Friend Says Man Talked of Killing

Four months before his wealthy wife vanished during a 1997 outing on a rented yacht, a Newport Beach man told his best friend he was thinking about killing the woman, the friend testified Thursday.

The startling testimony came during the fifth day of trial for Eric Bechler, accused of killing his wife, Pegye, and dumping her into the ocean. Her body has not been found.

“He asked me point-blank: ‘What do you think about the possibility of killing my wife?’ ” Bechler’s friend Kobi Laker testified in Orange County Superior Court.

“I said, ‘Have things really gotten that bad?’ . . . He said he was thinking about taking her out to sea and dumping her in the ocean, possibly in a barrel.”

Laker said his friend had complained about his marriage for several years, and at one point, talked of videotaping her using cocaine in a bid to win custody of the couple’s children.

The testimony supported the prosecution’s contention that Bechler killed his wife in a well-planned ambush while the couple celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary on a “surprise” cruise.

Laker, who served as best man at the couple’s wedding, paused and appeared to fight back tears while testifying.

“I said, ‘If you do this thing, the man is going to come down on you awfully hard as a suspect. Are you going to be able to handle this?’ He said yes.”

Laker said he told Bechler to never again bring up the subject in his presence. A week after Pegye Bechler’s disappearance, Laker said he contacted Eric Bechler to tell him he was suspicious.

“Eric told me not to say anything and to go see his lawyer,” Laker said.

Bechler, 33, has insisted for more than three years that his wife was the victim of a tragic accident. He was arrested last year after acknowledging the murder in statements to girlfriend Tina New, who was secretly recording their conversation for detectives.

Defense attorney John Barnett spent more than a day cross-examining New, a former “Baywatch” actress, but less than an hour with Laker.