His wife vanished on a Caribbean sailing trip. He’ll spend next eight years in prison.
A South Florida man who took his wife on a sailboat adventure for their honeymoon that ended in her death in the Caribbean was given a maximum sentence of eight years Tuesday by a Miami federal judge after he had pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Lewis Bennett was hoping for seven years in prison, but U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno said he could not legally go lower under the circumstances of Isabella Hellmann’s death.
“Sentencing is for punishment,” Moreno said. “When a life is taken, even if it’s involuntary manslaughter, the sentence should be eight years.”
Moreno said he understood the difficult dynamics of the case, noting Hellmann’s family members believe Bennett killed his wife on the high seas two years ago but that the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI did not have enough evidence to prove he committed second-degree murder. “He’s lucky, in a sense, that his lawyer worked that out,” the judge added.
As part of his sentencing, Bennett must pay about $23,000 to the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, Emelia, who is living with his parents in Scotland, and must give up any claim on their home in Delray Beach, which has a value of $160,000.
Bennett, 41, who had given a statement at the first part of his sentencing hearing in January, reiterated his apology Tuesday to Hellmann’s family members and regretted the “pain” he has caused them. He also asked for a seven-year instead of eight-year sentence so that he could be reunited sooner with his daughter, who is being raised by his parents in Scotland.
Isabella Hellmann, 41, disappeared in the early hours of May 15, 2017, from the couple’s 37-foot catamaran, Surf Into Summer, as they sailed near the Bahamas on their way to Florida, according to court records.
For 18 months Bennett denied any responsibility for his wife’s disappearance at sea, but then, in November, he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He was initially charged with second-degree murder, accused of staging an unconvincing accident to cover up Hellmann’s death. But federal prosecutors, who soon became aware of the strife in the couple’s marriage, struggled with proving his alleged crime and reached a plea deal with Bennett.
At the previous sentencing hearing, Bennett still did not hint at what might have led to his wife’s disappearance and death. “Losing my soul mate is the greatest loss I have ever endured,” Bennett said at the time.
Bennett, who has been held since February 2018 at the Federal Detention Center in Miami, faced the maximum sentence for his offense, eight years, as recommended by prosecutor Kurt Lunkenheimer. He described the defendant as “selfish and focused on himself” throughout the tragic death of his wife, who was born in Colombia and became a U.S. citizen.
“He did nothing to look for her,” Lunkenheimer said, citing evidence in the boating death. “He scuttled the catamaran.”
Bennett’s defense attorney, Raymond D’Arsey Houlihan, described the involuntary manslaughter case as “unusual” and said his client has tried to be conciliatory with Hellmann’s family, including letting the daughter’s relatives visit with her via Skype.
Judge Moreno had delayed Bennett’s sentencing in January because of lingering unresolved issues over the deceased wife’s estate and restitution for Emelia.
Much of the previous hearing was overshadowed by the bitter differences between Bennett’s family and his late wife’s family over visitation rights with the couple’s only child. Hellmann’s family members expressed tearful objections to the plea agreement because they believe Bennett killed his wife on the high seas.
“What happened that night with my girl?” Hellman’s mother, Amparo Alvarez de Rodriguez, said in Spanish at the time.
“He needs to say what happened,” said Hellmann’s sister, Dayana Rodriguez, in English. “She disappeared and that’s it. What happened to her? And we’re here suffering.”
Bennett, a mining engineer with dual citizenship from his native Britain and from Australia, explained in his plea deal that his wife’s death was an accident that he did not witness, but he admitted it was foreseeable and caused by his negligence.
Hellmann, who was a real estate broker, disappeared overnight on May 15, 2017, as the couple sailed near the Bahamas towards Florida. They were on a postponed honeymoon trip that included stops in the British and Spanish Virgin Islands, St. Maarten, Puerto Rico and Cuba.
Bennett told investigators at the time that the boat experienced difficulties while he was sleeping below deck and Hellmann was on watch. He said she was missing when he came above deck after a loud noise woke him up.
At his plea hearing in November, Bennett admitted he did not require his wife — a weak swimmer and inexperienced sailor — to wear a life vest or harnesses tethered to their catamaran, all of which were on the vessel. Bennett, who is a strong swimmer and has extensive training and experience in sailing, also acknowledged he did almost nothing to try to find his wife.
“Mr. Bennett could not recall whether he called out her name. Although Mr. Bennett threw a horseshoe life ring overboard, he did not deploy flares to illuminate the area to look for his wife or to signal his position, nor did he turn the catamaran around to look for her,” according to his statement in the plea agreement. “Additionally, Mr. Bennett did not search for her with the catamaran or the dinghy that was attached.”
But Bennett did spend maybe 45 minutes loading up a life raft with food, water, safety devices, a satellite phone — and thousands of dollars’ worth of stolen silver and gold coins.
Where did he get those coins? According to federal authorities, the coins were collectibles that had been stolen in May 2016 from the owner of a yacht in St. Maarten, where Bennett had once worked as a crewman. The total value of the stolen coins was about $40,000.
Before he was charged last year in his wife’s death, Bennett pleaded guilty in November 2017 to transporting stolen silver and gold coins and was sentenced to seven months in prison. Authorities seized the collectible coins that were recovered from both his life raft and his home in Delray Beach.
This story was originally published May 28, 2019 at 12:13 PM.
