Crime & Safety

Judge: Indictment Stands in Cruise Ship Murder Case

Trial can go forward for a Mission Viejo attorney accused of murdering his wife in 2006, a judge ruled Monday.

Written by City News Service

A judge refused Monday to throw out the indictment of a former Orange County attorney accused of strangling his ex-wife on a cruise and throwing her body into Italian waters, rebuffing a defense contention that Orange County prosecutors lack the jurisdiction to prosecute the case.

Superior Court Judge Gregg Prickett postponed Lonnie Loren Kocontes' arraignment until Sept. 30 to give defense attorneys time to appeal the ruling.

Kocontes, 55, is charged with murder, along with the special circumstance allegation of killing for financial gain.

Kocontes, who is still eligible to practice law in California, is accused of strangling ex-wife Micki Kanesaki, 52, 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 in Mission Viejo 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, the same day.

Kocontes was arrested in Florida in February after a murder charge was filed in Orange County, but a judge later threw out the case on the basis of jurisdiction. But a grand jury indicted Kocontes on the same charge.

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 agents in 2008 when he tried 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.


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