Family Killer Offers Absurd Defense During Testimony at His Trial | Update to Anthony Todt Case

hello this is Dr Grande today's question is can I offer an update on the tote family murder case and specifically look at the testimony of Anthony toad just a reminder I'm not diagnosing by this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon I'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video first I'll look at the background of this case including the timeline of the crime then offer my analysis Anthony John Tote was born on September 29 1975 and raised in Bensalem Pennsylvania there's some debate over how his last name is pronounced normally it would be pronounced tat but Anthony pronounces it like tote so I'll use that pronunciation Anthony's father was named Robert and his mother Loretta in March 1980 when Anthony was four years old Robert hired a former student of his to kill his wife the former student entered the family home and shot Loretta one time in the head Anthony witnessed the crime but was not physically injured Robert was arrested in July 1980 and later convicted he was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison but his sentence was reduced on appeal to five to ten years Loretta and Anthony moved to Connecticut where Loretta remarried Anthony received mental health counseling for several years in Connecticut he had nightmares from witnessing the attempted murder of his mother Anthony met a woman named Megan in 1992 while he was in high school they became romantically involved Anthony went to college and earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology and a master's degree in physical therapy after Anthony graduated from college he and Megan married at this point Megan was earning the same degrees that Anthony had earned they both wanted careers in physical therapy Anthony and Megan went on to have three children Alexander in 2006 Tyler in 2008 and Zoe in 2015. Anthony worked as a physical therapist for several years he had his own practice in 2019 he became the focus of an investigation the authorities believed that he was committing Health Care fraud Anthony had charged insurance companies for physical therapy that was never provided the toad family had left Connecticut and moved to Florida sometime around 2017 which was before the investigation started they lived in a condominium they had purchased in 2005 in Celebration Florida which is southwest of Orlando celebration is very close to the Disney World theme parks for example is about 15 minutes away from Magic Kingdom Anthony traveled back and forth between Connecticut and Florida in order to continue working and committing fraud at his physical therapy practice he used the money obtained through the fraud to fund trips to Disney World and to pay for the residents in celebration Anthony's criminal Behavior was not allowing him to obtain enough money for his expenses he took out loans as well Anthony was living in a debt-funded fantasy on December 29 2019 Anthony's sister called the police and asked them to conduct a welfare check on Anthony and his family she had not heard from anyone in the family for a while the police visited Anthony's residence but didn't see anything suspicious family members and Friends repeatedly called the police over the next several days the police visited the toad family home on January 10 and January 11 of 2020 they did not take any action on January 13 the police arrived at the home looking for Anthony they knocked on the door but there was no answer the police entered the house they were able to do this because the door was unlocked One Source said that they obtained a key the police immediately noticed the smell of decomposing bodies the police saw Anthony walking down the steps from the second floor they asked him where his family was he told them that his children might be at a friend's house for a sleepover and his wife was sleeping upstairs he yelled her name but there was no response the police made their way upstairs and found the bodies of the children and of Megan the police also discovered that the family dog had been killed the police believed that Anthony was the killer he used hunting knives antihistamines and perhaps Suffocation to kill his family Anthony was charged with four counts of first degree murder and one count of animal cruelty Anthony's Behavior after his arrest was bizarre he confessed to the murders but then apparently had a change of heart his new story was that he was not at home when the murders occurred he suggested that his wife was the real killer she murdered her children before bringing an end to her own life Anthony claimed that she had attempted to commit the murders on multiple occasions he maintained that he was ten thousand percent innocent at least Anthony is consistent in his ability to exceed 100 percent for example according to his physical therapy billing records he once performed 36 hours of therapy in a 24-hour day Anthony tote was convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus one year for killing the family dog now moving to my analysis Anthony testified during his trial here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me during his testimony item number one Anthony repeatedly went on tangents during his testimony both under direct and cross-examination it's like he just couldn't help himself he would apologize when advised of his behavior but then continued to do it much of what he said was not helpful to his case it made him look much more than simply talkative it's almost like he had pressured speech item number two Anthony displayed a number of irritating mannerisms when he was on the stand he appeared frustrated by the questions from both his attorney and the prosecutor when he was asked a question that he didn't like he would roll his eyes and look at the jury almost trying to get the jury on his side like he was trying to say to them can you believe these people asking me these questions they don't know what they're talking about Anthony also became aggravated when answering a question that he thought he answered before when he had not actually answered the question before Anthony pretended to cry several times on the stand he would put his hands up to his face rub his eyes pause his testimony and apologize yet there didn't appear to be any tears item number three during direct examination the defense strategy appeared to be centered around showing that Megan was suffering from physical and mental problems Anthony was asked questions about his wife's condition he said that in March of 2011 when his wife was at Disney World a bug bit her after this her condition deteriorated over the next several years she'd lost weight she had low energy she was in chronic pain Megan visited Physicians who diagnosed her with all types of medical problems Anthony's testimony was interrupted due to questions about his credentials he appeared to be quite irritated and explained how he was an experienced physical therapist who was qualified to speak on medical issues item number four Anthony repeatedly talked about how devoted he was to his wife he supported her he attempted to treat her for her different medical conditions he tried to protect her from her own bad behavior he took responsibility when she did things wrong the couple was so much in love that Anthony had butterflies in his stomach every time he saw his wife Megan was Anthony's primary focus in life Anthony tried to paint himself as someone who was too in love for his own good he was so dedicated to his wife that it affected his judgment item number five Anthony answered questions surrounding religious beliefs he claimed that he was a practicing Roman Catholic I found it interesting that at one point during his testimony Anthony was asked about a Jesuit college he said he didn't know if Jesuits were Catholics the whole point of this line of questioning about religious beliefs was to make it appear as though his wife Megan moved away from being Roman Catholic and sought out Eastern religions this led her to adopting a belief in reincarnation avoiding Medical Treatments and accepting medical advice from a medical medium who talked to a ghost Anthony said something about how they didn't have medical training it's not clear if he was referring to the medium or the ghost if it was the ghost does this mean that taking advice from a ghost with medical training would somehow be okay medical ghosts would change how people use the term ghost like a person would go to a pharmacy and the pharmacist would say I presume you have a prescription because it looks like as if you've seen a ghost the whole point of Anthony's testimony on this topic was to convince the jury that Megan was not only physically sick but her mental health symptoms were interfering with her treatment like her physical conditions were getting worse due to her mental health symptoms perhaps she had something like depression or delusions item number six when it came to explaining how the murders were committed and why he confessed Anthony ran into a number of problems he claimed that on the day of the murders he found some type of pudding-based product his wife had prepared and he saw residue on plates as if his children had consumed this product his wife must have poisoned the children with Benadryl Anthony asserted that he was not in the house when his children were killed he claimed that after Megan killed them she injured herself with a knife he would have called for help but he couldn't find the cell phones he yelled out of a window but nobody was around in the neighborhood Anthony was afraid to leave his wife alone because she might die at this point Megan died Anthony was distraught this is why he stayed in the house with the dead bodies for three weeks he attempted to bring an end to his own life on about 10 occasions he tried using a pellet gun and Benadryl he specifically mentioned Mountain Dew saying he consumed the soft drink in order not to vomit I guess he was hoping for the opposite experience that many Mountain Dew drinkers have Anthony made a reference to seeing people who had died when he was in this sudden depression like he was having hallucinations Anthony claimed that before the police entered his home he fell down the stairs and hit his head he lost all of his memories from that point on he doesn't remember confessing to the murders when confronted with questions about his confession to the police which was video recorded Anthony kept answering questions by saying that is what the video showed he continued to deny any memory of confessing and he denied that the statements he made during his confession were true Anthony essentially argued they had some type of strange head injury that made him confess to four murders item number seven during his testimony Anthony talked about a note from his wife that was found at the scene like a note indicating that she was responsible for all the fatalities including her own this note was not the original note rather Anthony found the original note and retyped it so during this period when he was terribly distraught he took the time to retype a note so that his wife wouldn't look as bad it never occurred to him to keep the only evidence that would have been exculpatory item number eight after Anthony was convicted he had an opportunity to address the judge before being sentenced it wasn't going to change anything but Anthony figured he would give it a try he said he put his wife on a pedestal he supported her he begged her to get help he was not there when his wife killed his children he was shattered by the death of his family his attorney interrupted him twice during a statement to the judge once again Anthony just could not stop talking whoever ends up being Anthony cellmate is going to have a case for cruel and unusual punishment now moving to my final thoughts as I said in my original video about this topic it appears as though Anthony murdered his family so they would not see his failure he defrauded insurance companies and knew that the party was over no more Disney World no more out of control spending it was time to face reality Anthony tried to alleviate his Shame by dragging his whole family into his criminal Behavior they would all pay the price for his actions he became enmeshed he did not see himself as an individual rather he only viewed himself operating in the context of his family they were in it together through the good times the bad times and the homicidal times Anthony could not face the truth of his culpability as an individual a similar Dynamic played out during his testimony at the trial Anthony simply refused to accept responsibility he confessed to his crimes before the trial yet embarrassed himself during the trial by making a terrible effort to manipulate the jury he simply did not have the insight to understand how he was being perceived by others Anthony deflected the blame onto other people objects and circumstances for example his wife his own loving nature mediums who consult medically trained ghosts and Mountain Dew Anthony wasted everybody's time during the trial but he did offer a valuable glimpse into the mind of a person without Insight or empathy those are my thoughts on the testimony of Anthony toad please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 95,785

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Id: V8JJYvMIx58

Length: 14min 31sec (871 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 31 2022