Awful Details Revealed About Why A Manhattan Stockbroker Killed His Wife By Snapping Her Neck
He is currently on trial.
TOT In a Manhattan court Tuesday, October 17, prosecutors alleged that Rod Covlin was angry his wife was getting in the way of his dating life — and that's why he killed her.
According to Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, the 44-year-old "had other girlfriends and wanted to have more."
The failed stockbroker is charged with killing Shele Danishefsky after police found her face-down in the bathtub of her Upper West Side apartment on New Years Eve in 2009.
Covlin and Danishefsky were in the middle of a divorce and custody battle over their two children.
Covlin said he found her body in the bathtub.
Initially, the 47-year-old woman's death looked like an accident. But then an autopsy report revealed that her neck bone had been snapped and two of her ribs were dislocated.
Covlin was suspected of her murder from the start, but he wasn't arrested until he confessed to his new girlfriend about committing the murder. When he was arrested two years after the murder, he was only two months away from inheriting half of Danishefsky's $4 million fortune.
Police also discovered Covlin had been living a "secret life" before he was arrested. He had a new job, a fake name and a LinkedIn page under the identity of "Rod Sommer."
“This guy is a f–king psychopath. He is out of his bird,” said one of his former co-workers.
That same co-worker also said Colvin always "reeked of liquor."
“In one case, this man said he had cancer and couldn’t pay the loan immediately,” the former co-worker remembered. “Rod was furious. He had no compassion. He would say, ‘I don’t give a f–k if he has cancer. I want the money.’”
Covlin's defense team is arguing that the prosecution has yet to turn over files about prior persons of interest in Danishefsky's murder. They also claimed that an unknown male's DNA was found on the zipper of her handbag, which was found near her body.
"We know that there are suspects they investigated and DNA belonging to a male that’s not Rod, which are raising real questions about whether or not the killer is still out there,” Defense attorney Robert Gottlieb said.
The trial is still ongoing.
Emily Blackwood is an editor at YourTango who covers pop culture, true crime, dating, relationships and everything in between. Every Wednesday at 10:20 p.m. you can ask her any and all questions about self-love, dating, and relationships LIVE on YourTango’s Facebook page. You can follow her on Instagram (@blackw00d) and Twitter (@emztweetz).