Dad tried to blame 9-year-old daughter for wife’s murder: Prosecutors

NEW YORK CITY -— (WPIX) -- A new twist in a decade-old murder case of a Manhattan mother is coming to light as her estrange husband prepares to go to trial.

Prosecutors say Roderick Covlin has pleaded not guilty to murder, after more than five years of suspicions and questions about his finance executive wife, who was found dead in her Manhattan bathtub on New Year's Eve 2009.

According to new unsettling reports, the district attorney revealed ramblings from Covlin, drafted from his 9-year-old daughter's email account.

The fake confession reading in part: "I heard [sic] her go into her room and run the bath so I went in and argued some more and she told me to go back to my room and I got mad so I pushed her, but it couldn't have been that hard!"

The sinister story continues with: "I didn't mean to hurt her! I swear! But she fell and I [sic] heard a terrible noise and the water started turning red and I tried to pull her head up but she remained still..."

Though it was never sent, prosecutors want a jury to read it if 45-year-old Covlin takes the witness stand at trial.