Bashara pleads guilty to hiring hit man
By
Mitch Hotts
[email protected]; @mhotts
Posted: 10/11/12 01:31 pm
Updated: 10/11/12 09:59 pm
In an unexpected move, Bob Bashara pleaded guilty Thursday to trying to arrange the murder of handyman Joe Gentz — the man who reportedly has confessed to killing Bashara’s wife — and now faces at least four years in prison.
In a hearing that lasted less than 5 minutes, Bashara, 54, wearing a rumpled tan suit, stood before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Morrow and pleaded guilty to one count of solicitation of murder. He then read a brief handwritten statement from a yellow legal pad.
“In June of 2012, I foolishly and regrettably offered to pay Steve Tibaudo to find someone to kill Joseph Gentz. This took place in Wayne County,” he said.
Before Bashara read his statement, Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Lisa Lindsey told the judge that prosecutors did not enter into any plea-bargain arrangement with him.
“
The defendant is pleading as charged,” Lindsey said. “
There is no charge reduction in this case.”
In court Thursday,
prosecutors say sentencing guidelines for Bashara
range between 84 and 135 months, while defense attorney
Mark Kriger contends the
range is 51 to 85 months. But
either sentence would be better than life in prison, which is the maximum punishment the solicitation to murder charge carries.
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Prosecutor Kym Worthy did not have a comment on Thursday’s developments and Kriger also would not say whether he expects Bashara to face additional charges.
Grosse Pointe Park Police Chief David Hiler, who has publicly named Bashara as a person of interest in his wife’s slaying, said investigators are continuing to work on the case and are closely following the court proceedings.
“
We are not yet done with the homicide investigation — it is continuing,” Hiler said.
Hiler
acknowledged there has been criticism of his department for the pace of the investigation, but added Bashara’s plea shows
Grosse Pointe Park investigators were on the right track all along.
“
We are conducting a thorough and complete investigation,” he said.
It’s not clear why Bashara was in court on Thursday as his trial date had been scheduled for Nov. 12. His next date will be for sentencing on Nov. 20.
The dispute between the prosecution and defense over the sentencing guidelines centers on a process known as offense variables, a system where points are added regarding a number of factors that are taken into account such as whether the defendant is a repeat offender or whether drugs were involved in the commission of the crime.
Wayne County prosecutors want what’s called an offense variable 10, which under Michigan law indicates the exploitation of a vulnerable victim such as a physical or mental disability or the offender abused his authority status. Kriger maintains there was no predatory action and therefore the variable should not apply in this case.
Meanwhile, Bashara’s former defense attorney,
David Griem, is scheduled for a show cause hearing Friday afternoon on two charges in 36th District Court.
Griem allegedly shared discovery information from the solicitation case with Bashara’s mother and other relatives. Prosecutors say that’s a
violation of an order that prevented information from being shared with third parties.
In a second show-cause,
Griem is accused by Susan Reed, Gentz’s attorney,
of filing a subpoena for a non-existent case.
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Source: http://www.macombdaily.com/article/...ads-guilty-to-hiring-hit-man&pager=full_story
