Bondage ‘master’ convicted in plot to kill wife

Woman Strangled
Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Lisa Lindsey makes closing arguments in the trial against Bob Bashara in the Wayne County 3rd Circuit courtroom Wednesday Dec. 10, 2014, in Detroit. Bashara, a former Rotary Club president arranged to have his wife killed because his marriage was colliding with his desire to indulge in bondage and masochism with other women, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday at the conclusion of a long trial that revealed a secret life in suburban Detroit. (AP Photo/Detroit Free Press, Mandi Wright)

DETROIT (AP) — A jury on Thursday convicted a Detroit-area man of murder in a plot to kill his wife so he could devote himself to a life of bondage and domination in an upper-class suburb with women who called him “Master Bob.”
The salacious trial of Bob Bashara revealed his secret life in Grosse Pointe Park: a former Rotary Club president who used cocaine and hosted men and women at a sex dungeon under a bar called the Hard Luck Lounge.
Jurors convicted the 57-year-old Bashara of first-degree murder Thursday. Jane Bashara was strangled by a handyman in the couple’s garage in 2012 before her body was discovered in her Mercedes-Benz in a Detroit alley.
“What man would make his own elderly mother hide a gun for him?” prosecutor Rob Moran said in closing arguments as he recalled evidence. “What kind of man has two women come to the marital bed and have sex with them while his wife is out of town? Is that what a man does who’s in love with his wife? No. It’s the ultimate act of betrayal.”
Woman Strangled
Bob Bashara, left, speaks to his attorney Michael McCarthy during a break during closing arguments in this trial in the Wayne County 3rd Circuit courtroom Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, in Detroit. Bashara, a former Rotary Club president arranged to have his wife killed because his marriage was colliding with his desire to indulge in bondage and masochism with other women, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday at the conclusion of a long trial that revealed a secret life in suburban Detroit. (AP Photo/Detroit Free Press, Mandi Wright)

The handyman, Joe Gentz, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2012 and said Bob Bashara coerced him into committing the crime. But as the trial was set to begin in October, Gentz said he wouldn’t testify.
Bashara didn’t testify but repeatedly professed his innocence in the weeks after his wife’s death, even attending a candlelight vigil in her honor. Jane Bashara was a marketing executive with a long record of service to her church and community. Nearly three years later, there still are lawn signs that say, “Justice For Jane.”
Defense attorneys urged the jury to keep their focus on the killer, Gentz, not Bob Bashara. They said Bashara could have continued his affairs and alternative lifestyle without getting rid of his wife.
“She is the breadwinner,” Michael McCarthy said in his final remarks. “Why would he want her dead? … There is reasonable doubt in this trial.”
Bashara is already in prison for trying to have Gentz killed in jail in 2012.

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