'It Was Difficult': Anthony Todt's Dad, Who Tried To Have His Wife Killed, Reacts To Verdict

Anthony Todt’s father, who once arranged a hit on his wife, is reacting to his son’s conviction for killing his family.

“It was difficult to take,” Robert Todt, who watched the recent trial from his home in Massachusetts, told Hearst Connecticut Media Group.

Earlier this month, a jury found Anthony, 46, guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of animal cruelty for the murders of his wife Megan, 42, and their children Alek, 13, Tyler, 11, and Zoe, 4, along with their family dog, Breezy. A judge then gave the former physical therapist life without the possibility of parole for the 2019 murders inside the family’s home Celebration, Florida home.

Robert and Anthony are not strangers to family violence.

Robert, a former special education teacher and wrestling coach, was convicted of hiring an ex-student with learning disabilities, 19-year-old John Chairmonte, to shoot his wife in 1980, according to court records. Loretta Todt, Anthony Todt’s mother, survived the attack, but lost her left eye. Anthony was 4 at the time.

Then-assistant district attorney Alan Rubenstein, who is now a Bucks County judge, prosecuted the case and told Oxygen.com in 2020 that Anthony was in the house along with his sister at the time of the shooting. Robert had paid the teen $800 to kill his wife, according to court records. Robert told Hearst he served around five years for crime.

“He saw the gun, he saw the guy, he saw everything,” Robert said, reflecting on what Anthony saw during the shooting.

“I kind of gave up on the position as dad,” he said, adding that he and his son didn’t talk for years after the incident; he said they talk regularly now and he doesn't feel as though his son had a fair shake in court.

“If you look at how he was and listen to what went on, there’s a lot of things there that didn’t make a whole lot of sense,” he told Hearst, pointing to the prosecution’s usage of his son’s confessions. “It just didn’t seem right.”

Before the six-day trial began, Todt’s defense had asked presiding Judge Keith Carsten to exclude confessions — three in all — he made about his family’s deaths to law enforcement, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Only one of the three was kept out of the courtroom, because detectives had not informed Anthony of his Miranda rights. Carsten did not side with the defense regarding the other two interviews they wanted suppressed, claiming that their client was suicidal and had limited capacity because he had overdosed on Benadryl. 

During those confessions, Anthony described killing his family and claimed he'd made a murder-suicide pact with his wife Megan because they thought the world was ending. Later, in a letter to his father, Anthony claimed Megan killed the kids.

“You can’t take someone after a tragic situation and expect to basically get the truth out of them. It’s distorted, and it’s not meant to be, but it is,” Robert said. “Tony doesn’t remember a whole lot. … It doesn’t seem as if he was competent during that time.”