Developer accused of killing wife released on bail
BY DAVID OVALLE
dovalle@MiamiHerald.com
Backtracking on his earlier decision, a Miami-Dade judge Thursday morning released on bail an Aventura developer who is accused of strangling his wife.
Adam Kaufman, 33, will be released on $500,000 bond to await trial, Circuit Judge David Miller ruled Thursday.
Miller admitted he called for the hearing after reflecting on the case on Father’s Day and considering “the specter of a man denied his parental rights.”
Prosecutors allege Adam Kaufman strangled Eleonora Kaufman, 33, in the bathroom of their Aventura house, then lied to a doctor by claiming she fell and hit her neck on a bathroom magazine holder.
The father of two is charged with second-degree murder, usually a nonbondable offense.
Eleonora Kaufman’s death had remained unclassified until April, when Dr. Bruce A. Hyma, the chief medical examiner, ruled she died from mechanical asphyxiation. Adam Kaufman was arrested afterward.
Kaufman’s defense attorneys suggest that a spray tan may have caused a violent allergic reaction in Eleonora, causing her to fall on the magazine rack in the bathroom.
On June 3, after a two-day bond hearing, Miller ruled that prosecutors had shown enough evidence to keep Kaufman behind bars to await trial.
But last Sunday, Miller told the court, he regretfully remembered a man who lost custody of his children during a case in his court. He began thinking about Kaufman and his children, he said.
”That got me thinking about the evidence presented and the lack of evidence presented,” he said.
He called prosecutors and defense lawyer Bill Matthewman, who said he had been filing another request asking for bond.
On Thursday, Miller chastised prosecutors for failing to order DNA or blood tests on the magazine holder and investigators for not ordering cellphone records immediately that might have pinpointed Kaufman’s whereabouts when his wife died. Miller also said he now believes Dr. Hyma’s testimony was not enough.
Prosecutors Joseph Mansfield and Matthew Baldwin protested the decision.
On Thursday, they asked Miller to disqualify himself from the case, saying the judge had already made up his mind to release Kaufman before giving them a proper hearing.
”It is equally clear that the trial judge’s oath that he would never place himself in the position of ever jeopardizing the parental rights of a defendant would prevent him from sitting fairly in this second-degree murder case and imposing a life sentence should state meet its burden of proof at trial,” Mansfield and Baldwin wrote in a motion.
Miller refused to take himself off the case.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1113377.html
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