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A Hartford murder-for-hire trial is now drawing interest from around the globe with Gambling911.com beginning to cover the story last week.
“This was a local story that few outside of the Hartford, Connecticut area had heard about,” noted Gambling911.com Senior Editor Payton O’Brien. “Our story last week garnered plenty of interest, not to mention heavy Web traffic.”
Gambling911 typically covers riveting crime stories that involve gambling, but this Bloomfield, Connecticut murder-for-hire case stretches far beyond the realms of gambling.
Tiffany Stevens stands accused of hiring a hitman to kill her husband Eric Stevens. It becomes apparent early on in the trial that the murder-for-hire scheme didn’t exactly go off as planned. We know this because the intended victim, Eric Stevens, is still alive and testifying in court.
So far he’s being portrayed as an abuser and someone who threatened to deliver a salacious sex tape throughout a local town. More specifically, Stevens threatened his father-in-law (Tiffany’s dad), saying he would release naked photos of his daughter: “the town of Great Neck, New York is going to get an eyeful of your precious daughter with her legs wide open.”
Nice guy if true.
Tiffany’s family at one time provided Eric with $1.8 million to cover gambling debts.
But all of this comes down to one thing: Custody of the couple’s child and a $50 million trust fund linked to their daughter’s care. Whichever parent ends up with custody of the child will control the fund. She currently resides with her mother and Eric is not permitted to see the child.
Day One of the trial included the broadcast of a taped recording in which Tiffany is heard buying drugs and paying the alleged hitman John McDaid, It was McDaid who recorded and played the tape before the Court. The authenticity of the tape did come into question.
Tiffany's attorneys are attempting to paint Eric as an abuser who caused his wife to become unstable.
Eric Stevens, who previously served a stint in prison, admitted he owed millions in gambling debts and did not deny sending threatening emails to his wife.
“I remembered Tiffany calling mother crying,” Shahram Rabbani, who is Tiffany Stevens' stepfather, said. “She was worried about bookies and collectors. Worried she would be kidnapped. She was worried about daughter kidnapped for money he owes.”
Rabbani says he gave Eric around $3 million out of fear for his own daughter’s safety. He also worried about the couple’s young daughter.
Rabbani relayed a story in which two hookers entered Eric’s office demanding to be paid for a sexual tryst the night before.
Others who testified included a police officer, who told the court that Eric tried to purchase a gun from a local pawn shop and a psychiatrist conveying Tiffany’s revelations that Eric was having sex with transvestites.
"She (Tiffany) was married before Eric, in a relationship with a woman,” the psychiatrist psychiatrist Seth Fuerstein told the Court. “There is little evidence she is capable of extreme violence.”
On Monday, the defense rested after Tiffany’s father, Edward Khalily, testified regarding his son-in-law’s alleged violent outbursts.
“He would be breaking all chinaware, glasses, and everything and my daughter and grandchild would run into bedroom and they would hide,” Khalily said.
The couple even fought during a family vacation at Disneyland, according to Tiffany’s father.
“Because the attendant didn’t call one minute sooner, he ripped the phone, threw it out of the closed window, broke the window.”
Khalily denies that a $50 million trust fund exists.
A forensic expert also testified Monday that that recording of Tiffany allegedly hiring a hitman could have been edited.
“They certainly did not follow the protocol for determining whether a file has been tampered with,” technology expert Monique Ferraro said, describing how investigators handled the file. “The last access dates could have been changed on the hard drive.”
The defense may call one more witness Wednesday with closing arguments possible by week's end.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
