ORLANDO, Fla. — Anthony Todt’s youngest child was the first to die, Assistant State Attorney Danielle Pinnell told jurors Monday morning.
“The defendant ... went into Zoe Todt’s room while she was asleep,” Pinnell said. “He took the time to sit with her and then he rolled over on top of her until she suffocated.”
In a confession that jurors will hear during his trial, Todt told detectives he next went to the boys’ bedroom, where his eldest son was sleeping, Pinnell said during her opening statement. After suffocating and stabbing Alek, Todt went to the playroom where 11-year-old Tyler was sleeping on a sofa.
“The defendant was more concerned about Tyler Todt because Tyler was the fastest,” the prosecutor said. “He was afraid that if something didn’t go the way that he wanted, Tyler would escape.”
Todt shook his head as Pinnell described his interrogation by law enforcement, in which Todt confessed to killing 4-year-old Zoe; his two sons Alek, 13, and Tyler; then his wife, 42-year-old Megan Todt; and the family dog Breezy at their Celebration home.
After he was found living with the decomposing bodies of his wife, children and dog and arrested in January 2020, Anthony Todt told detectives he and his wife had an agreement to kill their family, prosecutors said.
“Everybody needed to die in order to pass over to the other side together because the apocalypse was coming,” Pinnell told jurors at the Osceola County Courthouse.
Todt, a 46-year-old Connecticut physical therapist, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of animal cruelty in the 2020 killings of his wife, kids and pet.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Jurors, who were sworn in last week, did not hear from Todt’s defense before testimony began Monday.
Orange-Osceola Public Defender Robert Wesley told Circuit Judge Keith Carsten the defense would be deferring its opening statement, meaning Todt’s attorneys will wait to present theirs until after the state rests its case.
Pinnell in her opening said Todt told detectives that after he suffocated and stabbed Tyler, he suffocated Breezy. Todt claimed his wife stabbed herself in the abdomen, she said.
“The defendant told law enforcement that Megan did that to herself, and as best as she tried, that didn’t work,” Pinnell said. “And so the defendant took a pillow and suffocated Megan Todt as well.”
Jurors later heard from deputies with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, who tried to reach the Todts at their Reserve Place home after relatives said they hadn’t heard from the family since Dec. 26.
“I’m wondering if somebody can do a wellness check on my brother and his family,” Todt’s sister, Chrissy Caplet, told dispatchers on an audio recording played for jurors. “They’ve been really sick for probably like the past week and a half, and I can’t seem to get a hold of them.”
Authorities discovered Todt’s slain family Jan. 13, 2020, while serving a warrant to arrest him on federal health care fraud charges related to his Connecticut physical therapy business.
Osceola deputies and FBI agents who swarmed the home on Reserve Place found the door unlocked and smelled a foul order. Body camera footage played for jurors showed deputies speaking to Todt, who told them his wife was sleeping and yelled out, “Megan!”
Michael Phelps, a federal law enforcement officer, told jurors authorities found the bodies of Todt’s wife, children and dog wrapped in blankets in the master bedroom.
“The bodies were discolored — black and blue,” he said.
During cross-examination, Assistant Public Defender Azalia Carliz Romero-Sanchez asked Phelps if Todt was shaking and mumbling during his initial encounter with law enforcement.
“Yes, some of the things he was saying weren’t coming out clearly,” he said.
After his arrest, Todt was involuntarily committed under Florida’s Baker Act because authorities said he made comments about harming himself and said he had ingested Benadryl pills. Carsten has ruled that Todt’s jurors will not learn of his commitment during the trial.
The victims had stab wounds and toxic amounts of Benadryl in their bodies, according to autopsy reports. Investigators said they were killed weeks before their bodies were discovered.
As prosecutors showed photos of the victims covered in blankets and clutching rosaries in their hands, Todt appeared to be wiping tears from his eyes.
Emily Seda, a forensics supervisor at the Sheriff’s Office, told jurors she processed the crime scene and found empty bottles and boxes of Benadryl and its generic equivalent scattered throughout the house and in the trash. Seda testified she processed fingerprints on those items, as well as two knives found in the bedroom.
Erin West, a crime scene manager, said fingerprints on the Benadryl boxes matched Todt’s. West told jurors some other print results were “inconclusive,” though she could not exclude Todt.
Romero-Sanchez asked West during cross-examination if Megan Todt’s fingerprints had been compared to any of the prints found.
“I did not compare Megan Todt to any of the exhibits,” West said.
Although Todt initially confessed to the killings, he has since blamed his wife for the slayings in jailhouse writings. Todt claimed she took her life after poisoning the children with a tainted dessert and stabbing them in their sleep.
Witness testimony will resume Tuesday morning at 9 a.m.
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