Bob Bashara's Quest For New Trial In Wife's 2012 Slaying Continues
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A Detroit-area man convicted of having his wife killed so he could devote himself to a life of bondage and domination is continuing his efforts for a new trial.
The hearing for Bob Bashara began in September in Wayne County Circuit Court and is scheduled to resume on Friday. He testified on three of the hearing's previous six days.
A jury convicted the 57-year-old Bashara in December of first-degree murder in the 2012 death of Jane Bashara, whose body was found inside her Mercedes-Benz in a Detroit alley.
Bob Bashara, who is serving life in prison, wants his conviction thrown out. He says his rights were violated by an ineffective defense.
Prosecutors say he coerced handyman Joe Gentz into strangling Jane Bashara at the couple's Grosse Pointe Park home. Gentz is in prison for second-degree murder.
Bashara's new attorney says he old lawyers were not prepared; that they mounds of evidence that they did not have time to go through.
Nearly 500 pieces of evidence were presented, more than 70 witnesses took the stand, and sometimes salacious testimony about dungeons, whippings and sex parties peppered the 10-week trial.
Prosecutors argued that Bashara wanted his wife out of the way so he could pursue a new life with other women, who referred to him as "Master Bob" as part of an alternative sexual lifestyle known as BDSM. The defense countered that Bashara's affair was just a fling — and that he wouldn't want to kill Jane because she was the breadwinner in the household.
Gentz chose not to testify during the trial, but purportedly told police that Bashara forced him to strangle Jane in the couple's garage and then ordered him to leave her body in her Mercedes-Benz in a Detroit alley.
During the trial, Bashara was already in prison for trying to have Gentz killed in jail in 2012. Gentz is presently serving 17-to-28 years in prison after pleading guilty to second degree murder in the case.
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