A judge in Connecticut has ordered that Fotis Dulos, who is charged with killing his estranged wife, should be arrested once he’s released from the hospital, where he is receiving treatment after an apparent suicide attempt.
But Dulos was in “dire” condition at a New York hospital Wednesday, his attorney said.
“We await word from physicians as to what is reasonable to expect,” attorney Norm Pattis told reporters, adding that he couldn’t discuss his client’s condition.
The estranged husband of Jennifer Farber Dulos failed to appear at an emergency bond hearing Tuesday after one of the properties used to secure his $6 million bond was determined to be in foreclosure and didn’t meet the bond requirement set by the court.
Officers later found him at his Farmington, Connecticut, house in distress and called for an ambulance. Dulos was initially taken to a local hospital for treatment of carbon monoxide poisoning and has since been transferred to a New York hospital for treatment in a hyperbaric chamber, Pattis said.
Wednesday, a Superior Court judge ordered three re-arrest warrants for Dulos and increased his bond from $500,000 to $6.5 million because he missed his court hearing.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Pattis agreed to waive extradition proceedings to allow Dulos’ family to have access to him while he’s hospitalized in New York.
“Today’s agreement is a recognition of the difficulty of his medical condition,” Pattis told reporters outside the court. “We have agreed that he can be in re-arrest status when and if he’s able to return.”
Jennifer Farber Dulos, a 50-year-old mother of five, disappeared in May 2019 in New Canaan, Connecticut, after she dropped her children off at school. Investigators found her car near a park not far from her home, but she has not been seen or heard from since, and officials now believe she is dead.
She and Fotis Dulos, 52, were in the midst of a bitter custody battle. Jennifer Farber Dulos moved out in 2017 to a home in New Canaan and filed for divorce, court records show. She told officials she was afraid of her husband, according to court documents obtained by CNN.
“I know that filing for divorce and filing this motion will enrage him,” she said, according to the documents. “I know he will retaliate by trying to harm me in some way.”
Fotis Dulos denied making any threats or bullying her, according to court filings.
He and his then-girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, were arrested in June and charged with tampering with or fabricating evidence after investigators found blood stains and evidence of attempts to clean the crime scene, officials said. They pleaded not guilty.
He was arrested on murder and kidnapping charges earlier this month and again pleaded not guilty. Troconis, as well as Dulos’ friend and former attorney, Kent Mawhinney, have also been arraigned on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder. Neither has entered a plea yet.
Fotis Dulos has denied wrongdoing and his attorney has said the murder case against him lacks sufficient evidence.
“We remain committed obviously to the proposition that Mr. Dulos is not guilty of the crimes charged and hope that he recovers so that we can vindicate him in a court of law,” Pattis said Wednesday.
Pattis said he was shocked after learning of his client’s suicide attempt.
“I saw nothing that let me to believe that,” he said. “I look back and wonder what I missed.”