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PA Sheriff's Office / Broward
Lewis Bennett was sentenced to seven months in prison for smuggling stolen coins
A Briton who claimed that his American wife had gone to sea after the sinking of their catamaran off the coast of Cuba acknowledged having killed her.
Lewis Bennett and Isabella Hellmann had been married for three months when her husband had gone missing.
The detectives later learned that the boat had been deliberately sunk. His body has never been found.
On Monday, Bennett, 41, admitted a charge of manslaughter at a hearing in Miami, Florida.
The Anglo-Australian dual citizen of Dorset, originally from Poole, was to be tried in December for second degree murder.
But he pled guilty to a reduced charge of unlawful unlawful killing after entering into a plea agreement.
The couple sailed in Cuba on the 37-foot (11-m) catamaran from their home in Delray Beach, Florida, when Bennett reported that Ms. Hellmann had disappeared during an SOS call on May 15, 2017.
He claimed that their catamaran was sinking and that his 41-year-old wife was nowhere to be found.
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US Coast Guard
Bennett reported the disappearance of his wife during an SOS call while their catamaran was sinking
However, authorities quickly suspected Bennett of killing his wife, mother of her child.
In the months that followed his death, he asked to be declared dead.
Prosecutors alleged that he was motivated by the money because he would have inherited Ms. Hellmann's apartment in Florida and the contents of her bank account.
During his bailout, investigators also discovered that he was smuggling stolen ancient coins, worth nearly £ 30,000.
He stated that the coins had been stolen from a former employer in St Maarten a year earlier.
Bennett is currently serving a seven-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to carrying coins.
He faces a maximum sentence of eight years imprisonment when he will be sentenced for the death of his wife next year.
