Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
‘A Destroyer of Worlds’: Anthony Todt Found Guilty of Killing Family, Gets Life
Anthony Todt will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the murders of his wife Megan, their children Alek, 13, Tyler, 11, and Zoe, 4 and their family dog, Breezy.
Anthony Todt will serve the rest of his life behind bars after a jury decided he is responsible for killing his whole family in Florida.
A jury found Todt, 46, guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of animal cruelty on Thursday for the December of 2019 murders of his wife Megan, 42, and their children Alek, 13, Tyler, 11, and Zoe, 4, along with their family dog, Breezy, Florida outlet WESH 2 reports.
"A jury has unanimously determined after listening to the evidence that you, Anthony John Todt, are a destroyer of worlds," Circuit Judge Keith A. Carsten told the disgraced father, according to WESH 2.
It was ironically the destruction of the world that Todt had tried to blame for the murders, which occurred inside one of the family’s homes located inside Disney-developed community of Celebration. During the trial, jurors heard how Todt told investigators that he had made a death pact with his wife over fears of an apocalypse.
The jurors first watched videotaped confessions taken after the murders, when Todt told investigators that he killed his whole family with his wife’s support. But then, Todt took the stand and tried to shift the blame, sayingit was his wife who killed their children.
Carsten gave him life in prison without the possibility of parole for the killings of his family and one year in county jail for the murder of the family dog. Initially, the jury came up deadlocked on Thursday but by the evening, they were able to agree to the verdict, Spectrum News 13 in Orlando reports.
Before Todt was sentenced, family members of the victims spoke before the court.
“It’s been a nightmare for two and half years,” Cynthia Copco, Megan’s aunt and the children's godmother, said, according to WESH. “Tony crushed his whole family by doing this.”
She called Megan “the gentlest person” who was “full of empathy.”
During that hearing, Todt himself stood up and spoke before his lawyer told him to sit down.
"This is a personal catastrophe in everybody’s life including, myself,” the now-convicted killer said. “I maintain my innocence.”
Todt was already under investigation by the FBI and agents with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for health care fraud when his family was found dead. Todt, who ran his own physical therapy practice with Megan, allegedly billed insurance companies for physical therapy services he never performed, Click Orlando reported.
Their practice, Family Physical Therapy in Colchester, Connecticut, was raided a month before the murders and Todt allegedly admitted to falsely billing Medicaid, saying neither his wife nor his employees were aware of the fraud, CNN reported. An eviction notice had also recently been filed in a Florida court for the home where the bodies were found, according to NBC Connecticut.
During the state’s closing statement, Assistant State Attorney Danielle Pinnell told the jury, "The reason why we’re here today is control. The defendant wanted control,” Spectrum News 13 reports.
