Inside Michelle Troconis’ ‘sad’ prison life as she makes new bid for freedom after Jennifer Dulos’ murder

The Venezuelan socialite convicted of conspiring to kill Connecticut mother-of-five Jennifer Dulos is making a new bid for freedom in a move that could bring the grisly case back to the courtroom. 

Michelle Troconis, 49, has filed a petition requesting a review of her conviction on the grounds that her original lawyer, Andrew Bowman, allegedly failed to properly advise her in the crucial first stages of her arrest. 

Troconis’ subsequent attorney, Jon Schoenhorn, who represented her throughout her grueling criminal trial earlier this year, told DailyMail.com there is ‘substantial hope that this injustice will be rectified by the appellant court’.

‘Seldom have I had a case that so bothers me and continues to haunt me more than this case,’ he said, while lamenting his client’s innocence. 

Schoenhorn added that he frequently visits former glamorous ESPN TV host Troconis at York Correctional Institution in Niantic, CT, and said she was ‘very sad and stressed’ the last time they spoke a few weeks ago. 

‘As someone who had never come in contact with the police before – and now she’s incarcerated… It’s a very harsh adjustment, especially if there’s reason to believe you are innocent,’ the attorney told DailyMail.com. 

Troconis was sentenced to 14.5 years in jail earlier this year for helping her former boyfriend, Fotis Dulos, kill his estranged wife Jennifer at her New Canaan CT home on May 24, 2019.

Police say Fotis brutally attacked Jennifer after she returned from dropping their children at school. 

Troconis then helped him dispose of her bloodied clothes in various trash cans, as captured on surveillance footage.

Fotis was charged with murder but killed himself ahead of trial – leaving the Dulos children orphaned and Troconis to face the music alone. 

A weapon was never recovered, and Jennifer’s body was never found. 

Jurors found Troconis guilty of six counts including conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with physical evidence, and hindering prosecution in the second degree following an emotionally-charged trial at Stamford Superior Court in Spring. 

The six-week-long trial heard evidence from officers, forensics experts, and the family and friends who had been due to meet with Jennifer on the day she died. 

Gruesome images of blood splatters in the garage and kitchen of Jennifer’s New Canaan home were shown to the jury as experts detailed how Fotis’ DNA was found at the property. 

Since the sentencing, Troconis, who is a mother herself with an 18-year-old daughter, has been spending her time in prison volunteering with community incentives, according to Schoenhorn.   

‘She’s working in the programs that are social related, to help people. There’s no requirement, it’s a choice,’ he told DailyMail.com. 

Troconis has also been inundated with letters of support while incarcerated, according to the lawyer. 

‘She has received mail from a lot of people supporting her,’ Schoenhorn said. 

‘She has a large circle of people from all over the world who supported her. 

‘I still get communications from some of those people.’

Troconis’ latest legal filing is a habeas corpus petition requesting a review of her conviction in the hopes of securing a retrial. 

She argues in the petition that Bowman, her first lawyer, ‘abandoned’ her in the first crucial stages of her arrest by failing to gather key information about her side of the story, or to advise her about whether she should speak with police. 

Troconis’ police interviews after her June 1, 2019 arrest – including one where a cop called her ‘the most hated woman in America’ – allowed prosecutors to portray her as an accomplice who ‘lied to police’ and formed the ‘foundation’ of their case, the petition says. 

The legal document argues that Troconis should be entitled to a retrial because Bowman did not properly assist her during this interrogation process.  

‘The ineffective representation of Bowman all but sealed the fate of the petitioner at her criminal trial,’ the petition says.

Schoenhorn, who was not involved in filing the latest petition because he is a likely witness in the next stage of proceedings, said he was astounded by Bowman’s handing of the case. 

‘In my opinion, I can think of no justification for a lawyer to have put a client in that situation,’ he told DailyMail.com. 

Troconis’ legal document also accuses Jennifer of disappearing abruptly in the 1990s and being estranged from her own family for four years – along with ‘temporarily changing her name and involving herself with Scientology’. 

The claims about the Connecticut mother are designed to bolster Troconis’ argument that she believed Jennifer’s disappearance was nothing out of the ordinary – and that she was deceived by Fotis rather than being part of his murder plot.    

‘Believing what she had been told about Jennifer by Fotis and others, the petitioner (Troconis) did not at first think that Jennifer was dead or that Fotis could be responsible for any foul play,’ the legal document reads. 

‘She relied on Fotis’s assurances that Jennifer had behaved similarly in the past.’ 

Schoenhorn told DailyMail.com ‘there is documentation to support the claims’ about Jennifer from her sealed child custody proceedings with Fotis – but said he could not comment further on the allegations. 

The case has drawn widespread attention over the last five years. Jennifer was a member of a wealthy New York family and a niece by marriage of fashion designer Liz Claiborne, while Fotis was a luxury home builder originally from Greece.

Jennifer uncovered Fotis’ affair with Troconis in March 2017, and their children – Petros, Theodore, Constantine, Christiane and Cleopatra Noelle – were aged between eight and 13 at the time she disappeared.

After waiting five years for justice, the children addressed Troconis with scathing statements in court at her sentencing in May, with Theodore, now 18, branding her ‘evil, violent, and most definitely a coward’. 

DailyMail.com has contacted the law firm which filed the petition and Andrew Bowman, along with both the Troconis and Dulos families.