FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Lewis Bennett, the husband of a Delray Beach woman who went missing at sea last May, has now been charged in his wife's death.
On Tuesday, the FBI said Bennett, 41, was taken into custody at the federal courthouse in Miami on a federal second-degree murder charge for his alleged involvement in the death Isabella Hellmann." Bennett is accused of killing Hellmann with "malice aforethought" and then intentionally sinking the couple's catamaran to make it look like there had been a boating accident, according to the FBI.
Hellmann was last seen by her husband on Mother's Day while cruising the Caribbean on a belated honeymoon voyage in their catamaran, court records show. Bennett told investigators his wife was at the helm and the vessel was on "auto pilot" en route back to Florida as he slept. That's when he heard a thud, he said, and the vessel began to sink.
According to the charging document, a Coast Guard expert found that the couple's vessel appeared to have suffered intentional damage in both hulls that was not the result of a collision and came "from inside the vessel." Two escape hatches below the waterline were also found open and were responsible for flooding the cabin, investigators said.
The damage alone wouldn't have sunk the vessel had measures been taken to stop the flooding, the expert and vessel manufacturer said.
"The opening of both escape hatches is unexplainable as an accident and defies prudent seamanship," a U.S. Coast Guard Academy associate professor of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering told investigators.
"I cannot think of any items that would accidentally cause similar holes in both hulls at roughly the same time," he said.
When authorities interviewed Bennett at his home days after being rescued, Bennett said he didn't try to stop the flooding and instead abandoned ship, cutting the tether between his life raft and the capsizing vessel for fear of getting pulled underwater with it.
Investigators also said Bennett did not try searching for his wife. He did not use flares to illuminate the area and try to look for her; he didn't yell for her while in his life raft, the complaint said. Bennett appears to have changed his story when talking to investigators from other agencies and instead told them he called out for Hellmann and threw out a flotation device for her.
Bennett flew to his native England on a one-way ticket with the couple's daughter, Emelia, less than two weeks after Hellmann disappeared. He returned alone to South Florida on Aug. 28 to interview for the insurance claim he submitted for the loss of his catamaran. That's when he was arrested in connection with a stolen coins case.
Bennett was in court Tuesday to face sentencing related to coins that were stolen from a vessel he was a crew member of in St. Maarten in 2016.
Many of the coins were found in his life raft when he was rescued by the Coast Guard in May 2017, authorities said. The stolen coins were valued at $38,480, a federal prosecutor said.
Bennett was sentenced to seven months in prison in the stolen coins case. Meanwhile, the FBI charged Bennett with second-degree murder within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, a criminal complaint said. It did not state how Hellmann was killed.
Hellmann's mother and sisters attended Bennett's sentencing. Bennett did not testify nor did any witnesses.
U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King asked Bennett to stand as he sentenced him to seven months in prison _ just shy of the nine months a federal prosecutor requested.
As U.S. marshals escorted Bennett, who was shackled and wore a khaki jumpsuit, toward the back of the courtroom, Hellmann's relatives turned around and stared at him with pained eyes. Bennett looked straight ahead and did not make eye contact with others in the courtroom.
Outside the courtroom, Hellmann's family and Bennett's attorneys declined to comment.
