The defense team for a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, man accused of kidnapping his estranged wife in Spain claims the FBI and prosecutors misled the judge about the violent nature of the couple’s possible confrontation in her Madrid apartment in February, saying newly disclosed evidence shows no blood was found there as first claimed by U.S. and Spanish authorities.

Lawyers for David Knezevich — whose wife has been missing in Spain since early February — say the absence of forensic evidence showing any kind of struggle between the couple before she disappeared undermined the strength of the prosecution’s case and should pave the way for the husband to be released from detention in a federal Miami lock-up.

Knezevich, 36, is charged with traveling from Miami to kidnap his 40-year-old wife Ana but not with a possible murder because her body has not been found by Spanish authorities. The couple, who had been married for 13 years, was going through a difficult divorce.

“There was no blood, no struggle ... no sign of foul play,” Knezevich’s lead attorney, Jayne Weintraub, argued after she compelled an FBI agent to admit that her original testimony in May about blood found in the wife’s Madrid apartment was incorrect. “He’s being detained in a United States court for something that happened in Spain — if it happened in Spain.”

Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres detained Knezevich after his arrest in May based on a risk of flight after initially saying his decision was a “close call.” In a Miami federal court hearing Thursday, despite strong opposition from federal prosecutors, the judge allowed the defendant’s lawyers to reopen the detention matter. At the end of the two-hour hearing, Torres said he would either amend his original detention order or vacate it entirely. His ruling is expected next week.

“I agree with you that some of their evidence is challengeable,” Torres said at the end of the hearing, pointing out the absence of blood evidence in the wife’s Madrid apartment.

The judge also said he could not detect a “suitcase,” as described by the FBI agent during her testimony, in a security camera video of Knezevich as he was exiting an elevator in his wife’s apartment building on the night of Feb. 2. The FBI suspects Knezevich carried out Ana, a petite woman, in something that looks like a suitcase, according to the agent’s testimony.

However, the judge also cited the strength of another video showing Knezevich purchasing materials such as duct tape and spray paint at a Madrid hardware store that may have been used to keep the front door of the wife’s apartment building open during the alleged kidnapping and to coat over the security camera in the lobby.

“Doesn’t that make their case stronger?” Torres said, referring to the key piece of evidence presented by prosecutors.

At the detention hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lacee Monk disagreed with Weintraub’s account of the alleged kidnapping. Monk said the security cameras at the wife’s apartment building show Knezevich entered the lobby at 9:27 pm on Feb. 2, stayed in her apartment for 6 minutes, went outside for 18 minutes, and then returned to her apartment for 3 minutes to retrieve her body.

“He obviously did this quickly,” Monk argued. “He either struggled with her or incapacitated her. ... It’s a very strong case.”

In a court filing, Weintraub and fellow defense lawyers Christopher Cavallo and Bruce Zimet called into question a critical aspect of the FBI’s investigation, which was initially based on potentially unreliable evidence provided by the Spanish National Police.

“The fact that no blood was found at the alleged crime scene negates the (FBI) case agent’s testimony that evidence of violence was found at the crime scene,” the defense lawyers wrote. “As a result, the Government’s claim that a kidnapping took place at the Madrid apartment is significantly undercut, putting detention based on a risk of flight in question.”

“Contrary to the Government’s assertion that the absence of blood at the alleged crime scene is a red herring, Knezevich submits that the evidence is the equivalent of a smoking gun.”

His lawyers said that despite repeated requests, it took until July 24 to obtain a Spanish National Police report from federal prosecutors that “concludes the samples taken from the apartment are not blood.” They pointed out that the report is dated June 13.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office opposed reopening the detention matter, saying Knezevich is a risk of flight and danger to the community. They argued that the newly disclosed evidence about an absence of blood in the Madrid apartment is a “red herring” and did not factor into the judge’s original decision in May to detain Knezevich, noting that Spanish National Police had not yet turned over its forensic report.

“As such, the government did not include any reference to blood evidence in” an original criminal complaint or arguments before the judge, Monk argued.

But during Knezevich’s detention hearing in May, the FBI agent erroneously testified that there was blood found in the estranged wife’s apartment and that it was important evidence.

“And there was no sign that there was any violence in that apartment at all, correct?” Weintraub, the defendant’s lead attorney, asked during cross examination.

“There was blood found by the Spanish National Police and they’re in the process of doing the forensic examination,” FBI agent Alexandra Montilla said.

“Where is this blood found?” Weintraub asked.

“In various places of the apartment,” the agent said

“So you would think that that’s a very important fact, right?” Weintraub asked.

The agent’s response: “Yes.”

On Thursday, Weintraub cross-examined the FBI agent again, compelling her to admit that the Spanish National Police’s forensic report showed there were no traces of blood in the wife’s apartment and therefore no indication of a violent struggle with the husband.

“There was no bloody scene of great violence, correct?” Weintraub asked Montilla.

“Correct,” the agent said.

Montilla, however, defended her initial testimony in May, saying she was “articulating what was related to her by the Spanish National Police” before it conducted its forensic analysis of the alleged blood found in the wife’s apartment.

“It’s not inaccurate,” Montilla testified, adding that despite the absence of blood there could have been a struggle between the couple in her apartment.

In May, Knezevich was indicted on a single federal charge of traveling from Miami to Madrid to kidnap his wife between Jan. 27 and Feb. 5. She left for Spain in late December as the Fort Lauderdale couple were going through a divorce, including a fight over millions of dollars in joint assets.

The wife, a Colombia native, has been reported missing since she was last seen in Madrid on Feb. 2, according to Spain’s National Police, which is investigating her disappearance as a possible murder case and has conducted searches for her body. FBI agents have assisted Spanish authorities in those searches.

Knezevich was arrested in early May at Miami International Airport by FBI agents when returning from Serbia, where his mother lives. Since his arrest, he has been held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami. If convicted of the single kidnapping charge, he faces up to life in prison and the loss of any money stemming from the offense.

Knezevich was previously denied bond in Miami federal court by Torres. The judge found that his wealth and connections abroad made him a flight risk.

In his detention order, Torres spelled out his reasoning for keeping Knezevich locked up before trial.

“A great deal of circumstantial evidence supports the government’s complaint, including (the) defendant’s documented travel through extraordinary means from the United States to Turkey and then to Spain,” Torres wrote. “Additionally, the defendant appears on video surveillance in Spain purchasing materials (at a hardware store) that may have been used in a kidnapping, all while the defendant claims to have been elsewhere.

“The government’s complaint is also supported by a strong motive that (the) defendant may have had to commit this offense given his bitter divorce with the victim.”

But at Thursday’s detention hearing, Weintraub played a voicemail recording of a phone conversation between Ana Knezevich and a friend in which Ana expressed happiness over her estranged husband’s apparent agreement to split their assets in half.

“Everything would be 50-50,” Ana told her friend in the Jan. 31 voicemail. “I’m really happy about that. I hope it’s true.”

In a court filing, Weintraub said her client should be released because he has lived in Fort Lauderdale for the past 15 years, is close to a brother who lives in the same area, and owns an information technology business along with real estate investments.

She also pointed out that “most of his ‘means’ are tied up in second mortgages” and that his estranged wife’s family has opened up a conservatorship to manage her property, leaving Knezevich with “very little money available at all.”

In the filing, Weintraub also said there’s “no evidence” indicating Knezevich’s wife “was taken against her will” or that she had a struggle with her estranged husband in her Madrid apartment before disappearing.

More significantly, she said “there is absolutely no evidence” that Knezevich took any action in the United States to facilitate the alleged kidnapping in Spain. She said he was in Belgrade to visit his mother.

In response, federal prosecutors argued that Knezevich was trying to hide his tracks from the moment he left Miami in late January to hunt down his wife.

“Specifically, rather than flying directly into Spain, the defendant sought to conceal his travel to Madrid by flying into Istanbul, Turkey, and then driving over 5,000 kilometers through multiple countries to Madrid,” prosecutors said. “During his journey, the defendant used at least two stolen license plates — one from Serbia and one from Spain — in order to further obscure his travel to Madrid.”

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