First-Degree Murder Verdict for Bechler

A Newport Beach man accused of killing his wife and dumping her body during a birthday cruise was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder, ending a courtroom drama complete with tales of fast living and a confession secretly taped by his actress girlfriend.

Eric Christopher Bechler, 33, sat without reacting as the guilty verdict touched off a wave of emotion behind him in the packed courtroom. The victim’s mother threw her head forward and sobbed as other relatives of the dead woman, Pegye Bechler, held each other.

The verdict came after seven days of emotional deliberations, during which jurors occasionally left each other in tears during heated arguments.

With no physical evidence to guide them--not even a body--members of the seven-woman, five-man panel said the verdict was “the most difficult decision of our lives.” The panel reached the decision despite harboring doubts about some aspects of the prosecutors’ case, one panelist said.

“People didn’t sleep at night because it was so intense,” said juror Cesar Moran, 22, of Santa Ana. “The whole trial was like a soap opera. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Prosecutors argued that Bechler bludgeoned his wife to cash in on a $2-million life insurance policy. But the jury appeared not to believe that was the motive, rejecting a “special circumstance” allegation of murder for financial gain. The district attorney’s office had earlier decided that it would not seek the death penalty, so Bechler faces a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

Pegye Bechler’s family welcomed the verdict with a mixture of tears and relief.

“It’s so overwhelming,” said Pegye’s mother, June Marshall, who traveled from New Mexico so she could attend the trial. “It’s been devastating for 3 1/2 years. We have to keep dealing with this.”

Girlfriend Helped Revive ‘Cold Case’

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Debora Lloyd said she was gratified that Bechler was ultimately unable to pull off what investigators once thought might be the perfect crime.

“I think of the possibility Eric would have gotten away with this,” Lloyd said outside the courtroom. “He would have gotten the insurance and the children. He’s not going to do that now. . . . He got the life insurance policy he deserves.”

The mystery over the 1997 disappearance of Pegye Bechler was the talk of Newport Beach and in the last two months drew overflowing crowds to the Santa Ana courtroom.

Bechler steadfastly maintained that his 38-year-old wife, a strong swimmer and avid triathlete, disappeared while piloting a rented speedboat towing him on a bodyboard.

He testified that the couple were four miles off Newport Beach when he was knocked off the board by a rogue wave. When he surfaced, he said, he saw the boat circling in the distance with his wife gone.

The defendant’s family said they were devastated by the conviction and accused jurors of deciding from the outset that Bechler, the father of three, was guilty.

“It’s tragic,” said Gail Bechler, the defendant’s aunt. “We think he’s innocent. It’s a tragic thing. Pegye’s gone and now three children have no mother or father.”

She also asked how jurors could be swayed by prosecutors’ star witness, Tina New, a former “Baywatch” actress and model who testified that Bechler admitted anchoring his wife’s body with 70 pounds of weights, then throwing her overboard. During the trial, New acknowledged an earlier conviction for impersonating a woman to withdraw money from her account and claimed she had psychic powers.

“Who would believe her?” Gail Bechler said.

It was New who gave sheriff’s homicide detectives the break in the “cold case” when more than two years after Pegye’s disappearance she agreed to help. She wore a body wire and taped Bechler making incriminating statements over a meal.

“I can’t thank her enough for her contribution,” Orange County Sheriff’s Investigator Gary Jones said, “because without her, he’d still be walking the street.”

The trial lasted six weeks, drawing on testimony from more than 40 witnesses and 118 exhibits, including dozens of audiotapes and hundreds of pages of transcripts of secretly recorded conversations between Bechler and New.

Prosecutors portrayed Bechler as a man who loved the high life. He drove expensive German sports cars and lived in an exclusive Newport Beach neighborhood. But financial problems in 1997 seemed to endanger that lifestyle, prosecutors argued. And an affair Bechler had had with a topless dancer had jeopardized the marriage.

A close friend testified that Bechler approached him three months before Pegye’s disappearance and confided that he was thinking about killing his wife. Kobi Laker testified that Bechler told him he was planning to kill her then dump her body at sea.

In the end, however, the case hinged on the secretly recorded conversation between Bechler and New.

After six days of heated debate, jurors were deadlocked. Nine leaned toward guilty and three had doubts, according to juror Moran. Prosecutors had argued that Bechler bludgeoned his wife to death on the boat. But jurors were skeptical, Moran said. No blood matching Pegye’s was ever found on the vessel.

The panel asked to listen to the tapes of the conversation one last time.

During the recording, Bechler discussed his wife’s death with New, saying he was motivated “partly for the money, partly for the kids. . . . That’s how I justified it in my mind. I felt like I was backed in a corner. Like she was gonna steal the kids away and I’d never see them again.”

The defense team argued that he was simply trying to impress a woman he believed liked “bad boys.” But the statements--though hardly a full confession--helped swing the holdout jurors toward a conviction, Moran said. He said the panel was struck by how Bechler never at any point in the conversation denied that he killed his wife.

“He has lots of opportunities to deny it, but he never does,” Moran said. “He was basically saying it, without saying it.”

‘Can’t Really Say What Happened Out There’

Answering a question from the jury, Judge Frank F. Fasel had told the panel that they could find Bechler guilty even if they did not agree how he killed his wife.

“I can’t really say what happened out there,” said Moran, referring to the boat trip. “What really made me sure was the wiretap at the restaurant.”

Defense attorney John Barnett said he was disappointed that jurors had come to that conclusion and called Fasel’s jury instruction “disturbing.”

He said he is considering an appeal, most likely on the grounds that California prosecutors have no jurisdiction in the waters where they claim Pegye was killed. A similar motion filed during the trial was denied by Fasel.

Bechler is scheduled to be sentenced March 16.

In the meantime, friends of both Pegye and Eric Bechler said the conviction tore at their emotions. Laker, who testified against his friend, said he felt both relieved and grieved.

“I feel grieved because of Pegye’s murder and the emotional pain felt by all those who loved her and miss her,” he said. “And also because of the loss of someone I once thought of as a true friend.”

Pegye’s best friend, Glenda Mason, said the verdict provided a small but important measure of comfort as she continues to mourn.

“I want him to pay for what he did. I cry almost every night about this, and I don’t sleep through the night,” Mason said. “It gives me a little closure to a lot of sadness in my life.”

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writers Richard Marosi, David Reyes and Mai Tran.