After two days of jury selection with 150 potential members, a jury has been seated in the trial of the man accused of killing his family and their dog in their Celebration Florida home in January 2020. Anthony Todt’s trial is now set to begin Monday April 11 in Osceola County at 9 am. The process has been delayed a number of times, the last time after his lead defense attorney died.
The jury will be made up of eight women and six men after being selected and sworn in Wednesday afternoon. Todt is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of animal cruelty.
In 2020, Osceola County sheriff’s deputies and federal investigators were attempting to arrest Todt(46), a Connecticut physical therapist, for health care fraud when he was found at home with his dead wife Meghan Todt, 13-year-old son Alek Todt, 11-year-old son Tyler Todt, 4-year-old daughter Zoe Todt, and the family dog Breezy on Jan. 13, 2020.
A Florida judge granted a motion to partially exclude a confession that Todt made of killing his family and their dog at their home in Celebration after defense attorneys said detectives did not fully inform him of his Miranda rights before the interview. The incomplete reading of the Miranda warning took place when deputies first spoke to Todt at the hospital on Jan. 13, 2020. A detective involved did not have a Miranda card with him at the time but attempted to give the warnings by memory before questioning, according to court documents.
Following the first confession however, the detectives did interrogate Todt two more times and read him his full Miranda warning before Todt repeated his involvement in their deaths.
The judge in the case had already decided that the federal investigation cannot be brought up during the trial, and that Todt’s mental health history cannot be discussed as well. According to the judge, the trial is expected to last two weeks.