A Connecticut man, who painted a horror story of a home intruder for police when they found his wife dead in their home, has now been convicted of her murder.
More than six years after Connie Dabate's death, there has finally been a conviction. Connie was married to Richard Dabate, who told police that just days before Christmas 2015, he arrived home to find an intruder in his home. After a struggle, he claimed the intruder tied him up and stabbed him before dragging Connie into their basement and shooting her in the head with a .357 magnum.
Police at the used canine units to find evidence of the home intruder. Instead, the dogs made a clear trail from the scene of the crime to Richard, who was getting medical attention from first responders. Police then began to take a deeper dive into the murder, with their attention on Richard.
Investigators discovered that Richard was having an affair with a high school ex and had gotten her pregnant. In the days before the murder, he was texting her about divorcing Connie and having a life together. Friends and family believe Connie was unaware of the affair.
"I knew it wasn't a perfect marriage," Connie's friend Allie Clarke told People. "But I thought they were minor issues, like disagreements over money. I never saw this coming."
Connie and Richard had been married for 13 years and shared two children. In interviews with police, Richard changed his story about his affair, offering few details and going back and forth on whether his girlfriend's pregnancy was deliberate.
Police finally had enough evidence to support an arrest when they received access to Connie's fitness tracker data. The Fitbit data showed Connie was alive and moving about for over an hour after Richard said she'd been shot and killed by the alleged intruder.
Richard was arrested on April 14, 2017. He was charged with felony counts of murder, evidence tampering, and giving false statements to police. He posted bail and was released shortly after his arrest.
A five-week trial kicked off in Rockville Superior Court in April 2022. Jurors were presented with 130 witnesses and over 600 pieces of evidence. Still, it only took them a few hours of deliberation to determine Richard was guilty of killing Connie. Judge Corinne Klatt then set bond for Richard at $5 million, though prosecutors argued for double that because of "not so veiled threats" Richard had made towards people he believed wronged him around the time of the trial.
The verdict was a relief to Connie's family, who have suffered through this whole ordeal while trying to preserve the memory of her life, not the details of her death.
"It's a weight lifted off my shoulders. But it's bittersweet," Connie's brother, Keith Margotta, told The Journal Inquirer.
"Everything kind of hits home. Everything that we went through, and tried to put behind us six years ago is right in front of us right now."
"This murderer has been convicted as he should be," Margotta family spokesperson Wayne Rioux said in a statement.
"Hopefully, Judge Klatt will take Connie's life sentence into consideration during the penalty phase and sentence this murderer to life behind bars, where he will no longer be able to cause the pain suffered by the Margotta family to anyone else."
Richard faces up to 25 years to life for Connie's murder. He is due back in court on September 16 for a pre-sentencing investigation. If he is released on bail before that, he will be subject to GPS monitoring, perhaps a stinging irony in light of evidence that helped convict him.
