No bail for man accused of killing wife at sea

Lewis Bennett, the man accused of second-degree murder in the presumed death of his wife, Isabella Hellmann of Delray Beach, is too much of a flight risk to go free as he awaits trial, a federal judge in Miami ruled Friday.

Bennett, 40, stood before U.S. Magistrate Judge Chris McAliley as federal prosecutor Kurt Lunkenheimer laid out the government’s case for holding the defendant without bond.

Bennett and Hellman had been married about six months when they took a belated honeymoon sailing expedition last May on their catamaran, Surf Into Summer, last May. Their trip, the prosecutor said, took them to St. Martin and Cuba, and they were set to return to Florida.

But early on May 14, Bennett turned on the personal locating beacon on his satellite phone, eager for the Coast Guard to find him as he floated on a life raft about 30 miles west of Cay Sal, north of Cuba and southeast of the Florida Keys.

Surf Into Summer had struck something in the water, he later told investigators. He was asleep at the time, and when he got up to the boat deck, his wife was nowhere to be found, he said.

Bennett had purchased the satellite phone and activated the locator beacon account the

day before he used it, Lunkenheimer said.

Investigators later determined that the damage to the boat came from the inside. Bennett was also found with valuable, stolen coins. He was first charged with possession of the stolen coins last August. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven months in jail, most of which he has already served. The same day he was sentenced, he learned he was being charged with Hellman’s murder.

Lunkenheimer did not say how investigators think Bennett killed Hellman, whose body was never found. But the prosecutor emphasized that without his wife, Bennett has no ties to the United States. Bennett is a dual citizen of Australia and the United Kingdom and has business interests in both countries, Lunkenheimer said.

The couple’s daughter, now nearly 20 months old, lives with Bennett’s parents in England.

The federal public defender’s office is representing Bennett in the murder case. Defense lawyer Vanessa Chen argued for a bond with GPS monitoring so Bennett wouldn’t have to stay in jail as he awaits trial, but McAliley rejected that proposal.

“The weight of evidence is circumstantial but considerable,” the judge said to Bennett, who did not speak during Friday’s hearing. “That creates an incentive for someone in your shoes to not appear before this court.”

Bennett