Peter Beckett: GUILTY of Killing Wife

A jury in Kelowna, after deliberating since last Tuesday, has found Peter Beckett, a former city councillor from New Zealand, guilty of killing his wife.

Beckett had pleaded not-guilty to first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Laura Letts-Beckett, who drowned in a lake near Revelstoke back in August 2010.

The jurty heard the couple were living in Alberta in 2010 and were on a camping trip when Letts-Beckett died.

It was Crown counsel’s case during the three-week long trial, that Beckett pushed his wife, who didn’t know how to swim, into the water.

They contended vigerously, that he killed her so he could cash in on her life insurance policy and as well recieve her inheritance.

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His defence insisted that Letts-Beckett accidentally fell in and Beckett tried to save her and failed in his efforts.

Beckett faced trial on the charges last year, where a jury in Kamloops could not reach a consensus and a mistrial was declared.

The verdict of first-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.