford's South Meadows. A corps of state police, using German Shepherd cadaver dogs, have been shifting through the garbage searching for more evidence.
In addition to the Albany Avenue neighborhood in Hartford, police also have searched locations in several towns, including Jennifer Dulos' home in New Canaan, where she lives with her children, who range in age from 8 to 13, a park near her home where her vehicle was found and several properties in Farmington owned by Fotis Dulos' company The Fore Group.
Farber Dulos has been missing since May 24 when she was last seen dropping her children off at the New Canaan Country Day School around 8 a.m. Police believe that she was attacked in her Welles Avenue home sometime between 8-11 a.m. A cleaning woman entered the home around noon. She wasn't reported missing until 7 p.m. that night. When New Canaan police entered the garage area of her home, they found dark stains believed to be blood on the floor as well blood spatter and evidence of a cleanup.
Her black Chevy Suburban was later found on Lapham Road near Waveny Park where at least three searches have taken place.
