GUILTY NY - Shele Danishefsky, 47, strangled, husband tried framing daughter, 9, Manhattan, 31 Dec 2009

cybervampira

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  • #1
Stockbroker tried framing daughter, 9, for wife’s murder, prosecutors say

A New York man attempted to frame his 9-year-old daughter for his wife's murder years after her death, prosecutors alleged on Monday.

In June 2013, Roderick Covlin, 45, posed as his daughter, then-12-year-old Anna, and wrote a note as a false confession in the 2009 death of her mother, Shele Danishefsky, the New York Post reported.
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“All of these years I have been so incredibly afraid and guilty about the night my mom died,” Covlin allegedly wrote.

“I lied. She didn’t just slip. That day we got into a fight about her dating … I got mad so I pushed her, but it couldn’t have been that hard! I didn’t mean to hurt her! I swear!," the note continued. "But she fell and i (sic) heard a terrible noise and the water started turning red and I tried to pull her head up but she remained still…"

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office claimed that Covlin wrote the note, which was addressed to his daughter's law guardian, to lead authorities elsewhere in their investigation.

Covlin is accused of strangling then-47-year-old Danishefsky to death in a bathtub inside her Upper West Side apartment on Dec. 31, 2009. The two were living in separate apartments in the same building during a bitter divorce when the couple's daughter found her in the bathroom.
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Danishefsky was scheduled to meet with a lawyer on Jan. 1. 2010 — the day after she died — to remove Covlin from her will. He stood to get half her roughly $4 million estate, with the rest going to their children.

With the only obvious sign of trauma a cut on the back of her head, investigators initially thought she had slipped and fallen. After her Orthodox Jewish family objected to an autopsy for religious reasons, the cause of her death was listed as undetermined.

Covlin lost out on the $5 million inheritance when his parents were granted custody of the couple's children. Prosecutors allege that Covlin concocted a bizarre plan to kill them via sugar laced with rat poison — but he never followed through.

In another plan, prosecutors said Covlin allegedly told his own daughter to accuse her grandfather of raping her — and even instructed her how to break her own hymen. Covlin then allegedly told his girlfriend he might kidnap the girl, then 14, and marry her off to someone in Mexico.

Jury selection in the court trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 14.
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Failed stock trader, 45, 'tried to frame daughter, 9, for wife's murder' | Daily Mail Online

Dad tried to blame 9-year-old daughter for wife’s murder: prosecutors
 
  • #2
I searched but couldn’t find any thread.

This is absolutely crazy!
 
  • #3
Jury selection will begin in Manhattan Supreme Court in the trial of Roderick Covlin, who was charged in November 2015 with strangling financial adviser Shele Danishefsky Covlin, the 47-year-old mother of their two kids, on New Year's Eve 2009.

She was found lifeless in the bathtub inside her Upper West Side apartment by their then 9-year-old daughter Anna. Covlin, 45, was living in a unit across the hall at the time.

Prosecutors say Covlin, an abusive, jobless womanizer whose life was consumed with competing in backgammon tournaments, had the motive and opportunity to snuff out the life of his spouse in the midst of their bitter divorce battle.

He allegedly hoped to get access to the money she left to her kids — and to what he believed would be a life insurance payout to him.

Covlin wrote to a girlfriend a week after the alleged murder that "(e)ven if my wife changed her will...insurance money (as long as hers didn't lapse...fingers crossed)...goes into a trust for me," according to court papers.

Danishefsky Covlin was terrified of her husband and told several people he would kill her, prosecutors wrote in court papers last year.

Trial of 'playboy' husband accused of murdering wife for her money nearly a decade ago starts this week - NY Daily News
 
  • #4
  • #5
Accused wife killer Rod Covlin told her UBS bank boss she was on drugs, jurors heard | Daily Mail Online

Jurors have been shown photos of the bathtub where a high-flying New York financier was found dead as her estranged husband is accused of murdering her in a bid to get her $5 million fortune.

[...]

The photos, which were taken by Shele's family two weeks after she was found dead, show the deep bathtub and a cabinet above it that had been partially torn from its hinges.

There is no blood present in the bathtub in the photos.

It was initially believed that Shele slipped and fell in the bathtub after her estranged husband told police he thought she had ripped the cabinet in a bid to stop herself from falling.

Prosecutors have previously told the jury that Covlin broke Shele's neck and left her bloodied body in the bathtub. The couple's nine-year-old daughter was the one to find her body.

[...]

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  • #6
Wow! What a piece of work this guy is...I hope they throw the book at him
 
  • #7
Video at link.

Video shows millionaire financier just hours before being allegedly murdered by husband Rod Covlin | Daily Mail Online

Prosecutors on Wednesday released video depicting the last time USB financial whiz Shele Danishefsky was seen alive as part of the evidence in the murder trial of her husband, broker turned backgammon pro Rod Covlin.

The surveillance video was taken at 155 W. 68th St. in Manhattan, the Upper West Side building where Shele and her estranged husband both lived on Dec. 30, 2009.

The videos depict Shele leaving the building in the morning through the front lobby and returning during the evening, entering a service door on the 69th Street side of the building.

The later video also captures Shele striding through the ground-floor corridor of the building as she heads to the elevators to take her to her fifth floor apartment.

It was in that apartment the following morning, December 31, where the couple’s daughter Anna, then 9, found Shele face-down in the bathtub, the victim of an apparent drowning.

[...]

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In testimony Wednesday afternoon, the Covlin children’s babysitter, Hyacinth Reid, gave an account of the family tensions in the months leading up to Shele’s death.

Reid told the jury that Shele had related to her that Covlin threatened to “move her permanently” should she try to take the children from him.

The exchange came two days after Covlin blew up at Shele during a Mothers Day 2009 visit with his parents during which Covlin felt Shele had slighted his mother, according to earlier testimony in the trial.

[...]
 
  • #8
Horror photo shows dead millionaire financier 'killed' by husband Rod Covlin next to bloody bathtub | Daily Mail Online

A retired FDNY lieutenant on Wednesday told jurors in the murder trial of broker turned backgammon pro Rod Covlin that rigor mortis had set in to the body of UBS financial guru Shele Danishefsky by the time first responders arrived at her apartment on New York's Upper West Side.

Retired Lt. Matthew Casey testified he was the first to enter Shele's bathroom to find her body on the floor with Covlin kneeling on the floor between her and the bathtub.

He said Covlin asked him to 'do something'.

But, Casey said, there was nothing to do since rigor mortis had set in.

'She was dead for quite a while,' Casey said.

Shele's family sat stoically in the front row of the courtroom as attorneys displayed the photos, which depicted Shele face up on the floor with her head sitting a puddle of blood-tinged water.

[...]
 
  • #9
  • #10
A Manhattan juror suddenly fainted in his seat Wednesday as graphic autopsy photos of victim Shele Danishefsky were displayed on a large monitor at the murder trial of her estranged husband.

The judge halted the proceeding, and the sickened juror was removed from the courtroom for treatment. The jurist reassured the gallery that the man had regained his wits but dismissed him and swapped in an alternate.

As the juror left court he said that he had in part fainted in reaction to the gruesome photographs — which included an image of Danishefsky’s neck peeled back to expose underlying muscles.

The Judge denied defense lawyer Robert Gottlieb’s motion for a mistrial over the incident.

https://nypost.com/2019/02/27/juror-faints-during-gruesome-testimony-in-wife-murder-trial/
 
  • #11
I can't believe i haven't heard anything about this case until now. No live stream huh?
 
  • #12
Rod Covlin found GUILTY of killing financier wife Shele Danishefsky to get her $5.3 million fortune | Daily Mail Online
  • Covlin, 45, was found guilty Wednesday of murdering his estranged millionaire wife Shele Danishefsky in New York on December 31, 2009
  • Jurors at Manhattan Supreme Court took two days to decide he strangled Danishefsky, 47, and staged the scene to look as though she slipped in the tub, struck her head and drowned in the bathwater of her Upper West Side apartment
  • Shortly after Shele's death, Covlin's parents David and Carol were granted custody of his children Anna, 9 and Myles, then two, barring him access to their $5.3 million inheritance
  • He faces 25 years to life after jurors were convinced by evidence showing Shele had been strangled, had threatened her, and his behavior after her death including telling a girlfriend he was hiring hitmen to kill Shele's father
  • Covlin attempted to frame Anna three years after Shele's death by forging a 'confession' email where she detailed killing her mom by accident
  • He also planned, when Anna was 14, to have her kidnapped and married in Mexico to an 18-year-old he would employ. He believed this would technically make her an adult and allow him access to her share of her mom's fortune
  • Covlin also hatched a plan to have Anna give her grandparents rat poison-laced sugar in their tea after he decided killing them himself was too hard
  • He had earlier looked at murdering his parents during Superstorm Sandy, burning down their house and rescuing the children
  • Martial arts expert Covlin planned on dressing in disguise and, when his mom answered the door of her home, deliver a deadly blow to her throat
  • Court papers revealed Covlin had even tried to coach Anna into making fake allegations her grandfather David had sexually abused her
  • Covlin's lawyer Robert Gottlieb said his 'stunned' client would appeal verdict
[...]
 
  • #13
  • #14
Rod Covlin found GUILTY of killing financier wife Shele Danishefsky to get her $5.3 million fortune | Daily Mail Online
  • Covlin, 45, was found guilty Wednesday of murdering his estranged millionaire wife Shele Danishefsky in New York on December 31, 2009
  • Jurors at Manhattan Supreme Court took two days to decide he strangled Danishefsky, 47, and staged the scene to look as though she slipped in the tub, struck her head and drowned in the bathwater of her Upper West Side apartment
  • Shortly after Shele's death, Covlin's parents David and Carol were granted custody of his children Anna, 9 and Myles, then two, barring him access to their $5.3 million inheritance
  • He faces 25 years to life after jurors were convinced by evidence showing Shele had been strangled, had threatened her, and his behavior after her death including telling a girlfriend he was hiring hitmen to kill Shele's father
  • Covlin attempted to frame Anna three years after Shele's death by forging a 'confession' email where she detailed killing her mom by accident
  • He also planned, when Anna was 14, to have her kidnapped and married in Mexico to an 18-year-old he would employ. He believed this would technically make her an adult and allow him access to her share of her mom's fortune
  • Covlin also hatched a plan to have Anna give her grandparents rat poison-laced sugar in their tea after he decided killing them himself was too hard
  • He had earlier looked at murdering his parents during Superstorm Sandy, burning down their house and rescuing the children
  • Martial arts expert Covlin planned on dressing in disguise and, when his mom answered the door of her home, deliver a deadly blow to her throat
  • Court papers revealed Covlin had even tried to coach Anna into making fake allegations her grandfather David had sexually abused her
  • Covlin's lawyer Robert Gottlieb said his 'stunned' client would appeal verdict
[...]
OMG. What an evil psychopath.
 
  • #15
  • #16
Roderick Covlin Now: An Update on His Life & Jail Sentence | Heavy.com

A month after his second-degree murder conviction in March 2019, Covlin was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison, the maximum sentence. He is serving his sentence in Green Haven Correctional Facility, where he was admitted on May 6, 2019. State records show that the earliest he is eligible for parole is in May 2040.

Green Haven is a maximum-security prison for male inmates located in Stormville, NY. According to a June 11 report from the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, the facility was affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, with 55 incarcerated individuals testing positive for the virus. Of that number, 51 have recovered and two inmates have died.
 
  • #17
Just finished a book on this case called At Any Cost (At Any Cost | Rebecca Rosenberg | Macmillan). What a monster and pig!
I want to feel so sorry for his kids, but it’s hard since they still support him, especially Anna and the things he tried to get her to do. Hopefully the son will wise up one day. I don’t think there’s any hope for the daughter to do that.
I don’t feel sorry for his parents, since they are old enough to know better and he started physically and emotionally abusing them too. They kicked him out but continued to financially support him & still think he’s innocent. I know they think the ex-girlfriend is lying but don’t they remember the physical abuse? And they’ve seen the letter he wrote about charging his father with rape. How do you get past that? I would’ve been done with him long ago.
I feel that poor Shele can’t even Rest In Peace b/c of her kids. She did her best to get away.
 
  • #18
Just finished a book on this case called At Any Cost (At Any Cost | Rebecca Rosenberg | Macmillan). What a monster and pig!
I want to feel so sorry for his kids, but it’s hard since they still support him, especially Anna and the things he tried to get her to do. Hopefully the son will wise up one day. I don’t think there’s any hope for the daughter to do that.
I don’t feel sorry for his parents, since they are old enough to know better and he started physically and emotionally abusing them too. They kicked him out but continued to financially support him & still think he’s innocent. I know they think the ex-girlfriend is lying but don’t they remember the physical abuse? And they’ve seen the letter he wrote about charging his father with rape. How do you get past that? I would’ve been done with him long ago.
I feel that poor Shele can’t even Rest In Peace b/c of her kids. She did her best to get away.
It was her father that he tried to get Anna to say that he had raped her, wasn't it?
 
  • #19
It was her father that he tried to get Anna to say that he had raped her, wasn't it?
Yes, the father Rod wanted Anna to claim the grandfather/his father Dave raped her. His plan was pretty in-depth too. Dad was even instructing her to break her hymen w/a cucumber to make it believable. So wrong. So gross.
 
  • #20

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