New York man Roderick Covlin GUILTY of strangling estranged wife to grab her $5million estate
Roderick Covlin, 46, guilty of strangling his estranged wife in Manhattan, NY a decade ago, before claiming she accidentally drowned
Wealthy banker Shele Danishefsky, 41, who was found lifeless in the bathtub in her Manhattan apt on Dec. 31, 2009
Covlin, 36 at the time, was a jobless backgammon aficionado, while Shele with whom he shared two children was a millionaire
Covlin allegedly stood to inherit a large chunk of his wife’s $5.2 million estate when she died
However, she was expected to cut him out of his will just hours after her body was found
He faces up to life in prison at sentencing
oderick Covlin faces up to life in prison for strangling his wife Shele, who was found lifeless in her bathtub on Dec. 31, 2009
RRoderick Covlin, 46, an unemployed investment banker and backgammon aficionado, faces up to life in prison for strangling his wife Shele Danishefsky, who was found lifeless in the bathtub of her W. 68th St. apartment on Dec. 31, 2009.
The court heard how Covlin who was the younger oo the couple by 11 years snapped his estranged wife’s neck to score her $5.2 million fortune.
Shele Danishefsky was found dead in her luxury apt on New Years Eve, 10 years ago. her estranged husband Rod Covlin was convicted Wednesday Feb 13, in her death
Related:
Prosecutors argued during the nine week trail, that Covlin stood to inherit a large chunk of his wife’s $5.2 million estate when she died.
Happy times: At the time of her death, Rod [left] was unemployed, and he was pursuing his backgammon passion, while Shele, a UBS executive from a wealthy background, was the sole breadwinner
The couple was in the midst of a brutal divorce and custody battle over their two children, Anna and Myles.
His lawyers claimed her death was the result of a freak accident — as police originally believed.
In contrast Assistant DA Mathew Bogdanos told jurors that while this was an entirely circumstantial case but that there was overwhelming evidence of Covlin’s guilt“There’s only one person in the universe to the exclusion of every other person on the planet, only one person who had the motive, the opportunity and the means,” the prosecutor said in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Bogdanos told the court that Covlin, who was living across the hall, snuck into Danishefsky’s apartment, used a martial arts chokehold to kill her then staged the scene to look like an accident.
Covlin’s ex-girlfried Debra Oles [right] last Tuesday testified that she was aware of more than three plots the defendant hatched against his own parents
A significant portion of the prosecution’s case involved Covlin’s depraved behavior before Danishefsky’s slaying and years after including four murder plots against his own parents.
His ex-girlfriend Debra Oles, last week testified that Rod Covlin hatched three separate plots to murder his parents — including donning blackface to ambush his own mother.
Oles, 60, said she drove her 46-year-old paramour Covlin, to a Yonkers costume warehouse in late 2012, where he purchased a “black man’s wig and makeup” to pose as an election canvasser.
“He wanted to drive to his parents’ house when he knew his mother was going to be home, and when she opened the door, he wanted to karate chop her in the throat and kill her,” said a rattled Oles.
In his closing Covlin’s defense attorney Robert Gottlieb told jurors, “You may despise him, you may detest him, you may be offended by his character,” but that doesn’t make him guilty. He harped on the lack of evidence, the bungled police investigation and the compromised crime scene.
Covlin faces up to life in prison at sentencing.
Leave a Reply