Safety Harbor Man Charged With Killing Ex-Wife on Cruise Ship

A Safety Harbor man will be prosecuted in a California court after he was charged with strangling his ex-wife and throwing her off a cruise ship in Italy, The Associated Press reports.

A judge ruled Wednesday that authorities in Orange County, CA, have an interest in the case because the woman lived there, the AP reports, citing the Orange County Register.

Kocontes, arrested in February and taken into custody in Pasco County, has pleaded not guilty.

He and Micki Kanesaki were divorced but lived together on and off in California and were on a cruise in the Mediterranean in 2006 when she went overboard, according to reports. Her body later washed ashore in Italy.

Kocontes later purchased a home in the Safety Harbor gated community of Cypress Hollow with his current wife, Katherine Kern, according to Pinellas County property records.

Read more about the case and the investigation into a transfer from Kanesaki's bank account in the AP's report.

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• Safety Harbor Man Arrested in Connection With Murder of Ex-Wife

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