OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Serious issues raised in the high-profile case of a murder of a family in Celebration have pushed the trial date back.
Anthony Todt is accused of murdering his wife, 3 children and killing the family dog around Christmas 2019.
Todt’s trial was set to begin next week, but due to issues raised during a court hearing on Monday, as well as recent cout filings, that trial will be delayed.
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On Monday, Todt’s lead attorney, Peter Schmer, informed the court that he is battling health issues.
“My stem cell transplant completely wiped out my immune systems, so if I get a cold for instance, it’s going to have a pretty severe impact on me,” Schmer said.
On top of that, 400 pages of medical records for Todt have recently been added to discovery in this case.
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The defense also has several motions that need to be resolved before the trial begins.
Defense attorneys want Todt’s alleged confession to Osceola County deputies kept out of the trial. They said Todt was depressed, suicidal and had taken large amounts of Benadryl.
Defense also believes that Todt was not read his Miranda Rights properly.
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“This certainly is a serious case with multiple allegations,” said Circuit Court Judge Keith Carsten. “Cases do not get any more serious than this.”
Todt’s attorneys want to keep jurors from seeing photos of the bodies. They don’t want him to be shackled in front of the jurors and they don’t want prosecutors to mention the federal health fraud investigation into Todt.
Additionally, defense doesn’t want prosecutors to mention the name “Todt” in German translates to “dead” in English.
On Monday, the judge agreed to push back the hearing on those issues, and to push back the trial.
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Todt stated during the hearing that he wants the trial to move forward as soon as possible.
Prosecutors were initially seeking the death penalty for Todt, but former State Attorney Aramis Ayala took it off the table on her last day in office.
Right now, it appears Todt’s trial could start at the beginning of November at the earliest.
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