SANTA ANA, Calif. – Prosecutors say a Florida man awaiting trial for allegedly strangling his ex-wife and tossing her overboard during a Mediterranean cruise tried to hire two inmates to kill another ex-wife.
The Orange County district attorney's office said Monday that Lonnie Kocontes planned to have his second wife killed after forcing her to sign a letter recanting her testimony in the murder case involving his first wife.
Kocontes now faces two counts of solicitation to commit murder and one count of solicitation to bribe a witness. That's on top of the murder for financial gain charge he already faces in the cruise ship killing.
Kocontes has pleaded not guilty in that case.
Kocontes was arrested in February 2012. He is due in court Thursday.
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