The estranged husband of a finance executive who was killed in 2009 appeared in a New York City court on Monday for the murder trial.
Roderick Covlin, 44, appeared stoic as he sat next to his attorneys in a Manhattan criminal court for his trial nearly two years after he was arrested and charged with the murder of his estranged wife, Shele Danishefsky Covlin.
She was found dead in her bathtub one day before she was planning to cut him out of her will on New Year’s Eve in 2009.
He is also accused of trying to set up a marriage between a Mexican man and their daughter, Anna, who was only 13 years old, prosecutors allege.
The victim’s sister, Eve Karstaedt, was pictured heading into court on Monday along with her brother Philip Danishefsky.
Roderick Covlin (left on Monday), 44, appeared stoic as he sat next to his attorneys in a Manhattan criminal court for his trial nearly two years after he was arrested and charged with the murder of his estranged wife, Shele Danishefsky Covlin (right)
His estranged wife was found dead in her bathtub one day before she was planning to cut Covlin (above in court on Monday) out of her will on New Year’s Eve in 2009
The father-of-two (above center in court on Monday) is also accused of trying to set up a marriage between a Mexican man and their daughter, Anna, who was only 13 years old, prosecutors allege
Covlin was arrested after his then-girlfriend went to the police and gave them the ammunition to indict him on the charges, after she said he ‘made statements implicating himself’ in the 2009 slaying.
He was arrested at the Scarsdale Metro North train station by three NYPD detectives and a representative from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
At the time of his arrest, he was headed to his weekly visit with their kids, who lived with his parents.
Covlin has been held without bond since his arrest in 2015 and faces 25 years to life in prison if he’s convicted.
The failed stock trader was less than two months away from inheriting half of his wife’s $4 million fortune until he was charged for her gruesome murder.
The victim’s sister, Eve Karstaedt (front left), was pictured heading into court on Monday along with her brother Philip Danishefsky (right)
Covlin (left) has been held without bond since his arrest in 2015 and faces 25 years to life in prison if he’s convicted. The failed stock trader was less than two months away from inheriting half of his wife’s (right) $4 million fortune until he was charged for her gruesome murder
The other half of the money was intended for the couple’s two children, Anna and Myles.
The money has been kept in a trust due to a wrongful-death suit filed against him in 2011.
According to the court papers about the agreement, Covlin could inherit the money if he was not found responsible for her death, if he was no longer a suspect or if six years passed after the 47-year-old mother’s death.
At the time of her murder, the couple was in the midst of a costly and nasty divorce when Anna, who was then-nine years old, found her mother submerged in the bathtub of their West 68th Street apartment in New York City.
At the time of her murder, the couple was in the midst of a costly and nasty divorce when Anna, who was then-nine years old, found her mother submerged in the bathtub of their West 68th Street apartment (file above) in New York City
Investigators initially thought she had slipped and fallen, striking her head. After her Orthodox Jewish family objected to an autopsy for religious reasons, the cause of her death was listed as undetermined.
Her body was later exhumed with her family’s permission, and medical examiners concluded in April 2010 that she had been strangled.
Shele reportedly told friends that her husband, who was aged 36 at the time, had threatened to hurt her, and that she was going to remove him from her will.
Covlin, who was an unemployed backgammon player at the time of her death, was living across the hall from his wife and their two kids. He reportedly still had a key to the apartment after his wife kicked him out, the New York Post reported.
All three had an order of protection issued against him.