Bob Bashara Pleads Guilty to Solicitation of Murder

Bob Bashara has pleaded guilty to solicitation of murder in Wayne Circuit Court.

Bashara, a Grosse Pointe Park resident, appeared before Judge Bruce U. Morrow in Wayne County Circuit Court on Thursday for a pre-trial hearing on a charge that he hired a hitman to kill Joe Gentz.

Bashara, dressed in a suit, read a statement to the court admitting to the crime.

His attorney Mark Kriger, said his client read the following statement, "In June of 2012 I foolishly and regrettably offered to pay Steve Tibaudo to find someone to kill Joseph Gentz."

Basahara will return to court Nov. 20 at 8:30 a.m. for sentencing. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Bashara could be sentenced up to 135 months in jail for the crime.

During witnesses portrayed Bashara as a man who sought out a hitman and was paranoid that his conversations were being recorded.

Over the course of three meetings with Steve Tibaudo, the owner of Steve's Furniture and Appliances on East Warren and Chalmers in Detroit, Bashara is alleged to set up the hit of Joe Gentz in the Wayne County Jail.

Gentz is the handyman who is accused of first-degree murder in the strangulation death of Jane Bashara, Bob Bashara’s wife.

The case has drawn national attention to the Grosse Pointe area. Earlier in the year when the news first broke, TV trucks and media from the region often gathered in front of the Bashara home in Grosse Pointe Park.

Patch will have more details as they become available.