Developer accused of murdering his wife granted bond
MIAMI (WSVN) -- A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge granted an Aventura developer accused of murdering his wife a $500,000 bond Thursday.
Three weeks ago, during Adam Kaufman's initial bond hearing, Judge David Mansfield determined that the prosecution had met the presumption of guilt requirement necessary to warrant holding the 33-year-old without bond until his trial.
Mansfield said that decision weighed heavily on his mind, and after prosecutors failed to re-examine specific pieces of evidence at his request, the judge reversed course. "I do readily admit to thinking about that factor long and hard on Father's Day," said Mansfield, "which kind of prompted me to at least revisit the issue and see if anything that I ordered to be done was done. Once I got the motion, it seems like it wasn't done, so that's very disappointing."
The judge wanted the magazine rack the defense contended Eleonora fell and choked herself on in November 2007 to be re-examined for blood evidence. Mansfield also wanted the surveillance video from the couple's Aventura home examined to figure out when the father of two entered and exited the residence, which would determine if the defendant was in bed as his attorneys allege or was out and came home late, as prosecutors claim.
Kaufman will be released Friday, at which time he will be fitted with a monitoring device he will wear while on house arrest until his trial, which may begin in November.
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