Bashara’s sentence likely to be 5-7 years
By
Jameson Cook
[email protected] @jamesoncook
Posted: 12/08/12 06:23 am
Bob Bashara likely will be sentenced to between five and seven years Monday after admitting he tried to hire someone to kill Joe Gentz.
Bashara is scheduled to be sentenced in the morning by Judge Bruce Morrow of Wayne County Circuit Court in Detroit after pleading guilty two months ago to solicitation of murder.
Wayne County prosecutors argued previously that Bashara should spend between seven and 11 years behind bars, claiming his behavior was predatory. But prosecutors have agreed that he should be punished within the lower range, conceding his behavior was not predatory, according to its sentencing memorandum.
Proseuctors, however, will ask that Morrow sentence Bashara at the top of the range, 85 months, while Bashara’s attorney, Mark Kriger, will seek 63 months, according to arguments submitted for the sentencing. Morrow could go as low as 51 months, less Bashara’s time-served. Morrow’s maximum penalty could be up to life.
Kriger is expected to point to Bashara’s many charitable contributions in the Grosse Pointe community as a reason to sentence him to less time. Bashara owns and leases multiple properties.
Bashara admitted he paid a man to have Gentz, his former handyman, killed in a Wayne County jail, where Gentz is being held for murdering and conspiring to murder Bashara’s wife, Jane, 56, in the couple’s Grosse Pointe Park garage.
Even though Bashara was named as a person of interest in his wife’s murder, attorneys say that Judge Morrow cannot formally let that affect his sentence.
“I don’t think the court can or should consider it,” said Macomb County criminal defense attorney Stephen Rabaut. “It should not be a factor in the guidelines.
“I don’t think there’s enough evidence — based on what we know so far — to tie him to the case. Nothing is substantiated to this point.”
The primary known evidence against Bashara is Gentz’s reported statement to police that Bashara paid him to strangle Jane Bashara, a Mount Clemens native, on Jan. 24. Her body was found the next day in her SUV parked in an eastside Detroit alley.
Even the murder case didn’t factor into the guidelines. Local criminal defense attorney Craig Tank said Morrow will be challenged to ignore it.
“I think it would be hard for anyone,” he said. “Face it, it’s the elephant in the room. I suspect that it will be difficult for the judge to separate the underlying murder.”
Police and prosecutors say Bashara paid Steve Tibaudo, a Detroit furniture store owner, $2,000 as a 10-percent down payment to have Gentz killed in the William Dickerson Detention Facility in Hamtramck.
The plot developed as Bashara grew increasingly worried about Gentz’s potential testimony in the Jane Bashara case and sought to have him killed to prevent him from taking the stand, according to prosecutors
After Bashara’s initial offer, Tibaudo went to police and wore a hidden wire to secretly tape-record future conversations with Bashara. Portions of the conversations were played in court during Bashara’s preliminary examination.
The fact that Gentz, formerly of St. Clair Shores, has been charged with not only murder but conspiracy to commit murder has led to speculation that Bashara will face charges for his wife’s death.
“I think he will be charged,” Tank said.
Gentz faces a pretrial Thursday in front of Wayne Circuit Judge Vonda Evans during which legal motions are expected to be considered.
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Source: http://www.macombdaily.com/article/...-s-sentence-likely-to-be-5-7-years#full_story
