Bennett has deal in works
Man accused in wife’s death at sea about to change ‘not guilty’ plea
Up to now Lewis Bennett has denied having anything to do with his wife’s disappearance at sea in May 2017.
But that’s about to change. Bennett has a plea deal in the works, court records show.
“Counsel for both parties are actively engaged in plea negotiations,” Bennett’s lawyer, Vanessa Chen, wrote in court filings.
Bennett, 41, had pleaded not guilty to killing Isabella Hellmann, his Colombianborn wife, who has not been seen since she and Bennett were on a belated honeymoon in the Bahamas aboard their 37-foot catamaran, Surf Into Summer. The couple, who made their home in Delray Beach, had a baby daughter who was with relatives when Hellmann went missing. The child, now 2, is living with Bennett’s parents near Southampton, England.
Hellmann’s family and prosecutors found Bennett’s version of events about Hellmann’s disappearance fishy.
He said the catamaran was on auto-pilot with his wife at the helm while he slept below deck. Bennett said he awoke when he
heard a thud. The cabin flooded and the vessel sank and he never saw his wife again, he said.
Hellmann’s body was never found and she is presumed dead. She was 41.
Investigators have said they believe Bennett “intentionally scuttled” the catamaran before he grabbed a backpack and hopped into a life raft.
Bennett has a hearing in federal court in Miami on Friday for “arraignment on superseding information,” which likely means prosecutors are filing some form of lesser or reduced charge.
That will be followed on Monday with a “change of plea hearing” where Bennett could plead guilty or no contest to a new charge.
If the plea negotiations fall through, Bennett would be ready to go to trial, as previously planned, on Dec. 10, Chen, a federal assistant public defender, wrote in the filing.
Court documents disclosed in September show that the couple had been fighting over finances and childrearing issues in the months before Hellmann disappeared.
Among the documents were text messages Hellmann had sent her husband.
“You make me crazy shouting, yelling, swearing,” said one she sent about six months before her disappearance.
Another said: “I’m tired of you telling me I’m the MOST WORSE PERSON YOU EVER MET BEFORE, everything I do it’s WRONG … this is very pathetic Lewis.”
Bennett is currently serving a seven-month federal sentence for stealing gold and silver coins, valued at $40,000. He pleaded guilty to taking the coins from a vessel he worked on as a crew member in 2016 in St. Maarten.