GUILTY FL - Megan Todt 42, Alek 13, Tyler 11, Zoe 4, & dog Breezy, murdered, Celebration, Jan 2020 #2

[Kecharaeq2]

Just catching up, wow I can't believe he took the stand. Oh wait I take that back I can believe he took the stand, he's so unbelievably arrogant and such a bald-faced liar. Thank god the jury saw through him!

I was worried there for a minute when they said they were deadlocked after like 10 minutes, what was that all about?

He's just SO gross. I was not able to watch his testimony I caught one snippet of it - i wonder if it's posted anywhere?

Police Interview:

Todt Testimony:

Sentencing:

 

[Niner]

Thank you all for the latest update! Good - on the guilty verdicts!

 

[Curious Me]

So happy and relieved with the verdict. Despicable acts. Hated seeing his lying, phony testimony.

 

[Curious Me]

Police Interview:
Todt Testimony:
Sentencing:

Just want to thank you for posting those videos like that. I appreciated being able to find them all in one place to catch up. What a relief the verdict!

 

[Kecharaeq2]

Just want to thank you for posting those videos like that. I appreciated being able to find them all in one place to catch up. What a relief the verdict!

No problem, after hearing his letter to his dad in the podcast, I just had to jump in and follow the case. I have the time, so it was easy enough to add the updates. It was a bit concerning when they came back and said they were deadlocked but at the same time, it’s hard to believe that the jury would buy all of his excuses and lies. They came back pretty quickly after that though and I loved the quote from the judge:

⁦‪@monivettec‬⁩

Judge Carsten sentences Anthony Todt to four consecutive life sentences. He calls him "a destroyer of worlds."
"You destroyed the world of your 4-year-old daughter," he says. "... The jury has unanimously determined you murdered each of them with premeditation."

Isn’t that the truth!
Moo

 

[Andieinsyd]

Very sad story and so difficult to understand. Rest In Peace family and Breezy.

Still unsure of his motive ( to save face?) just seems so flimsy compared to what he did. No apparent psychosis, no new life/partner in the wings. No massive aversive health issues in family. He pushed through killing each individual family member…because of debt and insurance fraud? So many lives impacted.

Thanks to everyone for the updates.

 

[IronyDetective]

Police Interview:

Todt Testimony:

Sentencing:

Yeesh. I really wanted to watch the testimony too but I had to stop 25 minutes in. The mannerisms, the eye rolling, the fake crying, the tangents. I was nervous what the Jury was going to do with this one, after the confession and then all the flip-flopping. Rest In Peace Megan, Alek, Tyler, Zoe and little Breezy.

 

[wyome]

Very sad story and so difficult to understand. Rest In Peace family and Breezy.

Still unsure of his motive ( to save face?) just seems so flimsy compared to what he did. No apparent psychosis, no new life/partner in the wings. No massive aversive health issues in family. He pushed through killing each individual family member…because of debt and insurance fraud? So many lives impacted.

Thanks to everyone for the updates.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the motive, too. If he killed them so that they would not discover that Daddy was a fraud and would not have to live with the shame of Daddy going to prison, and the embarrassment of Megan having to move out of the Disney home and go back to work...if it's really that simple, it's really hard to accept. I guess he just saw his family as an extension of himself and nothing more. Kind of cleaning house before going to the big house.

 

[meanmaryjean]

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the motive, too. If he killed them so that they would not discover that Daddy was a fraud and would not have to live with the shame of Daddy going to prison, and the embarrassment of Megan having to move out of the Disney home and go back to work...if it's really that simple, it's really hard to accept. I guess he just saw his family as an extension of himself and nothing more. Kind of cleaning house before going to the big house.

I think it IS that simple. Look at other family annihilators- John List for example. And I think Todt would have fled but hadn't gotten to that point yet.

 

[BrownRice]

I just heard of this case, so I"m really behind the eight ball on it. But I wondered when I heard he was 4 yrs old when his own mother was shot win a "for hire" murder case in front of the boy? Is this true, and if so, then is he mentally off? Seems only someone truly mentally off their rocker could do to his family what he did and then blame his dead wife for their childrens' deaths., absolving himself of all guilt. Such a strange case.

Yes! It’s true. I really recommend the podcast Looking for the Todt family. They interviewed his father who served time in prison for the attempted murder of Tonys mom. It’s crazy.

 

[molly1255]

Very sad story and so difficult to understand. Rest In Peace family and Breezy.

Still unsure of his motive ( to save face?) just seems so flimsy compared to what he did. No apparent psychosis, no new life/partner in the wings. No massive aversive health issues in family. He pushed through killing each individual family member…because of debt and insurance fraud? So many lives impacted.

Thanks to everyone for the updates.

I've also wondered about his motive, and whether it was to save face. He was totally broke and was facing some very serious federal charges for fraud, in addition to receiving an eviction notice. I have also wondered whether part of his motive may have been some misplaced anger. He was the sole breadwinner and perhaps he felt he "had" to resort to committing fraud to support them in the fashion they had grown used to being supported?

IDK. I also wonder how long in advance he planned all of this.

 

[molly1255]

Does it remind anyone of the decades old case of John List who killed 5 family members, his wife, all his teenage children and even his elderly mother to start a new life alone without the burden of all these people. Is this what this guy had in mind? John E. List, 82, Killer of 5 Family Members, Dies (Published 2008)

You might be right, IMO. John List went on to marry again and he also found a job. He lived his new life for years before he was caught. Just murdered his entire family and then walked away and seemingly never looked back. AT may have been arrogant enough to believe he could get away with the same thing.

What doesn't make sense to me is why he stayed in the family home, with the dead bodies of his wife, children and Breezy. Did he not think, at the very minimum, that the feds were coming for him very soon? In addition to that, he had an eviction notice. He had to know he was on borrowed time and that his gruesome acts would be discovered.

The fact that he lived like this for weeks is one of the hideous things in this case that I just can't wrap my head around.

JMO

 

[Trebor5591]

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the motive, too. If he killed them so that they would not discover that Daddy was a fraud and would not have to live with the shame of Daddy going to prison, and the embarrassment of Megan having to move out of the Disney home and go back to work...if it's really that simple, it's really hard to accept. I guess he just saw his family as an extension of himself and nothing more. Kind of cleaning house before going to the big house.

I think you are exactly right about his motive. He couldn't bear the realization that his family, which he probably ruled with an iron fist, would realize he was nothing but a common criminal. He couldn't take the shame of it and so he killed them all.

 

[Trebor5591]

You might be right, IMO. John List went on to marry again and he also found a job. He lived his new life for years before he was caught. Just murdered his entire family and then walked away and seemingly never looked back. AT may have been arrogant enough to believe he could get away with the same thing.

What doesn't make sense to me is why he stayed in the family home, with the dead bodies of his wife, children and Breezy. Did he not think, at the very minimum, that the feds were coming for him very soon? In addition to that, he had an eviction notice. He had to know he was on borrowed time and that his gruesome acts would be discovered.

The fact that he lived like this for weeks is one of the hideous things in this case that I just can't wrap my head around.

JMO

In my opinion, it was supposed to be a murder/suicide. But after killing his family, he found that he lacked the courage to kill himself. So he lingered in his own hell for several weeks, trying to work up the courage to kill himself, and making shallow attempts. When the police arrived to arrest him for fraud, weeks after the murders occurred, he was shaky and suffering a near-overdose of Benadryl, that he received medical attention for. That shows that he continued to "attempt suicide" weeks after he murdered his family. But in my opinion his suicide attempts were actually just gestures, and not for real. It shows him to be a really conflicted, messed up man. In my opinion, we may hear in the future that he finally succeeded in prison. MOO.

 

[Marysmith]

You might be right, IMO. John List went on to marry again and he also found a job. He lived his new life for years before he was caught. Just murdered his entire family and then walked away and seemingly never looked back. AT may have been arrogant enough to believe he could get away with the same thing.

What doesn't make sense to me is why he stayed in the family home, with the dead bodies of his wife, children and Breezy. Did he not think, at the very minimum, that the feds were coming for him very soon? In addition to that, he had an eviction notice. He had to know he was on borrowed time and that his gruesome acts would be discovered.

The fact that he lived like this for weeks is one of the hideous things in this case that I just can't wrap my head around.

JMO

It is hideous. Maybe it’s a reason we didn’t hear much from Megan’s family or friends. It’s just so awful and despicable.
This bothers me too though… what did he think was going to happen?! He had no funds to flee properly and obviously hadn’t really thought that tactic through.

 

[Kecharaeq2]

Yes! It’s true. I really recommend the podcast Looking for the Todt family. They interviewed his father who served time in prison for the attempted murder of Tonys mom. It’s crazy.

I’m really hoping that they go back and make one more episode to finish off the podcast.

 

[Marysmith]

Thank you everyone who recommended the podcast. It’s well done and good to hear from people who actually knew them before this horrible crime.

 

[BrownRice]

I’m really hoping that they go back and make one more episode to finish off the podcast.

Yes, me too. It needs to tie everything up with a nice bow.

 

[RickshawFan]

Something to keep in mind if you are reading about the police interview rather than listening to it, is the complete lack of emotion you hear as he’s going through the story with investigators. For most of it, it sounds like he could be reading a grocery list; then this happed… then that happened.
Then at a certain point, it’s like he realizes he should be showing emotions and he focuses on that, rather than talking. You see him either tearing up or faking so. The whole interview was just bizarre.
Moo

I agree. I could only listen to about 5 minutes of that confession because, as you say, he might as well have been reading a grocery list. Totally matter of fact. No emotion at all as he’s describing in detail the act of killing. I’ve never heard anything like this before.

 

[RickshawFan]

All, I know is that if I were a defendant and showed even 1/2 of the anger and hostility that he showed on the stand, my mom would probably ask for a recess so that she could pull me aside and tan my butt… and I’m 51 years old. I don’t want to sound like an old woman going into ‘well, when I was a kid’ stories but it’s true. There was a certain level of respect for LE and the courts that seems to have been lost. You can kind of tell by Todt’s reaction that misogyny and narcissism are both alive and well. The best thing the prosecution could have done was to put a female prosecutor up in front of him and let him hang himself. I loved her responses. Whenever he was starting to try to make a point, she’d simply say ‘okay’ and move on. No anger or combativeness on her part, and it seemed that by not engaging with him and frustrating him, she only made him angrier… and you get the impression that he insisted on taking the stand against counsel advice. It was pretty brilliant but the whole thing was bizarre.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Moo

The guy is extremely racist, to boot. IMO. That’s what I got out of his venomous tone with the prosecutor. Everything he answered was a sneer, as in, “who the heck do you think you are, asking me these stupid questions?” From experience, the extremity of his sneering doesn’t reflect misogyny (though for sure that’s in there), as much as racial bias. When I was listening, I suddenly conjured up the long and terrible history of how African Americans are spoken to. E.g. To Kill a Mockingbird, if I were to cite a movie representation of what I’m trying to explain.
Hearing people talk like that terrifies me; I always wonder what they’re about to do in the next few seconds, and to me, it always predicts violence.
Apologies if I seem to be explaining this with too soft a touch or awkwardly. Hearing people talk down like that makes me livid, but AFAIK ranting would not be compatible with TOS.