Nearly two months after the South Carolina Attorney General’s office told us that murder suspect Michael Colucci was on house arrest without an ankle monitor — a detail we have shared repeatedly in the lead-up to Colucci’s May 13 retrial — AG spokesman Robert Kittle now confirms that Colucci has actually had an ankle monitor this entire time. Colucci stands accused of murdering his wife, Sara Lynn Moore Colucci.

Michael Colucci, who is represented by Andy Savage, contends that Sara Lynn either committed suicide or tripped and accidentally hung herself on a hose outside the couple’s Summerville, South Carolina, gold-buying store. 

Bond Conditions

Previously, Luna Shark Media reported that the AG’s office doesn’t seem to know where Colucci is based on a conversation with the AG’s office in March 2024. At that time, Luna Shark was told by sources close to the Colucci family that Colucci was on an ankle monitor. When Luna Shark asked Kittle for details of Colucci’s bond, he told us the the following:

“Our attorney is pretty sure he does not have an ankle monitor now. He said he thinks he was put on a monitor during the trial, but thinks the monitor was removed after the trial. 

He believes the bond went back to prohibiting contact with the alleged victim’s family. He is under house arrest at his parents’ home but is allowed to leave for work, attend religious services, medical/dental/health appointments, and attend appointments at his lawyers’ offices,” Kittle told us on March 20. 

Kittle was asked to provide paperwork for the conditions of Colucci’s bond, and he referred us to the public index. 

The public index has the following bond terms on file for Colucci: 

The week after Kittle relayed what the attorney “thought” terms of Colucci’s bond were, we asked him to confirm the address where Colucci was on house arrest because sources told Liz Farrell that by March 2018 — before his first trial — Colucci had been evicted from both addresses where he’d been ordered to stay on house arrest prior to the trial. 

When asked to confirm the address where Colucci was supposedly under house arrest, Kittle followed up with: 

“The only information I have is what I told you.” 

For weeks, questions about Colucci’s bond persisted and Luna Shark Media received multiple reports of Colucci potentially violating the terms of his bond.

Over the weekend, a purported friend of Colucci posted photos on Facebook showing Colucci on a golf course, physically horsing around with the friend and playing a card game. In one of the photos, Colucci appeared to be wearing some sort of apparatus around his ankle that was covered by his pants. 

When finishing up episode 49 of True Sunlight Podcast, Luna Shark Media learned that on May 1, 2024, that Sara Lynn’s family reached out to the victims advocate at the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office. The family — including Sara Lynn’s now 20-year-old daughter, Bishop — was told that Michael Colucci is NOT on house arrest and that he DOES, in fact, have an ankle monitor — counter to what the AG’s office had told Luna Shark Media weeks earlier.

‘No Conditions on His Bond’

When this information was brought to Kittle’s attention on May 2, he reversed course. 

“Yes we have followed up and there is no order but Judge Jefferson kept him on his monitor after the last trial, but no conditions on his bond. It was ordered from the bench after the last trial,” Kittle said. 

We have requested a copy of the transcript from the final day of the first trial in order to corroborate this new account. 

When asked, Kittle said it was Joel Kozack who initially gave him the incorrect information in March, meaning the lead prosecutor does not know the details in a case he is scheduled to take to trial again in a little over a week.

For weeks, Luna Shark Media has continued to call out the AG’s Office for apparently not knowing where Colucci is living. On True Sunlight Podcast, questions were raised about whether reports of Colucci’s alleged bond violations were ever followed up on by the AG’s Office. 

In 2019, Sara Lynn Colucci’s family was working with a private investigator who provided them with video of Michael purporting to show him violating the terms of what they believed to be his bond agreement at the time. 

Since being given this information in March, Luna Shark Media has asked Kittle several Colucci-related questions, including on April 17 when we asked if the office could provide documentation that Colucci is allowed to travel to his girlfriend’s home in Aiken, and again on May 1 when we asked again if the AG’s office has asked for any new bond amendments for Colluci. Those questions went unanswered. 

After this shocking revelation that the AG’s office was wrong about the terms of Michael Colucci’s bond conditions, Luna Shark Media now has several new questions for them, including 

  • Is Michael Coluci allowed in bars or establishments whose main purpose is the sale of alcohol? 
  • Is Michael Colucci still barred from having contact with the family of Sara Lynn Colucci? He was ticketed for speeding in Walterboro on April 25, 2024, and we know at least one family member lives there.
  • What is the point of an ankle monitor if there are no bond conditions? 
  • Has Michael been ordered to pay for his GPS monitoring? If so, how much and to whom?
  • Will the victims be granted access to Michael’s GPS log should they wish to see it?
  • Who has been monitoring Michael’s movements and verifying that he is wearing the monitor at all times?
  • Who has been monitoring and verifying that Michael has not allowed his ankle monitor to go uncharged for any amount of time?

No Accountability

South Carolina’s system of monitoring defendants who are awaiting trial in violent crimes is notoriously broken. 

In Bowen Turner’s case, for instance, prosecutors repeatedly ignored reports from victims that Turner was violating the terms of his bond despite wearing an ankle monitor. 

In response to this repeated lack of action, attorney Sarah Ford with the South Carolina Victims Assistance Network requested the GPS log showing Turner’s movements. The log showed dozens of times in which Turner had violated the terms during a particular time period, including where he even left the state. 

He received no repercussions for those apparent violations. 

Colucci appears to have been on an ankle monitor for more than five years since his first trial ended in mistrial in November 2018. In the meantime, the AG’s office appears to have been none the wiser, raising the question: what is the point of this system? More importantly, who is watching defendants accused of violent crimes while they’re out on bond?

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The Luna Shark team is working hard to make sure you have all the details before Michael Colucci goes to trial again on May 13, 2024 for the murder of Sara Lynn Colucci. Soak Up the Sun premium members have access to a full timeline, case documents, articles and watch parties of the 2018 trial with the team. Monday, May 13th, Soak Up the Sun members are invited to join us in the courtroom for jury selection and the start of the 2024 Colucci trial.

If you need to join Luna Shark Premium or upgrade your account to the Soak Up the Sun tier, visit lunashark.supercast.com

Contact Beth Braden

Beth Braden

Beth Braden is an award-winning journalist with experience covering government, education and crime and courts for more than 10 years. In addition to following breaking news and writing feature stories about life in her home state of Tennessee, her by-line appears on several internationally known websites.

Beth is passionate about communicating complex information in an easy-to-understand manner and she loves to pore over public records and court documents as she seeks out patterns and context to share with her audience. In her spare time, she enjoys quilting, strange museums, and good cups of coffee.