Lonnie Kocontes is a former lawyer from California who was convicted of murdering his ex-wife, Micki Kanesaki, on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea in 2006. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2020. This article will provide a brief overview of his life, his crime, and his trial, based on the information available on the web.
Early Life and Career
Lonnie Kocontes was born in 1961 and grew up in Illinois. He graduated from the University of Illinois and moved to California to pursue a law degree at the Western State University College of Law. He became a lawyer in 1992 and worked as a federal prosecutor and a private attorney. He specialized in criminal defense, civil litigation, and bankruptcy cases.
Marriage and Divorce with Micki Kanesaki
Lonnie Kocontes met Micki Kanesaki, a paralegal, in 1995 and married her in 1998. They lived in Irvine, California, and had a tumultuous relationship. They divorced in 2001, but remained in contact and shared a bank account. According to prosecutors, Kocontes stood to gain more than $1 million as the beneficiary of several bank accounts and the sale of a home that Kanesaki did not want to sell.
The Cruise Ship Murder
In May 2006, Kocontes took Kanesaki on a Mediterranean cruise, allegedly to rekindle their romance. On the night of May 25, they boarded the Island Escape ship in Barcelona, Spain, and shared a cabin. Kocontes claimed that he took a sleeping pill and woke up to find Kanesaki missing. He reported her disappearance to the ship’s crew and the Italian authorities.
However, prosecutors argued that Kocontes strangled Kanesaki in their cabin and threw her body overboard. Her body was recovered by a research vessel on May 28, 2006, near Italy. An autopsy revealed that she died of asphyxiation and had bruises on her neck. Kocontes flew back to the United States and tried to access Kanesaki’s bank accounts and sell their home.
The Investigation and Trial
The investigation into Kanesaki’s death was initially handled by the FBI, but was later transferred to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office in 2008. Kocontes was arrested in 2013 at his home in Florida and extradited to California to face trial. He was charged with murder with a special circumstance of murder for financial gain, which made him eligible for the death penalty.
The trial was delayed for several years due to legal disputes over the jurisdiction and the admissibility of evidence. It finally began in February 2020 and lasted for four months, with a break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The prosecution presented testimonies from Kocontes’ former wives, friends, and associates, who revealed his motive, plan, and attempts to cover up his crime. The defense argued that there was no physical evidence linking Kocontes to the murder and that Kanesaki could have committed suicide or fallen overboard accidentally.
On June 15, 2020, a jury found Kocontes guilty of first-degree murder with a special circumstance. On September 18, 2020, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by Judge Richard King. Kocontes maintained his innocence and expressed his intention to appeal.
Conclusion
Lonnie Kocontes Wikipedia is a summary of the life and crime of a former lawyer who killed his ex-wife on a cruise ship for financial gain. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2020. His case was featured on NBC’s Dateline and other media outlets.