A Florida man killed his spouse after she was dismissive of his plans to take part in a house-flipping actuality TV present that he believed would save them from the cash pit their house had turn out to be, prosecutors stated.
The homicide trial of David Tronnes, 55, started this week in Orlando with opening statements from prosecutors; protection attorneys selected to defer their assertion till later within the trial. Tronnes has pleaded not responsible to first-degree homicide within the 2018 loss of life of his spouse, 39-year-old Shanti Cooper-Tronnes, whom he’d been married to for a few yr.
In accordance with prosecutors, Tronnes initially advised investigators that his spouse had “handed out” and fallen within the bathtub on April 24, 2018 — one week after she walked out of a gathering with a contractor who labored for the fact present “Zombie Home Flipping,” a “lifeline” Tronnes was relying on to save lots of the house, prosecutor Michael Smith stated.
First responders questioned Tronnes’ account from the beginning, Smith stated, saying that they instantly noticed that Cooper-Tronnes had been the sufferer of a “violent assault” and had a number of accidents, together with “an enormous wound” on her face and “bruising round her neck.” A health worker decided she had died from blunt drive trauma to her head and strangulation.
Tronnes paid $600,000 in money for the 4,000-square-foot home with a pool and storage condominium within the picturesque Orlando neighborhood of Delaney Park, however refused so as to add Cooper-Tronnes’s identify to the deed, prosecutors stated.
Quickly after Tronnes bought the home, the “actual meat of the renovation — or in the end destruction — of the house passed off,” Smith stated.
“This home grew to become greater than only a mission to David Tronnes. It was his life,” Ryan Vescio, who led the investigation into Cooper-Tronnes’ loss of life, advised “48 Hours.” Tronnes was “obsessed” with the renovation, however Cooper-Tronnes was financing it, Vescio stated, sinking almost $250,000 of her personal cash into the mission.
Tronnes believed that if the home have been on “Zombie Home Flipping,” its worth would enhance by tens of hundreds of {dollars}, stated Smith, including that this concept “got here with a catch” — the couple’s full participation. As a result of Cooper-Tronnes was not “in on it,” in line with prosecutors, her husband killed her.
Cooper-Tronnes, who shared custody of her 8-year-old son together with her ex-husband, was the “sole breadwinner” of the family, working as a monetary and accounting advisor whereas Tronnes didn’t have a job, Smith stated. And due to the renovations, she lived and labored within the storage condominium, the place she shared a bunk mattress together with her son. Investigators stated Tronnes lived in one other a part of the home with the couple’s canine, whom he claimed to be strolling and taking to the park on the time authorities stated Cooper-Tronnes was killed.
“They took away all the inside dividing partitions and mainly what was left was a two-story shell,” Keith Ori, the “Zombie Home Flipping” contractor, advised “48 Hours.”
Tronnes was residing a lie, authorities stated, misrepresenting his funds and way of life.
In police interviews, WFTV reported, Cooper-Tronnes’ stepfather stated Tronnes lied about being a multimillionaire. “He all the time claimed he had tens of millions, however Shanti purchased all the pieces.”
Earlier than and all through their marriage, authorities stated, Tronnes frequented a homosexual spa — together with the day after his March 22, 2017, marriage ceremony and fewer than two weeks earlier than his spouse was killed, in line with WFTV. The couple met on-line when Tronnes lived in Minnesota, and he ultimately moved to Florida to be with Cooper-Tronnes, authorities stated.
Tronnes was initially discovered incompetent to face trial “on account of ongoing manifestations of the prognosis of schizophrenia,” his protection lawyer stated, primarily based on evaluations by two psychiatrists. In Might 2022, nonetheless, a decide dominated that he was competent following remedy at a state hospital, and moved ahead with a trial.
