Former New Zealand councillor found guilty of first degree murder in B.C.

KAMLOOPS, B.C. — A jury in Kelowna, B.C., has found a former city councillor from New Zealand guilty of killing his wife.

Peter 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, B.C., in August 2010.

The jury has been deliberating since Tuesday.

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

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

Crown counsel argued during the three-week long trial that Beckett pushed his wife, who didn’t know how to swim, into the water, killing her so he could cash in on her life insurance policy and get her inheritance.

His defence told the trial that Letts-Beckett accidentally fell in and Beckett tried to save her.

This was the second time Beckett faced trial on the charges. Last year, a jury in Kamloops could not reach a consensus and a mistrial was declared.