Carlos Trujillo is escorted out of the courtroom in handcuffs Monday at Stamford Superior Court. (GEORGE RUHE / AP / March 24, 2008)
Suspects' Family Linked To Slain Man's FinancesHartford Courant, United States
Ever since furniture movers discovered the body of real estate developer Andrew Kissel bound to a chair in his Greenwich home in 2006, police focused much of their murder investigation on the last person to see him alive, family chauffeur Carlos Trujillo.
As they probed further into Kissel's relationship with Trujillo and the driver's family members, they uncovered a series of financial transactions that led them to believe Kissel, days away from pleading guilty to federal fraud charges when he was stabbed multiple times, had used Trujillo and his family to hide his dwindling financial assets from creditors and his estranged wife.
What police were not saying Monday is how the tangled financial web led them to charge Carlos Trujillo, 47, and his cousin, Leonard Trujillo, 21, in connection with Kissel's murder....
...Sources familiar with the investigation say Kissel's financial dealings with Carlos Trujillo and his family started in 2005, when Kissel provided Carlos' brother Jorge with $250,000 to purchase a boat for him under Jorge's name. Jorge Trujillo was the first member of the family to work for Kissel. He managed apartment buildings Kissel had purchased in New Jersey years ago. His wife, Stella Trujillo, was Kissel's bookkeeper.
Kissel, 46 at the time of his death, backed out of the boat deal when he discovered that federal authorities were investigating him for falsifying documents to get millions in loans from several banks.
Sources close to the investigation say authorities are investigating whether Jorge Trujillo ever returned the money or whether, with assistance from other family members, transferred the money to the family's native Columbia.
Authorities also discovered other transactions between Kissel and the Trujillos. Kissel provided Carlos Trujillo with jewelry, some of which belonged to his wife, to sell. Trujillo's lawyer, Lindy R. Urso, said Trujillo did not profit from selling the jewelry for Kissel...
...Urso said his client told police that he left Kissel alone that night and drove to Queens, N.Y., to visit relatives before returning home the next morning. Urso said that "EZ Pass" highway records reflect when Trujillo returned from Queens but do not provide a time frame for when he went to New York.
Greenwich police aggressively questioned members of the Trujillo family in Queens about the alibi. In August 2006, Trujillo's nephew, Jose Montealegre, was arrested by federal immigration officials and deported because, Urso said, he refused to cooperate with the investigation.
"Over the last two years, the police have systematically sought to pressure every person in and around Carlos' family to the point that they even had his nephew deported," Urso said. "It may well be that in Leonard they finally found someone who could be compromised. All I know is Carlos is continuing to maintain that he's 100 percent innocent. He's prepared to have that proven in court."
Urso said police had questioned Carlos Trujillo about whether Kissel had given Carlos money to hire someone to kill him so that his family could collect a $15 million life insurance policy.
Ridberg didn't completely dismiss the suicide-for-hire theory at a press conference on Monday....
Contact Dave Altimari at daltimar@courant.com.
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