MIAMI — Federal prosecutors might soon charge a Fort Lauderdale man with killing his estranged wife in Spain on top of the initial kidnapping offense — a legal move that would include the possibility of pursuing the death penalty, according to court records.

David Knezevich, 36, a native of Serbia, has been locked up in a federal jail in Miami on the kidnapping charge, stemming from the disappearance of his wife, Ana Knezevich Henao, in early February from her Madrid apartment while the couple was going through a difficult divorce. That offense carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Prosecutors told a federal judge in recent court papers that “the United States is evaluating whether to pursue capital-eligible offenses in this case,” indicating “the decision will be made, at the latest, by early December.”

The question of whether prosecutors would charge Knezevich with killing his 40-year-old wife has been hanging over the highly publicized case since his arrest in May at Miami International Airport upon his return from Serbia. The feds hinted at their answer in court papers last month as defense attorneys continued to pressure prosecutors to turn over more evidence in the largely circumstantial case, which is set for trial in February but is likely to be postponed, court records show.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams has tried to prod the prosecutors to make up their minds about pursuing a capital case, ordering them in October to “advise” the defendant and his attorneys of their plan to seek the death penalty — or not.

If prosecutors do, they would have to return to the federal grand jury in Miami and ask the secret panel to add the charge of kidnapping resulting in death to an indictment. The panel might add other charges. Ultimately, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami would need the final approval of the Justice Department to add the death penalty to the case.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined on Thursday to comment on its next move, which is likely to come this month.

At an Oct. 22 court hearing, prosecutor Jessica Obenauf told the judge that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami has been in discussions with the Justice Department in Washington, regarding bringing a potential death penalty case.

“They are aware and we are in constant contact with them,” Obenauf told Williams.

Knezevich’s main defense attorney, Jayne Weintraub, who has challenged prosecutors to produce evidence of an alleged murder, zeroed in on that issue at last month’s hearing.

“We are all kind of pussyfooting around this ‘word’ that I know the Court is well aware of, and that word would be protocol,” Weintraub said, referring to the process of hiring a “learned counsel” who specializes in death penalty law to assist in Knezevich’s defense if he’s charged with killing his wife.

“I’m sitting here just trying to wrap my mind around what is happening here,” said Weintraub, adding that prosecutors filed the original kidnapping charge as “a bookmark or a placeholder.”

The issue of additionally charging Knezevich with both kidnapping and killing his wife runs parallel to another high-profile case in Miami: a Colomban man was arrested last month on the charge of kidnapping his former mistress and her 9-year-old daughter, resulting in their deaths eight years ago.

Knezevich’s case is strikingly different because the alleged crime involved his traveling from Miami to Serbia before prosecutors and FBI agents say he kidnapped his wife in Spain. leading to her disappearance in early February.

‘Cunning level of deception’

In two consecutive detention hearings, a magistrate judge in Miami ordered that Knezevich remain in jail because he considered him a “serious flight risk.”

After the second hearing, Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres concluded “there is ample evidence” to support the kidnapping case against Knezevich, whose lawyers had asked the judge to reconsider his initial detention order.

“Indeed, the evidence produced at the second hearing supports the Court’s original finding that [Knezevich] presents a serious risk of flight given the cunning level of deception that he has demonstrated as part of the crime he is alleged to have engaged in,” Torres ruled in a 17-page order in September.

Torres also rejected the defense’s “attack” that prosecutors have no jurisdiction to bring the kidnapping charge in Miami because the crime allegedly happened in Spain, saying their initial evidence supported the case.

After his arrest in May, Knezevich faced intense scrutiny during the two detention hearings. An FBI agent dug into a trove of circumstantial evidence suggesting he had the means, opportunity and motive to kidnap his estranged wife from her apartment in Madrid.

Broward real estate holdings

Knezevich, who operated a tech business, owned millions of dollars in Broward County residential real estate with his wife, a native of Colombia. They were fighting over these and other assets when she left for Spain in late December of 2023. He’s accused of leaving Miami the following month with a plan to track her down. She was reported missing by authorities on Feb. 2.

The FBI believes the husband carried her body in a suitcase out of her Madrid apartment building that evening, citing security-camera footage of him exiting the elevator. In August, the FBI joined Spanish and Italian authorities in a search for her corpse in the woods north of the city of Vicenza in Italy, where a GPS alert on the husband’s rented Peugeot 308 suggested he took a detour there on his return trip from Spain to Serbia.

No blood found in Madrid apartment

At the second detention hearing, Knezevich’s lawyer, Weintraub, focused on a Spanish police forensic report that found “no traces of blood” in the wife’s Madrid apartment, contrary to what they initially claimed. Citing no signs of struggle, Knezevich’s defense team sought his release based on this new piece of evidence.

“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 an FBI agent during her testimony, in the security camera video of Knezevich at the wife’s apartment building. The FBI suspects Knezevich carried out Ana, a petite woman, in something that looks like a suitcase, according to the agent’s testimony.

Duct tape, spray paint purchases

However, the judge 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.

“He was buying those supplies in that hardware store, including the can of spray paint, to make sure the video cameras did not catch him moving her out of the building,” Torres said.

Torres further noted that Knezevich flew in January from Miami to Turkey then to Serbia, where he has family, and then rented the Peugeot to drive to Spain. The judge noted he drove the rental car for thousands of miles from Belgrade to Madrid and back to Belgrade, keeping the car for 47 days. When he returned it to the rental agency, the windows had been tinted, stickers removed and license plates swapped out.

“All these facts in combination reflect highly unusual behavior for someone with the means to fly from Serbia to Spain if he wanted to visit a hardware store in Madrid,” Torres wrote. “At a time he was supposed to be visiting his family in Serbia, he was blocks away from the apartment where his wife was last seen.”

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