State and defense rest; jury to begin deliberations following Thursday's closing statements
-
Anthony Todt testifies in his murder-trial defense Wednesday at the Osceola County Courthouse. PHOTO/NINTH DISTRICT COURT
From Monday: Todt trial begins; prosecutor: "You're going to return a return a verdict of guilty"
From Tuesday: Jury views Anthony Todt's interview with detectives, detailing killings
Anthony Todt took the stand in the defense in his murder trial Wednesday, affirming than his wife, Megan, killed their children, then turned a knife on herself.
Todt was the only witness the defense called. Following about two hours of testimony and cross-examining, the defense rested its own case. The jury was dismissed shortly after lunch as counsel and Judge Keith Carsten discussed what charges would be considered for lesser charges and other jury instructions.
A rundown of Todt's testimony
Questioned by Defense Attorney Robert Wesley, Todt explained how Megan had replaced her family's Catholic religious values to take advice from a religious group promoting holistic medicine and spoke of the afterlife as an ultimate cure.
Todt said on a night in December, he drove to the family's condo, just minutes from their Reserve Place home in Celebration, to bring some items back. He maintained the children were dead when he came back home, that Megan killed them in order for them to reach the afterlife. At some point after, she began stabbing herself in suicide, he said.
"I come home and my kids were dead, the most horrible day in my life," Anthony said. "What made it worse is my wife died in front of me, also ... I was blindsided by a truck filled with dynamite."
On Tuesday, the jury and court were shown a video of Todt's interview with Osceola County Sheriff's detectives from Jan. 15, 2020, in which he gives a play-by-play account of how he killed each child, Megan and the family dog. On Wednesday, he said he doesn't remember anything from that day, and didn't remember what he said until reading the transcripts that June.
"I wanted to protect my wife, I took the blame for everything. I had no clue how my kids died," he said.
As the only living member of the family, he then was adamant that he "wanted to be with them," so he told of the 10 times he said he tried to take his own life — drinking copious amounts of Benadryl, buying a pellet gun (the only gun he could get without the state's three-day waiting period, he said) and shooting himself with it, and hanging himself from the bed. He tried stabbing himself with a knife but he "chickened out," he said.
At the end of the testimony, attorney Wesley asked, "Did you kill your family?"
The response was a quick, "No."
During cross-examination from Assistant State Attorney Danielle Pinelle, Todt shared his wife had many medical conditions, which made it difficult for her to do some everyday things, and at one point the family hired help in raising the children.
He gave his account of the night the children died — again, saying it was at Megan's hands. While it was happening, he said he had no working phone to call for help; his hadn't charged overnight and Megan would not tell him where in the house other phones were. He maintained that, as he searched for a phone, Megan began stabbing herself, saying she needed "to be with my kids."
"I felt like a failure," he said. "I condemned myself to death. I was ashamed."
He said he remembered nothing between a night after the deaths, when he said he fell down the stairs, and waking up in a jail cell. "I thought I was in purgatory, with the red floor and white sky (ceiling)," he said.
During a brief re-direct from Wesley, Todt re-affirmed this case was a murder-suicide of his wife's hands.
"My wife killed her kids, and killed herself," he said.
Timeline of the deaths clearer
During the testimony, some clarity came to what day the family members died. Forensic evidence collectors found a receipt for the pellet gun purchase dated Dec. 18, 2019; Todt said the family was already dead by then, and he purchased the gun to take his own life. The timeline of events presented during trial would lead to the killings occurring around Dec. 14.
Thursday's expected timeline
The jury is scheduled to return Thursday at 10 a.m. and, after anticipated closing arguments, would get the case to begin deliberations.
