The estranged husband of a Fort Lauderdale woman who disappeared in Spain must remain jailed without bond because he is a flight risk, a Miami judge ruled following a lengthy hearing Friday.
David Knezevich, 36, appeared before Chief Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres Friday afternoon, six days after he was arrested at Miami International Airport on kidnapping charges, and months after his wife, Ana Knezevich, disappeared in Madrid in early February. She still has not been found.
David Knezevich is accused in a federal complaint of driving from Serbia to Madrid, showing up at his wife’s apartment, spray-painting security cameras, and leaving with a suitcase. He later told employees to impersonate her over the phone to cancel insurance policies and open a bank account.
The bond hearing was lengthy and involved the cross-examination of an FBI agent who had investigated the case, attorneys said.
“The family is very pleased and grateful for the result,” Courtney Caprio, who represents Ana Knezevich’s family, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel after the hearing Friday. “And we will continue to support the law enforcement investigation to the fullest extent to get justice for Ana.”
David Knezevich’s defense attorney, Jayne Weintraub, argued that investigators’ allegations are “based on a lot of assumptions” and that they had not proven the existence of a kidnapping, the only charge Knezevich currently faces. Instead, she raised the possibility that Ana Knezevich’s mental health issues could have played a role in her disappearance.
“They have no evidence he took her,” she told the Sun Sentinel. “No evidence of any struggle. No evidence she was being held against her will. And that’s what kidnapping is.”
Weintraub argued that the spray paint mentioned in the complaint, which investigators said footage showed David Knezevich purchasing, was not as clearly tied to him as they made it seem. She also said there was no evidence of any wrongdoing in the U.S, where the family’s lawyers had said he would likely be tried.
“Are we going to start arresting people here for things that happen in Europe?” she asked. “Don’t we have enough crime here to worry about?”
Caprio declined to comment on the details of the hearing.
David Knezevich’s previous attorney, Ken Padowitz, said Friday he had withdrawn from the case and declined to comment further.