- 2 days ago
Shanti Cooper-Tronnes was found dead in the bathtub a week before her home was selected to be on a renovation show. Her husband, David, claimed it was an accident, but detectives uncovered a tale of lies and deception
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00:00What we first heard was that there was a deceased female.
00:14This is David Shanti.
00:17Who is it that's not breathing?
00:19My wife, my wife, Shanti.
00:22Shanti and Dave had a very passionate and volatile relationship.
00:27The house where Shanti and David lived, it literally was tore down to studs.
00:33You could easily describe the house as a money pit.
00:36They were going to start filming the zombie house flippers show.
00:39David Tronis had looked at as sort of a lifeline to get them out of this situation with the house.
00:44Made a couple of plates.
00:46No, because now we've got the added stress of the renovation.
00:48Of course, what she wanted so bad.
00:51It made her happy.
00:51It made her happy.
00:52There was a cell phone video and you could tell that it was just very cold between them in that video.
01:00She had at least five blows to her head.
01:03There were marks around her neck.
01:05What did you think happened?
01:07Well, either she slept or she fell or she blacked out.
01:14I believe that the cause of her death is a combination of the strangulation and the blunt head trauma.
01:20This is a tragedy.
01:22That little boy sitting in the courtroom, lost his mother sitting in a drop trap.
01:27It's like a hole in my heart that I can't fill or fix.
01:30She was the best mom I could ever ask for.
01:32She was the best mom I could ever ask for.
02:02Okay, listen to me.
02:04I need help.
02:05And who is it?
02:07This is David Trottas.
02:09Okay, your name is David.
02:10Okay, who is it that's not breathing?
02:13My wife and I are Shanty.
02:16David and Shanty Trottas had been married only a year when tragedy struck.
02:21According to David, they had a great relationship.
02:24They were very in love and had big plans for the future.
02:28My name is Barbara Sharp, and I was a homicide detective on this case for the Orlando Police Department.
02:34What we first heard was that there was a deceased female and that it was unknown cause.
02:41She had maybe slipped and fell in the bathtub.
02:46Tell me exactly what happened.
02:48I came all over. Oh, my God, I had to drive.
02:52Okay, what happened?
02:53I found her in the shower.
02:56And she passed away?
02:57Okay, can you get her out of the shower?
03:05I did. I pulled her out.
03:07Okay, is she laying flat on her back?
03:11Yes, yes, yes.
03:13Okay, and you don't know what happened or when anything happened?
03:17No.
03:18Okay.
03:19Yes, but...
03:21She is not breathing. She is not breathing.
03:25Take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. I have help responding to your emergency, okay?
03:37We found out when we got there that that was not a slip and fall in the bathtub. Her injuries were far too severe for something like that.
03:44She had abrasions on her legs that were obviously fresh. Her eye was swollen shut, black and blue. Pretty significant injuries.
03:56Within hours, David Tronis was brought to police headquarters to give a better description of what had happened to Shanti.
04:03All right, I'll just have you. Come on in here for right now.
04:10Just have a seat. I don't know how long they will be, okay?
04:14They came down voluntarily for an interview.
04:16I'm Detective Teresa Sprague. I work for the Orlando Police Department and I was the lead investigator on the murder of Shanti Coopatronis.
04:23He was very cooperative with talking to us and allowing our crime scene investigators to photograph him and obtain his clothes.
04:32I'm Detective Sprague. Can I get your first name? First name is David.
04:39David? Okay. First of all, on behalf of the Orlando Police Department, we want to say how sorry we are for your loss, David, and also for everything that you're going through.
04:54I know this is very traumatic for you, okay? And it's just a terrible, terrible thing.
05:02I think everyone's a suspect in the beginning of a homicide. But certainly you start with the people closest to the victim.
05:08My understanding is that you've been very cooperative. We just need to, obviously we need you. We've got to figure this out together, okay?
05:15Of course.
05:18Take a minute, okay?
05:22I know this is super tough.
05:23I know this is so good.
05:25It's so bad. I know this is so good we can.
05:37I've never been more love. We were so happy.
05:40Shanti and David lived in Delaney Park, which is a historic neighborhood.
05:44The homes there are 100-plus years old, a very quiet community where families and professionals live.
05:53I am Ryan Vecchio. I was the initial lead homicide prosecutor assigned to the case.
05:59The house where Shanti and David lived really epitomizes their relationship.
06:06It was purchased in cash, but David refused to put the house in Shanti's name.
06:11David called himself his own general contractor, and through David's desire to remodel the home, it literally was tore down to studs.
06:25Hi, family.
06:26During the construction, David shot this video inside the home with Shanti and her son from a previous marriage, 8-year-old Jackson.
06:34Love you, Dana.
06:35Love you so much, sweetheart.
06:36Bye, Shanti.
06:38Bye, Shanti.
06:39Love you, boy.
06:39Love you guys so much.
06:42Are you recording me?
06:43Yes.
06:44What do you like to say?
06:47Have a good day, guys, and I will record tomorrow.
06:50Love you so much, Jax.
06:52Have a good night tonight, okay?
06:53As the construction dragged on for more than a year, Shanti and her son had to move into an apartment over the garage, where her body would later be found.
07:04And then it's just a full open.
07:06It's about 800 square feet at the top of the stairs.
07:09David spent all of his money on this house, but relied upon Shanti to spend over $200,000 to improve it.
07:16So you could easily describe the house as a money pit.
07:20You're not under arrest, okay?
07:22I want you to understand that, okay?
07:24But we do need to raise you your rights, because you are in a police department with two detectives in this room.
07:31You have the right to remain silent.
07:32Do you understand that?
07:33I'm sorry?
07:36Yes.
07:36I am.
07:37Yes.
07:38Okay.
07:39The detectives began with a focus on the home renovation.
07:42It was just an older, Victorian-style home, and Shanti wanted to completely open up a concert, totally, and, you know, completely do it.
07:57We weren't sure what we were going to do, but as we got into it, we found more and more issues.
08:03We had to, you know, kind of, our goal right now is to finish that house as soon as possible.
08:09Have you ever broken up?
08:11We had a couple fights.
08:13And has that happened since you moved to where you are now, because now we've got the added stress of the renovation?
08:19No, we're pretty, we love it.
08:21We love, we love the, um, we love what we're doing to the house.
08:28We love the vision that we have of the house.
08:30It's, it's too, I mean...
08:35Oh, she was, of course, what she wanted so bad.
08:39It made me happy, it made me happy.
08:41It was a thing that we did too bad.
08:43She was frustrated with it, um, in the, you know, being that she had to stay in that apartment for so long.
08:50My name is Dana Duran, and I am one of her best friends.
08:54Um, sorry, I just get a little bit teary a little bit.
08:57She was super, super smart.
09:00She was an awesome mom.
09:01Uh, she was doted on him.
09:04And everything that she could do or give him, she gave to him.
09:08She was very outspoken, very strong, uh, very determined.
09:12If she didn't like something, she certainly would tell you.
09:15He was a little different.
09:16Just, he didn't open up a lot, and he kept to himself.
09:19She wanted to include him.
09:21She, she wanted to, you know, you want to make a relationship work.
09:24She wanted to make that marriage work, but it was a little tough.
09:28The Tronuses had just agreed to let their home be used on a home improvement program,
09:33Zombie House Flipping, working with the program host, Keith Horry,
09:37in hopes it would help cover some of the escalating costs.
09:40Um, Keith had given us the assurance on Sunday that we were officially on the show.
09:49We were super, super, super excited.
09:51He told you this this past Sunday?
09:53Yeah.
09:53So they hadn't started filming you?
09:55No, this is a long process.
09:57This is a long, long process.
09:59Um, it just seemed like everything was coming together,
10:01and she's, has been anxious to get the house done,
10:05but she also wanted to be on the show really bad and do it all.
10:11Um, so it just felt like the first time in a while that all the stars had really aligned.
10:16It was great.
10:17We were really, really, really happy.
10:19That was not how everyone remembered it.
10:21So we were with Mr. Tronus for several hours,
10:30and most of that was just nailing down the timeline of events leading up to Shanti's death.
10:38So you wake up Tuesday morning.
10:41What time did you get up?
10:42Um, I woke up before 7.
10:44She came down after 7 o'clock, probably almost 7.30.
10:50She, she hadn't been awake very long.
10:53When she had a cigarette, she said she wasn't feeling very well.
10:58His initial story was that he had last seen her in the morning,
11:03didn't really check on her.
11:05I'm William Jay, and I'm a homicide prosecutor in Orlando, Florida.
11:09He went about his own business.
11:11He took the dogs to the park and maybe ran some errands and went for a walk, perhaps gardened.
11:16And then towards the middle of the afternoon, he said he heard the water running and she wasn't responding.
11:22And that he went in and saw her face down in the bathtub.
11:25She's submerged partially, but she's also partially not submerged.
11:31And all of her legs is kind of sticking up and out a little bit.
11:36And it's just extremely awful and it doesn't look natural.
11:41Obviously, she fell or something happened.
11:44Shanti's arm was up in a 90-degree angle, fixed, so that rigor had began.
12:14The medical examiner said the sign of rigor mortis indicated Shanti had been dead for most of the day.
12:21And it was actually a very important clue to investigators and myself as the lead prosecutor.
12:27As best as we could determine, the death had to likely have happened near midnight or the first few hours of the morning.
12:38She had at least five blows to her head.
12:55She suffered an injury where she had fractures in the backs of her eye orbits.
13:01And there were marks around her neck that were consistent with a hand.
13:05What do you think is her cause of death?
13:13Well, either she slipped or she fell.
13:18Or she blacked out or something caused her to collapse.
13:29So you think when she slipped, what would have happened to her physical?
13:35When she slipped, how would the injuries have been caused?
13:39She would have had to have struck her head.
13:41If she was outside the tub on the edge of the tub or the tile wall or the tub spout.
13:56What do you think would have caused the significant injuries as to her eyes?
14:06I don't know.
14:08Okay.
14:09Did you ever have your hand on her neck where you would have had to have squeezed it for any reason?
14:17Possibly when we were, when I was trying to pull her out of the tub.
14:21So prior to her being deceased, do you have, have any reason to have your hand around her, hands around her throat?
14:33No, absolutely not.
14:34That did not happen?
14:35Absolutely not.
14:37Okay.
14:37What do you think caused, or what do you think the injury is to her eye, the discoloration in this woman?
14:47I, I, I don't know.
14:50I don't know.
14:50His response was always, I don't know what you want me to say.
14:54Just the truth.
14:55Mr. Tronis, just the truth.
14:57What happened between the two of you Monday night going into Tuesday morning where only the two of you were together?
15:05If inconsistencies start to emerge, then that's when it can turn into an interrogation.
15:11Shanti did not fall and get those injuries.
15:15Okay.
15:15Without question.
15:17Okay.
15:17They're much more significant than that.
15:20And, um, it's inconsistent with her, uh, injuries hitting and striking anything.
15:29That is just inaccurate.
15:32Okay.
15:32Her injuries are very severe.
15:40Okay.
15:40So the trouble I'm having with your story is you're there.
15:49Well, first of all, you're not really sharing the same residence.
15:52You're kind of living downstairs.
15:53She's living upstairs with her son.
15:56Uh, but her son's not there.
15:57So even when her son's not there, you're still not sleeping together.
16:00You're not in the same residence.
16:02So during, uh, spending a lot of time apart, it seems.
16:08The issue I'm having with is I, I absolutely think that she was deceased before you left to go to the park.
16:19And I think whatever happened to her happened before you went to the park.
16:23Now, if there's an explanation, I want to hear it.
16:27I told you everything.
16:30But you've left out something, David, because this woman has significant injuries.
16:40So I need you to explain to me and Detective McClellan what happened this morning before you left to take the dogs.
16:49It was exactly as I stated.
16:52It wasn't, I haven't left one thing.
16:55God.
16:57Okay.
16:58Did you two argue?
17:00No, absolutely not.
17:01Did you fight?
17:03Absolutely not.
17:05Okay.
17:06Did you harm Shanti in any way?
17:10Absolutely not.
17:11Did you choke her?
17:13Absolutely not.
17:13Did you strangle her?
17:15Without question, no.
17:16Would you mind showing me your chest in her?
17:19Sure.
17:19I don't need to see anything else.
17:20Just your chest, back, and arms.
17:23Sure.
17:24David's interview really became a war of wills.
17:28Between David, who had his story and was going to hold to his story, versus the law enforcement detectives, who were using a lot of tactics to try to get a confession or get admissions.
17:42There were no signs of injuries on his body.
17:44I can assure you there's nothing about the house or anything.
17:52The types of fights that we've found have been so minor on this.
18:00Do we get irritated with each other?
18:03Are we both busy?
18:04Of course.
18:06We sometimes take things out of each other.
18:07Sometimes people who have never, ever, ever harmed a flag, never been arrested, have never had any problems, just snap.
18:17Things happen.
18:18Things happen, especially between couples.
18:21It's not, it's not, doesn't make you a bad guy.
18:24I'm sick to God about what happened, but nothing happened today because there was no animosity between us whatsoever.
18:31No one's ever going to accuse us of not giving you ample opportunity to explain your side of what happened.
19:01David, you're going to get one shot at telling the truth, and you're really, really making this difficult on us, and it's not going to go well for you.
19:15Detective Barbara Sharp moved to the front seat as they tried to turn up the heat on David Tronis.
19:21You've got to tell us what happened between the two of them, because this is not looking good for you.
19:26Her injuries are way too severe.
19:27I don't have any, I don't have any explanation for her, the severity of her injuries.
19:33There's nothing, there's nothing I can do to explain that without making something up, which is not the right thing to do.
19:43You strangled her.
19:44That's what the medical examiner's going to tell us.
19:58What did she do that made you so mad?
20:04Nothing.
20:05You just strangled her for no reason?
20:07You're not a cold-blooded killer, David, that didn't happen.
20:10You're not a cold-blooded killer.
20:12And I don't think you're a bad guy, I don't think you're a cold-blooded killer, but I do think you killed your wife, and I don't think you meant to do it.
20:19I think David needs to tell the truth, and David's going to feel better about that, and then we're going to deal with what that truth is.
20:26And we're going to be able to figure it out together, okay?
20:30We can figure it out together, but I've got to know the truth, David.
20:33Just get it off your chest.
20:34The two sides went at it for hours and hours.
20:39David didn't break and confess or admit to having committed the crime.
20:44I don't know what happened when I was like that.
20:46You fake cried for about seven or eight hours, say?
20:50Not one tear came out of your eyes.
20:52Not one.
20:53Not one.
20:54Not on the scene with the officers, not in this room.
20:56So we're just going to prove you're full of s*** and solve this case.
21:02And I'm glad you think that's funny.
21:04I'm glad you think that's funny.
21:10I'm glad you think that's funny.
21:12I'm fine.
21:13Okay?
21:14Because every time you smirk and smile...
21:15Smirk and smile.
21:17Okay?
21:17And then a final effort to get a confession as Detective Sharp pulled out a photo with Shanti and her eight-year-old son, Jackson.
21:26He's motherless.
21:30Motherless.
21:31He's an eight.
21:33Look at him.
21:37Look at Jackson and how happy he was.
21:39Now think about what you took away from her.
21:41What's from him?
21:42Now what do I tell Jackson?
21:44David's a monster.
21:46I think he was very close to wanting to say it, and he just could not bring himself to say it.
21:52Look at his picture, David.
21:53How do you explain this?
22:00What are you going to tell Jackson?
22:04If you're going to sleep, I'm going to start riding.
22:06Since he had not made an admission or a confession, he was not detained and he was free to go.
22:25We did try to get him to come back for a polygraph exam at a later date, and that was denied.
22:33So detectives did initially look for other potential suspects.
22:39Shanti was previously divorced.
22:42Law enforcement immediately reached out to the ex-husband and determined that he had a full alibi.
22:50There was a report that perhaps there was a transient man who would go through the neighborhood, and maybe he was the one who did it.
23:00They interviewed him.
23:02He was very open, and they were able to almost immediately exclude him as a suspect.
23:11And when detectives talked to the host and producer of the Home Improvement Show, Keith Ori,
23:15they learned Shanti was actually resisting being part of the program.
23:20There was a very contentious meeting a few days before her death.
23:24Shanti was absolutely at the end of her patience about this home,
23:30and when she was demanded to show that she would invest the $200,000 plus to complete the remodeling,
23:38she had had enough.
23:39She stormed out of that meeting.
23:41The investigation also turned up evidence that David Tronis had led a double life.
23:47We found out that David had a membership at a local gym that was for gay men.
23:56We did also find a witness at Club Orlando that was able to tell us that he had observed sexual relations with men with Mr. Tronis.
24:05So to find out all this other life that he lived is crazy.
24:13It wasn't the renovations.
24:14It wasn't money.
24:16I mean, I think it was ultimately she confronted him.
24:20I bet she threatened she would divorce him.
24:22She found out what was going on, was probably ashamed and shocked herself that he was living the second life.
24:30In the end, a diamond earring found on Shanti's night table gave detectives a working theory of what had happened.
24:40So when she was getting ready to take out this earring, and more than likely sitting on the edge of her bed during this time,
24:47she would have taken out this earring and placed it next to the other one.
24:50So if the blow came at that time, that would explain why she wasn't able to see it coming and wasn't able to defend herself.
24:58After four months of investigation, David Tronis was arrested at his mother's home, charged with first-degree murder.
25:06We were completely confident that we had the evidence.
25:11We did not expect, though, that one of the biggest pieces of evidence would be discovered in the mom's house that night.
25:18Detectives had been unable to find Shanti's wedding ring missing from her finger on the day she was killed.
25:26Every picture that we saw of Shanti, she had her ring on, was beautiful, a gorgeous ring.
25:32It certainly should have been on her hand the day of her murder.
25:36And it was only during the search of David's room, 127 days later, that they found it, stashed in a suitcase.
25:44And I get a text message from Detective Sharp, and I knew they were executing the search warrant.
25:51And the text message read, got him.
25:55And it was a picture of Shanti's wedding ring.
25:58We think after he killed his wife, he pried that ring off her cold, dead finger because he paid for it.
26:08There is a dark, hot place deep inside the earth for people like that.
26:21Ladies and gentlemen, you have been selected and sworn as a jury to try the case of the state of Florida versus David Tronis.
26:30This is a criminal case.
26:31Mr. Tronis is charged with first-degree murder.
26:34There was a delay in getting to trial for almost five years.
26:39Mr. Tronis was claiming some sort of mental incapacitation.
26:44He had been seen by many medical professionals, and he was found competent to stand trial.
26:49And by then, there was huge interest on social media.
26:52Well, David Tronis.
26:53This guy named David Tronis.
26:55David Tronis.
26:56David Tronis.
26:57David Tronis.
26:58He has avoided having a trial all these years because of the claim that he was not mentally competent,
27:02but a judge finally said, yes, you are.
27:04Looks like we have another case of a down-low man taking the life of his wife.
27:09Her life was tragically stolen from her by her evil, monster, idiot of a husband, David Tronis.
27:19And in the courtroom every day, Shanti's son, Jackson, who is now 13 years old and insisted on being there.
27:26I wanted to go because I feel like it might help if I went or also I wanted to be more a part of trying to give my mom justice more than I already was.
27:36I got a picture of my mom at every single hearing as a reminder that even though she's not here physically, she's always here mentally.
27:44It's just more than just a name on a paper and more than just a news headline.
27:48It's more than just that.
27:50Thanks, Satan, I'm the same.
27:52Thank you, Your Honor.
27:53For it.
27:54David Tronis killed Shanti Cooper.
27:57He did it with a premeditated design.
28:00He intended to do it.
28:01He did it.
28:02And he's guilty of first-degree murder.
28:04This was a sustained attack, not just like a moment of striking somebody once.
28:10You know, that's why we thought it was a first-degree premeditated murder as opposed to, you know, a manslaughter or something like that.
28:15As a motive, the prosecutors laid out the tensions between the couple over the zombie house flipping program when Shanti didn't want to be part of it anymore.
28:25This home show, this zombie house flipping, was the lifeline out of this mess with this house that they've, you know, they've dug themselves into.
28:34And she, at that point, a week before her murder, was not into it.
28:39You know, we don't have to prove motive, but I think juries like to know why something happens.
28:45There was a cell phone video, and you could tell that it was just very cold between them in that video.
28:52And the prosecutor closed his opening by telling the jury about what happened with Shanti's wedding ring.
28:59The evidence will show that he pried that engagement ring off his wife's lifeless body.
29:06Knew he did it, told the police that the ring should still be on her hand, all the while, months later, he had it.
29:13When you've heard all the evidence in this case, you will conclude that the only reasonable explanation for Shanti's death is sitting right there.
29:26Thank you, state.
29:27Defense?
29:28Honor, defense is going to reserve opening statement to Elias' case.
29:32The prosecution began by playing the 9-1-1 call that David Trotus made.
29:44What was chilling to me and immediately obvious in David's 9-1-1 call is that he is inconsolable, can't get two words out in a row.
29:56However, a few minutes into the call, he becomes perfectly coherent, perfectly calm.
30:06The blue dumpster, big blue dumpster in the driveway, they have to turn in.
30:12Then he goes back into the hysteria as law enforcement arrives.
30:19Baby, baby.
30:21Red flags went up immediately when law enforcement responded.
30:26This was not what it was being purported to be.
30:31Your Honor, at this time, the state calls Keith Horry.
30:35What do you do for work?
30:37I am a real estate investor and I appear on the television series Zombie House Flipping.
30:44Keith Horry testified about a meeting that they had, you know, a week before the murder happened in this case and how Shanti was, you know, didn't even want to come down and meet with him.
30:58He said, we really need Shanti to come down and she had come down and she was, by my estimation, unhappy to be there.
31:09And it was in a sort of a tense state.
31:14What way, if you could explain to the jury?
31:16She was, she was tense or even intense, appeared to be, you know, mildly upset, annoyed, frustrated at something.
31:30Watching it all was Shanti's son Jackson seated next to his father, Jim Cooper.
31:34And although he looked away during several presentations, he heard everything that was said that happened.
31:42And he knows we are going to get justice for her and for you.
31:51State, you may call your next witness.
31:54Gary Utz.
31:55With the defense claiming Shanti's death was an accident, the testimony of the medical examiner, Gary Utz, was a key part of the prosecution's case.
32:05Were you able to come to a conclusion about the cause of her death?
32:08I believe that her, the cause of her death is a combination of the strangulation and the blunt head trauma.
32:15Were you able to decide upon a manner of Shanti Petronas' death?
32:20Yes.
32:20In this case, the manner of death is homicide.
32:23And why is that?
32:25Because I don't believe that there's any way that this individual would have sustained those injuries as a result of an accident.
32:31No other questions.
32:33Thank you, State.
32:34And it's cross.
32:36You've testified it's your job to determine the cause and the manner of death, correct?
32:41That's correct.
32:41Not the who?
32:42No, that's true.
32:44You indicated that you found it to be blunt force trauma and strangulation.
32:50It could be one or the other, correct?
32:53It could be.
32:55There are other types of blunt force trauma, though, correct?
32:58Yes.
32:59Could a person strike their head on one location, hit something on the way down, and then hit the floor?
33:06Creating multiple injuries.
33:07Creating multiple blunt force trauma injuries.
33:10That's always a possibility, but I wouldn't expect to see the injuries on, you know, both sides of the head and on the front of the neck.
33:19I am a big fan of the forensic evidence.
33:22People always say things like, oh, it's just a circumstantial case.
33:28But circumstantial cases don't forget things.
33:31They don't lie.
33:32They're just the facts.
33:33Good afternoon, you can have a seat.
33:35And then will you say your name and spell it, please?
33:38Yes, ma'am.
33:40Detective Teresa, T-E-R-E-S-A, Sprague, S-P-R-A-G-U-E.
33:46Do you see the person that you interviewed at the Orlando Police Department identified to you as David Tronis in the courtroom today?
33:53I do.
33:54Do you point out where he is and what he's wearing?
33:55Yes, Mr. Tronis is seated at the defense table.
33:58He's wearing a suit, a tie, and glasses.
34:01Prosecutors wanted lead detective Teresa Sprague to explain one of the key inconsistencies in David Tronis' version of events.
34:11It was the story of him dragging her from the bathtub while she's still soaking wet and her clothing is still soaking wet.
34:19Is she in the tub?
34:21Her head is all the way in the corner of her.
34:24She's submerged.
34:25Yeah.
34:26She's submerged.
34:28So she's underwater.
34:28Most of her is submerged.
34:30Most of her head and neck are submerged.
34:34Okay.
34:35So you're saying that her head and face and neck are underwater,
34:40and her right side, she's kind of on a slant, so her right side's not as underwater.
34:47She is basically, for all intents and purposes, submerged almost completely by up to her torso.
34:54She wasn't wet, her skin was not pruned, her clothing appeared damp but not soaked.
35:01On cross-examination, Tronis' lawyer questioned the detective's technique used during the interrogation.
35:07Did you go from asking questions to attempts at manipulating?
35:15Manipulating him to try and get him to say something that isn't true?
35:17No, absolutely not.
35:19No.
35:20I think we challenged him on the evidence that did not support his assertion of what occurred.
35:25Didn't you essentially look at him like he was the pool boy?
35:27Did I look at him like he was the pool boy, or did I suggest to him that she was treating him that way?
35:33Right, exactly.
35:34I didn't look at him as the pool boy, no, sir.
35:36It almost sounds to me like she treated you like you were the help.
35:43I made a suggestion to him that that might have been how she was treating him, and that he might have been taken exception to how she was treating him.
36:10Um, but he didn't say that that she was treating him that way.
36:14You made a big deal about the location of this ring because you felt that you'd been searching for it for 127 days, even though it hadn't been reported missing.
36:24It was pried off her cold, dead hand. Yes, I was very concerned about it.
36:28Says who?
36:29She was wearing it the day before. She wore it every day.
36:33Says who?
36:35The evidence in my case.
36:36Defense, are you calling Mr. Tronis?
36:41Do you understand it's solely your decision of whether or not you testify?
36:47And what do you want to do?
36:49Okay, thank you.
36:51The case was coming to an end.
36:53During that trial, it was long days.
36:55We didn't sleep at night.
36:57We were going to keep making sure that everybody would see her face.
37:02You know, we weren't going to go away.
37:06Thanks for being with us here on Lawn Crime.
37:12We're going to now head into the murder trial against David Tronis.
37:16Tronis is charged with first-degree murder for the death of his wife, Ashanti Cooper Tronis.
37:21State, ready to proceed?
37:23Thank you, Your Honor. I take the court.
37:26You may proceed.
37:26There was some discussion in jury selection that, you know, the defendant had the presumption of innocence.
37:36And that presumption, that cloak of innocence has been ripped away by evidence in this case.
37:42And he sits before you a proven guilty man.
37:45He didn't appear to be, you know, giving any kind of emotion one way or the other.
37:51Just sort of stone-faced basically the whole time.
37:55This wasn't some fall in a shower.
37:58The manner of death was a homicide.
38:01Not an accident.
38:03Not undetermined.
38:05But a homicide.
38:06This was a murder of rage, of anger, of extreme violence.
38:13This isn't an intruder breaking in, stumbling onto a person in the middle of the day that they don't expect to be there.
38:19You know, shooting them once, stabbing them, picking something up and hitting them with the head, and then running out.
38:26That's not what happened here.
38:27The only appropriate verdict in this case is guilty as charged of first-degree premeditated murder.
38:36Thank you, state.
38:37Defense, you may proceed.
38:40There's ample evidence, you know, to suggest this was a violent encounter, but it was a violent fall or violent attack.
38:47There's no direct evidence as to what happened in the apartment that day.
38:51This is a circumstance.
38:52And specifically, that Chante Cooper Tronis was murdered, and David Tronis is the person that did it.
39:01And did they prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he is the person that committed this offense?
39:07It depends on you that you're not.
39:09There's too many gaps, too many leaps that you, as a juror, would outtake in order to consider this evidence beyond the exclusion of every reasonable doubt.
39:19And this is a tragedy.
39:20You've got a little boy sitting in the courtroom, lost his mother, sitting in throughout the trial.
39:26But trials are not about emotion.
39:29They're about evidence.
39:32You can't prejudge him if you didn't see your cry to your liking, just like they shouldn't have prejudged him because he didn't cry.
39:40They're like, you don't get to fit a square peg in a round hole because it's convenient.
39:44And that's what happened here.
39:47With the rush to judgment, with the confirmational bias, those two detectives went into a room with David Tronis and worked him over.
39:57I'm confident that after carefully deliberating that you'll come back and return the only just verdict in this case, and that's a verdict of not guilty.
40:05The jury was out for some five hours.
40:09It was, it was extremely tense.
40:12I remember my legs were physically shaking.
40:15I couldn't stop shaking.
40:18It's my understanding you've reached a verdict.
40:24Will you hand the verdict form to the court deputy, please?
40:27Florida versus David Tronis.
40:29Face number 2020 CF12472AO.
40:34My heart was racing like a couple hundred thousand faces a minute.
40:40I was scared because I didn't know if it was going to, you know, I didn't know if it was going to happen.
40:44I didn't know if he was going to get let off.
40:45Verdict reads, we, the jury, find the defending.
40:56Guilty of first degree murder as charged in the indictment.
41:03I was just like, oh, kind of like overjoyed.
41:07Probably just death in my life.
41:10The sentencing happened immediately.
41:15Your Honor, my mom was the best person I ever knew.
41:31She worked a lot, but she never put her family over work.
41:34Early 2018, she was taken from me and my family.
41:40It's like a hole in my heart that I can't fill or fix.
41:44She didn't die peacefully.
41:46She did not deserve anything that happened to her that night.
41:50My family and I have been waiting for about five years for justice.
41:54I miss her so much.
41:56She was the best mom I could ever ask for.
42:02That's it.
42:06Ben, any questions?
42:08No, Your Honor.
42:10Mr. Tranis, anything you wish to say prior to sentencing?
42:14There's really no flexibility for the judge.
42:17If the state's not seeking the death penalty in Florida, the one sentence that somebody can get is life in prison without parole.
42:25And the death penalty had been waived at the family's request.
42:29The court will adjudicate you guilty.
42:32They'll sentence you to life in prison.
42:34Luck to you, sir.
42:36And the court will be in recess.
42:38Jackson's now in high school.
42:39It's been important to Jackson and his father that people don't forget victims like Shanti.
42:46They've gone to the beach and gotten flowers and handed flowers out to other mothers just to say Happy Mother's Day.
42:53And it's just such an unbelievable recognition and memory of the mother that he wishes was still here.
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