FRIDAY, January 22, 2016
www.kamloopsthisweek.com
A5
LOCAL NEWS HOW SWEEP IT IS
Lawrence Brenholen watches his shot as teammates Paula Wickenden (left) and Eileen Funk look to sweep during mixed seniors regular league play on Tuesday at the McArthur Island Sports and Event Centre. Kamloops has two well-used curling clubs — McArthur Island and the Kamloops Curling Centre downtown. Both have a variety of leagues to join, from beginners to veterans. For more information on the McArthur Island club, go online to mcarthurislandcurlingclub.com. For more information on the Kamloops club, go online to kamloopscurlingclub.com. DAVE EAGLES/KTW
HOW HARD CAN IT REALLY BE? Do you know anyone who is the executor of someone’s Will? There is much to know about the legal duties and expectations the executor takes on when they administer an estate. For instance, executors must ensure that all of the deceased’s debts are properly prioritized and paid. Executors are personally responsible for protecting the estate assets (i.e., they could be personally liable if they fail to keep fire insurance on the house and it burns down). They must provide to beneficiaries a proper reconciliation showing how all estate funds have been received, spent and disbursed. They must file tax returns for the deceased and the estate, and are personally liable for any unpaid income taxes.
Wife’s friend testifies at trial TIM PETRUK
STAFF REPORTER
tim@kamloopsthisweek.com
A friend and colleague of Laura Letts-Beckett told a jury yesterday she was immediately suspicious of the woman’s husband — a former New Zealand politician — when she found out Letts-Beckett had drowned in a B.C. lake, despite the fact the death was initially ruled accidental. Kim Webster took the stand on Day 3 of Peter Beckett’s first-degree murder trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops. The Crown alleges Beckett, 59, killed Letts-Beckett in 2010 out of greed. In 2010, Webster was a trustee with the Pembina Hills school district in Alberta, where LettsBeckett worked as an elementary teacher. The two knew each other from Webster’s childhood, having attended the same conservative Christian church. Webster said she ran into Letts-Beckett at the school district’s Christmas social in December 2008. Beckett and Letts-Beckett were separated at the time. Court heard the two began to catch up, Webster telling LettsBeckett her first marriage had ended in divorce — something frowned upon by their church. “I started talking about how my life had turned out maybe not how I’d imagined,” Webster said, describing her first marriage as an abusive relationship. “I never imagined divorce. Then Laura grabbed my hand and got quite serious and said, ‘We need to talk.’” Webster said Letts-Beckett pulled her into a small room and became emotional. “She started crying and saying that she had also gotten
For updated stories on the murder trial of Peter Beckett (above in a dated photo), go online to kamloopsthisweek.com. out of an abusive relationship,” Webster said. “The gist of the conversation was a lot of her crying, me sometimes sharing what had happened to me in my first marriage and her agreeing — a controlling spouse. “She kept saying she was a shell of who she used to be — that she had been beaten down, pushed down. “She talked about how her husband had been very controlling, that he was this powerful person up on a pedestal and she was just small. “She was trembling at times. We embraced several times and I could feel her trembling.” Webster said Letts-Beckett told her she would never reconcile with her husband. However, court has heard, the couple got back together the following month. At the 2009 school district Christmas party, Webster said, a hesitant Letts-Beckett introduced her to Beckett. “We shook hands,” she said. “She said, ‘Well, we’re back together and we’re trying to work it out’.” Webster said she was informed of Letts-Beckett’s death by her superintendent prior to a school district function in 2010.
“As soon as I heard about Laura’s drowning, I did have a bias or a preconceived notion that Peter had killed her,” she said. Webster said she went to police in 2011, after RCMP announced they were treating Letts-Beckett’s death as a homicide. Beckett made a number of outbursts in court yesterday, particularly during the testimony of Ray Barlow, the lawyer who dealt with Letts-Beckett’s will. During a meeting after LettsBeckett had died, Barlow said, he caught Beckett rifling through a Letts family file while he was out of the room making photocopies. At one point during Barlow’s testimony, Beckett called him a “liar,” causing the jury to be excused briefly from the courtroom. Letts-Beckett drowned in Upper Arrow Lake, near Revelstoke, on Aug. 18, 2010, while she and Beckett vacationed in B.C. Beckett was arrested and charged in August 2011. Crown prosecutor Sarah Firestone has told the 14-person jury Beckett stood to gain a significant amount of money through pension and insurance payouts if his wife died. Through her questioning, defence lawyer Donna Turko has suggested Letts-Beckett was depressed prior to her drowning. Beckett was a city councillor in Napier, New Zealand, in the 1990s. He met Letts-Beckett while she was vacationing in New Zealand in 1995 and moved to Canada in 2000. The couple wed in 2003. Beckett’s trial is expected to last three months.
THE DUTIES OF AN EXECUTOR ARE MANY, AND CAN BE CONFUSING. WE CAN HELP. For assistance in the probate process and advice about how to properly administer an estate, speak with one our experienced lawyers in our Estate Planning & Administration Team.
LEAH CARD
Wills & Estates Lawyer Fulton & Company LLP
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