Moment Connecticut man who murdered his wife in 2015 ADMITS to cops he was having affair and his lover was pregnant: Killer snared after Fitbit recorded victim moving around home an hour after he claimed masked intruder shot her dead
- A Connecticut man who murdered his wife admitted he’d been having an affair
- Richard Dabate was found guilty of shooting his wife Connie Margotta Dabate
- He was charged with murder, tampering evidence and making a false statement
- Connie’s final movements recorded on a Fitbit snared the Dabate in his May trial
- The revelations come in tonight’s episode of Dateline with Andrea Canning
A Connecticut man who murdered his wife in 2015 admitted to detectives that he had been having an affair with his lover and childhood friend who he claimed he’d offered to help have a baby.
In May last year, Richard Dabate, 46, was found guilty of murder, tampering with evidence and making false statement to authorities over the death of his wife, Connie Margotta Dabate, 39.
Speaking to Dateline’s Andrea Canning State police detective Brett Langevin recalled the moment Dabate told him about the adultery during an interrogation of the homicide years before his conviction.
Dabate shot his wife at their Ellington, Connecticut home two days before Christmas in 2015, while their two young sons were in school.
Richard Dabate, 46, was found guilty of murder, tampering with evidence and making false statement to authorities over the death of his wife, Connie Margotta Dabate, 39
‘We were going to donate sperm for her to have a kid,’ Dabate said in a recording played in a preview of Dateline’s ‘The Secrets of Birch View Drive’ airing tonight at 9 pm on NBC.
Langevin goes on to tell Canning that the convicted killer said that the procedure had become too expensive.
‘It became too expensive, so that in order for her to conceive a child, they had to do some untraditional things,’ said Langevin.
‘Rick had to sleep with Sara,’ Canning said to which Langevin replied ‘yes.’
‘Instead of doing it a different way, like the science way, [instead the] old fashioned way’ she continued to probe, Langevin again saying ‘yes.’
In the police interview Langevin is heard asking Dabate similar questions trying to gather whether he had slept with his friend to conceive a baby in the ‘traditional way’ but unconventionally.
‘Yeah, it was her idea in a way,’ Dabate explains when probed how his wife felt about the arrangement.
Canning said detectives became sceptical of the description Dabate had given about how his lover had become pregnant.
Speaking to Dateline’s Andrea Canning (right) State police detective Brett Langevin (left) recalled the moment Dabate told him about having an affair during an interrogation of the homicide years before his conviction
Dabate, seen pictured at a hearing in 2017, claimed a masked intruder, who sounded like Vin Diesel had broken into their home, tied him up and shot his wife
‘There was cheating going on in the beginning,’ Dabate is heard saying in the police interview.
‘Was her getting pregnant unexpected,’ asked Jeff Payette another state police detective on the case.
‘It was unexpected,’ Dabate finally admits.
The chilling revelation comes eight months after Dabate was put behind bars for 65 years for fatally shooting his 39-year-old wife eight years ago and trying to blame a home invasion.
Judge Corinne Klatt sentenced the 46-year-old Ellington resident in state Superior Court in Rockville to 60 years for murder and five years for tampering with evidence.
She also sentenced him to one year, which will run concurrently, for making a false statement to police.
Noting the profound loss expressed by eight family members and friends of victim Connie Margotta Dabate Klatt said she believed ‘the world is truly a lesser place without Connie in it’ at the time of sentencing.
She described the murder as a brutal, calculating and incomprehensible act.
A Fitbit recorded Connie Dabate’s movements for nearly an hour after her husband claimed she was killed by an intruder, according to the warrant and trial testimony
In this Dec 30, 2015 photo, Dabate (left) is seen watching the casket bearing his late wife Connie as she is carried during her funeral outside St. Bernard Roman Catholic Church
After a 22-day trial, a jury on May 10 2022 found Dabate guilty of all charges. He’s seen here in April 2017 just two years after the murder of his wife
The sentence falls a year shy of the maximum family and friends had called for during the hearing.
Dabate proclaimed his innocence in a brief statement before the sentencing.
‘I’m here before you as an innocent man,’ he told the judge. He said his wife was killed by an ‘unknown individual’ during a home invasion.
‘I will never stop fighting for justice for my wife Connie, who I think about every single day.’
After a 22-day trial, a jury on May 10 found Dabate guilty of all charges. The trial was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the death of one of his lawyers, Hubert J. Santos.
Gedansky and state police said Dabate staged the killing, pretending an intruder did it, because his girlfriend was pregnant with his baby. She was due about eight weeks after Connie Dabate’s death, according to the warrant for his arrest.
The jury heard from more than 130 witnesses and saw more than 600 pieces of evidence.
Faced with having to prove there was no intruder, Gedansky built a case on electronic evidence.
The Dabate home sits partially hidden by trees in Ellington, Connecticut. Dabate shot his wife at this home two days before Christmas in 2015, while their two young sons were in school
Police surrounded the Ellington home at the time of the murder which carried a sentencing of 65 years for Dabate
That evidence came from the couple’s alarm system, cellphones, emails, Facebook posts and messages, and movements recorded by the victim’s Fitbit.
The Fitbit recorded Connie Dabate’s movements for nearly an hour after her husband claimed she was killed by an intruder, according to the warrant and trial testimony.
It was later learned that Dabate had been having an affair with a woman he knew since childhood. She’d become pregnant and wanted him to leave his wife.
Dabate’s defense attorney, Trent LaLima, questioned the reliability of the data from the Fitbit tracker, saying the devices were not designed with the accuracy needed for court testimony.
LaLima, told the jury that unknown DNA had been found in the Dabates’ home, including on the gun that killed Connie.
He also argued that a house cleaner said they may have seen a dark green figure move past the window around the time of the crime.
After the verdict, LaLima said he planned to appeal the conviction.
The May verdicts was announced on the second day of jury deliberations following a five-week trial.
Source: Read Full Article
