What to Know
- Roderick Covlin has been sentenced to 25 years-to-life in prison for strangling his wife in the bathtub of her UWS apartment in 2009
- Police initially thought her death was an accident; the body was found by the couple's daughter, who was just 9 years old at the time
- Shele Covlin's body was exhumed as suspicions mounted; Roderick Covlin was finally charged in the case nearly six years after her death
A 45-year-old Manhattan father has been sentenced to 25 years-to-life in prison for strangling his wife in the bathtub of her luxury Upper West Side apartment on New Year's Eve 2009, the Manhattan district attorney said Wednesday.
A jury convicted Roderick Covlin of second-degree murder last month in the case of Shele Danishefsky Covlin, who was 47 and a successful UBS money manager at the time of her death. The two were embroiled in a bitter divorce and custody battle over their children, and prosecutors painted Roderick Covlin as an abusive husband obsessed with extramarital affairs, backgammon and his wife's money.
The couple's then-9-year-old daughter found her body. Initially, police ruled the death an accident. Shele Covlin's Orthodox family declined an autopsy for religious reasons, but suspicions mounted over time and her body was exhumed. The medical examiner's office determined she had been strangled.
Roderick Covlin, a trader and noted figure in the backgammon world, was finally charged nearly six years after her death. He denied killing his wife, saying he performed CPR and called 911.
Prosecutors argued that her estranged husband became enraged when he hacked into her email and discovered that she was making moves to remove him from her will -- potentially denying him more than $5 million. Shele Covlin had been scheduled to meet with an attorney on Jan. 1, 2010, the day after she died, to cut him out of her will, prosecutors said.
Roderick Covlin's attorney argued at trial that prosecutors were "out of control," acknowledging the divorce was contentions but claiming there was no physical evidence connecting his client to Shele Covlin's death.
In announcing the husband's sentence Wednesday, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said Shele Covlin's family never gave up -- and "neither did we."
"Roderick Covlin will now spend decades in prison for his domestic violence, depravity and deception, but family and intimate partner violence continues on in apartments across New York City," Vance said. "The crisis of domestic violence does not discriminate, and we want any New Yorker in an abusive relationship to know that you are not alone, and help is available: call our Domestic Violence hotline at (212) 335-4308, or stop by our Manhattan Family Justice Center."
