Local Attorney Back in Court for Allegedly Killing His Wife on a Cruise

Lonnie Loren Kocontes, formerly of Mission Viejo, will be back in court Friday on charges that he strangled his wife and threw her overboard while on a cruise in Italy.

In August, a judge rejected a motion to dismiss the case against Kocontes after his attorney had alleged prosecutorial misconduct and that evidence was withheld from the grand jury that indicted Lonnie Loren Kocontes a year ago.

Orange County Superior Court Judge James Stotler said it was likely the grand jury would still have “a strong suspicion of guilt” and indicted the defendant even when considering new evidence, such as a lack of the victim’s blood aboard the ship. Prosecutors have contended that was never an issue since they believe she was strangled and then thrown 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 Judge William Evans 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.

--City News Service contributed to this report.

PHOTO: Lonnie Loren Kocontes and Micki Kanesaki, Patch file photos.