Dabate Murder Trial To Remain In Rockville Superior Court

VERNON/ELLINGTON, CT — The trial of Richard Dabate for the murder of his wife in Ellington will remain in Rockville Superior Court, a judge ruled on Monday.

Judge Julia Dewey denied a defense motion to change the venue, a clerk at the courthouse said.

Judge Dewey will also be presiding for the duration of the trial, records show.

She also ruled on Monday that some portions of recordings from interviews at Hartford Hospital are not permissable but that the majority of the recordings are, the clerk said. A motion to suppress them had been filed by the defense.

The murder trial was continued to Feb. 18, at which time pre-trial motions could begin, records show.

No formal timetable has been laid out for jury selection. Judge Dewey had set a March target for jury selection.

Richard Dabate, now 43, has been free on a $1 million bond since several family homes were leveraged for the bail money in April 2017,shorly after his arrest.

The case itself dates back to two days before Christmas in 2015, when 39-year-old Connie Dabate was found dead. The warrant by which Richard Dabate was charged with murder reads like a Hollywood script with an alleged home invasion gone haywire.

A 50-page warrant not only accuses Richard Dabate of having an affair with another woman, but getting the girlfriend pregnant and then scripting an involved story that included him being tied to a chair with an intruder "manhandling" him before shooting his wife.

State police did not agree with Dabate's account of what happened and, after what they called a "long and exhaustive" investigation, arrested Dabate several months later, according to a warrant.

See the full story on Richard Dabate's arrest, including details on the arrest warrant, here.