ORLANDO, Fla. – Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala will not seek the death penalty against Anthony Todt, who stands accused of killing his wife and three children at a home in Celebration last year.
Ayala, who has made headlines in the past due to her stance on the death penalty, filed a notice of intent to not seek the death penalty in the case of Todt and several other high-profile cases. News 6 has reached out to Ayala, who did not seek re-election, for comment but has not heard back.
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Authorities allege that Todt, who worked in Connecticut as a physical therapist and spent weekends with his family in Florida, killed his wife and three children, as well as the family dog. The decomposing bodies were discovered Jan. 13, 2020, a Monday, in the family’s home in Celebration, a planned community near Walt Disney World and developed with a Utopia-like vision by the Walt Disney Co.
Todt claimed in a June 19 letter to his father obtained by the Orlando Sentinel that his wife, Megan, had drugged the children and then stabbed and suffocated them. Todt wrote that his wife then drank a bottle of Benadryl and stabbed herself in the abdomen.
He made similar claims in the two phone calls to his sister in March and April, suggesting that Megan Todt had tried to kill the children before. "There were multiple attempts, just so you know, multiple attempts in the last ... over a time frame, there’s been attempts,” Todt said.
Defense attorneys have not spoken publicly about Todt’s claim that his wife was the real killer. Orange-Osceola public defender Robert Wesley said he had no comment.
Todt told his sister in a phone call from jail that he couldn’t have stopped his family from being slain — because he wasn’t around.
“I couldn’t stop this because I wasn’t there,” Todt told his sister Chrissy Caplet in recordings of one of two phone calls obtained by The Day of New London, Connecticut.
FBI agents found Todt inside the home in Celebration with the bodies of his family when they arrived to arrest him on a warrant stemming from a health care fraud investigation in Connecticut.
Investigators with the Osceola County Sheriff's Office said Todt confessed at the time of his arrest to killing Megan, 42; their children, Alek, 13, Tyler, 11, and Zoe, 4; and the dog, Breezy.
Todt has been indicted on four counts of first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty.