Judge grants defense access to evidence after man accused of kidnapping wife in Spain – NBC 6 South Florida

A Florida man accused of involvement in the disappearance of his estranged wife in Spain appeared in federal court again Wednesday.

David Knezevich's defense filed a request for access to medical records, witness identities and the Madrid apartment where the victim, Ana María Knezevich Henao, was living when she disappeared on February 2 after a man wearing a motorcycle helmet spray-painted the lens of a security camera outside her apartment. She had moved there from South Florida late that year after her separation from Knezevich.

The judge granted this request.

Defense attorney Erick Cruz, who is not involved in the case, said this could make it easier to bring charges.

“In this case, Spanish law allows for a great deal of secrecy regarding evidence of criminal offenses and evidence to be used in a criminal investigation. This has hampered the defense's ability to obtain this evidence. Therefore, they are asking Judge Williams to have the U.S. Attorney's Office assist them in obtaining this evidence,” Cruz said.

Federal prosecutor Lacee Monk said in court in May that prosecutors believe Ana is dead and that the FBI and Spanish National Police have strong evidence that Knezevich was behind his wife's disappearance, which occurred five weeks after she left him and moved to Madrid.

She said the couple went through an ugly divorce after 13 years of marriage and argued over how to divide the considerable wealth they had amassed from their computer company and real estate investments. He didn't want her to get an equal share, Monk said.

Monk said Knezevich flew from Miami to Turkey six days before Ana's disappearance and then immediately traveled the 600 miles to his native Serbia – she said he covered his tracks – where he rented a Peugeot.

On Feb. 2, surveillance video shows him at a hardware store in Madrid, 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers) from Serbia, using cash to buy duct tape and the same brand of spray paint used by the man in the motorcycle helmet on the security camera, Monk said. His cellphone was connected to Facebook from Madrid. The man in the motorcycle helmet is the same height and has the same eyebrows as Knezevich, she said.

License plates stolen in Madrid during this period were spotted by police license plate readers both near a motorcycle shop where an identical helmet was purchased and on Ana's street on the night she disappeared. Hours after the man with the helmet left the apartment, a Peugeot identical to the one rented by Knezevich and bearing the stolen plates was recorded driving through a toll booth near Madrid. The driver could not be seen because the windows were tinted.

The morning after his wife disappeared, Knezevich texted a Colombian woman he met on a dating app, asking her to translate two English messages into “perfect Colombian” Spanish, Monk said. After she sent the messages back, two of Ana's friends received those exact messages from her phone. They said she was dating a man she had just met, something she said she had never done. Monk said that proved Knezevich had his wife's phone.

When Knezevich returned the Peugeot to the rental car company five weeks later, it had driven 7,700 kilometers, its windows were tinted, two identification stickers had been removed and there was evidence that the license plate had been removed and reattached.

She said Knezevich had a strong reason to flee because he faces life imprisonment if convicted of kidnapping and the death penalty if he can be proven to have caused his wife's death.

Knezevich's defense attorney Jayne Weintraub said at the time that the government's argument was based “on assumptions.”