Āé¶¹AV jurors have now been deliberating for four days on the fate of a former New Zealand politician accused of killing his wife.
The case against the six-foot-nine, 400-pound accused referred to as āMan Mountainā in his home country was largely circumstantial, much like the previous case against him. In a previous multi-month trial in Kamloops, a jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision on the charge of murder after more than a week of deliberations, triggering the retrial that happened in Āé¶¹AV.
There is one piece of direct evidence before the jury ā the statement Beckett gave within a day of Aug. 18,2010, when Laura Letts-Beckett drowned on Upper Arrow Lakes.
Crown counsel Iain Currie told the jury of seven men and five women that the direct evidence available to them was enough to prove Beckett killed his wife for personal gain.
In that statement Beckett tells police that when his wife hit the water, she thrashed about and screamed. As she struggled to stay afloat, he relied on a āfishermanās instinctā and reeled in the line to his fishing rod. As he did, his boat floated past his wife and by the time he turned around she had been submerged.
āWe say Mr. Beckett murdered his wife, just to be clear,ā said Currie. āWeāre saying the fact he didnāt save her when that would have been easy ā easy to try, instinctive to try, unavoidable to try, unless you donāt want to. The fact he didnāt save his wife is evidence that he pushed her out.ā
Supporting that argument, he said, is evidence that the couple took out an accidental death policy two months before the drowning, Beckett had jail house conversations with a known-conman about getting rid of witnesses that could make him look guilty of killing his wife and he was fixated on getting an inheritance from his wifeās wealthy parents.
Defence told jurors that this wasnāt enough to convict Beckett.
āWe say Mr. Beckett murdered his wife, just to be clear,ā said Currie. āWeāre saying the fact he didnāt save her when that would have been easy ā easy to try, instinctive to try, unavoidable to try, unless you donāt want to. The fact he didnāt save his wife is evidence that he pushed her out.ā
Currie told jurors that when Beckett said that he had a fishermanās instinct and no instinct to save his wife, itās because heās lying.
āHeās lying because he pushed her in,ā said Currie. āThe evidence is that he wanted her dead and he pushed her in.ā
That, he said, puts the decision to take out an accidental death policy just a month before his wifeās death, and allegations that he plotted with a known criminal to rid himself of witnesses posed to testify against him in the years after her death in a very suspicious light.
Marilyn Sandford, the defence lawyer for Beckett argued the day before that there was no incentive for murder and if her client was motivated by money at all, heād be better off keeping his wife alive. As a longtime school teacher Letts-Beckett made a good wage that couldnāt be replaced by the pension sheād leave behind which, including CPP, amounted to around $2,600 a month.
Also, she said that the $200,000 accidental death policy taken out in the months before Letts-Beckett drowned arenāt significant of much, considering sheād previously had similar ā though not accidental death ā insurance coverage in the past.
āWhere is the planning and deliberation? When did it start? ā¦Was Peter Beckett planning and deliberating in 2006 when he bought the motorhome? āWell letās buy that and get life insurance on that debt. Four years from now I will kill you and I will get that money.āā
It doesnāt make sense, she told jurors.
Sandford also described Beckettās post death behaviour as a symptom of trauma and grief.