Bechler’s best man says he talked of killing

Deepa Bharath

SANTA ANA -- Accused murderer Eric Bechler discussed dumping his

wife’s body into the ocean three months before she disappeared, the best

man to his wedding testified Thursday.

Acting as a witness for the prosecution, Kobi Laker said Bechler had

told him he was thinking about “taking her out to sea and dumping her in

the ocean.”

Bechler, 33, has been charged with killing his 38-year-old wife,

Pegye, during their boating trip on July 6, 1997, an excursion Bechler

planned as a surprise for their fifth wedding anniversary.

Although prosecutors accuse him of murdering his wife to get $2.5

million in life insurance, the Newport Beach man has pleaded not guilty,

saying she was pushed into the ocean by a wave when she was driving a

speedboat and towing him on a bodyboard.

Laker, who was Eric Bechler’s best man when he married Pegye on the

sands of Newport Beach, choked as he recalled his friend’s words one

afternoon in March 1997 as they relaxed after their usual game of

volleyball.

“He just asked me point blank, ‘What do you think about the

possibility of killing my wife,”’ Laker said. “I was shocked and asked

him ‘Are you serious? Have things gotten that bad?”’

Laker said Bechler clearly discussed a plan, telling him that he was

thinking of stuffing Pegye in a barrel and dumping her in the ocean.

“I asked him ‘If this happens, you’re going to get a lot of heat, can

you take that?’ and he said ‘yes,”” Laker said. “I asked him, ‘Are you

going to be able to act like a distraught, bereaving husband,’ and he

said, ‘yes.”’

Laker told his friend he didn’t want to hear about the idea ever

again. They never spoke about it again.

Laker also said Bechler had been complaining about his wife as early

as a year before she disappeared, calling her “obsessed, selfish,

manipulative and controlling.”

“Eric told me ‘I can’t stand this any more,”’ Laker said. “He said ‘I

have to get out of this, get away from her.”’

On another occasion, Laker testified, Bechler had also mentioned his

plan to videotape his wife using cocaine to prove she was an unfit mother

to their three children. Bechler told him he was concerned about Pegye’s

threats to divorce him and take the children to live with her family in

New Mexico and that he would never be able to see them again.

Laker added that it was difficult for him, emotionally, to testify

against a person who was once his best friend.

But, he continued, he has been consumed by guilt ever since Pegye

disappeared.

“I feel like I could have done something to stop it,” he said.

Laker told Bechler’s defense attorney, John Barnett, that Bechler told

him after his wife’s disappearance that he was innocent. But he also said

that Bechler did not “continually say he was innocent.”

Earlier, Barnett concluded his cross-questioning of Bechler’s

ex-girlfriend Tina New, who told jurors earlier this week about Bechler

describing the gruesome details of killing his wife.

Police arrested Bechler the night of Oct. 29, 1999, after New wore a

recording device to tape her conversations with Bechler in a restaurant,

during which Bechler told her he murdered his wife.

Barnett continued to question New, aiming to establish his theory that

his client lied about killing his wife to impress his wild girlfriend,

who was attracted to “bad boys” -- men who lived dangerously. New told

Barnett on Thursday that she tried to get back with her ex-husband, who

abused her, and her former boyfriend, who she said has committed a murder

and stolen from Bechler.

New told Barnett she didn’t like “bad boys.”

“I like [my former boyfriend] because he was 6 feet 4 and 230 pounds

and beautiful,” she said. “I was attracted to him because of the way he

looked, not because he stole or hit somebody on the head with a bottle.”

The hearing is scheduled to continue Jan. 3.