Crime & Safety
Judge Dismisses Cruise Ship Murder Case Against MV Attorney
A judge ruled that Orange County doesn't have jurisdiction to try Lonnie Loren Kocontes for allegedly throwing his wife off a cruise ship in Italy, but prosecutors aren't ready to give up.
An Orange County Superior Court judge today dismissed a murder case against a former Mission Viejo attorney accused of strangling his ex-wife and throwing her overboard while on a cruise in Italy.
Following three days of hearings in which Lonnie Loren Kocontes' attorneys argued that Orange County prosecutors lacked jurisdiction, Superior Court Judge William Evans agreed with the defense and dismissed the case.
Evans ordered Kocontes freed, but Deputy District Attorney Susan Price immediately filed a new case against the him, so Kocontes will remain jailed without bail.
Kocontes is scheduled to be arraigned June 17 on the new case alleging murder with special circumstances of killing for financial gain.
Kocontes, 55, of Safety Harbor, Fla., who is still eligible to practice law in California, is accused of strangling ex-wife Micki Kanesaki in May 2006 while they were on a cruise ship and throwing her body overboard.
The couple met while the victim was a paralegal in the firm where Kocontes worked in the early 1990s. They married in 1995 and divorced in 2001, but still lived together off and on through 2006, when Kocontes reported her missing, according to prosecutors.
The couple flew to Spain on May 21, 2006, to board a cruise. They got off the ship to tour Messina, Italy, on May 25, 2006, returning at the end of the day. Kanesaki was last seen alive at 11 that night.
Kocontes returned to California the morning of May 27, 2006. Kanesaki's body was found off the coast of Paola, Italy, that same day.
Prosecutors allege Kocontes benefited from the slaying because he was the beneficiary of several of Kanesaki's bank accounts and property such as their home, which he sold.
Kocontes came to the attention of federal investigators in 2008 when he was trying to move more than $1 million between various bank accounts with his new wife, according to the District Attorney's Office. Federal prosecutors eventually seized the money in a civil asset forfeiture case.
Orange County prosecutors began discussing the alleged murder in 2010 with federal prosecutors. New evidence was uncovered by Orange County sheriff's investigators last year, leading to Kocontes' arrest, prosecutors said.
- City News Service
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