Jurors see tape of emotional Bechler

Deepa Bharath

SANTA ANA -- After a two-week recess, the trial of accused murderer

Eric Bechler resumed Wednesday with jurors watching and listening to a

videotape of the defendant sobbing uncontrollably as he talked about the

events that led to his wife’s disappearance off the Newport coast.

Bechler is accused of murdering his 38-year-old wife, Pegye, by

bludgeoning her and dumping her body in the ocean during the July 6,

1997, boating trip. But Bechler has repeatedly pleaded innocence, saying

a wave pushed Pegye into the water as she was driving the speedboat that

towed him on a bodyboard.

The hourlong tape was an interview recorded by Dan Richard Motley, a

Coast Guard investigator who was called to testify for the prosecution.

The television -- which was turned away from the gallery to face the

judge, jury and attorneys -- played the interview, taped a day after

Pegye Bechler disappeared at sea.

In the tape, Motley and another officer were heard questioning Bechler

about what exactly happened during the excursion.

Bechler described their preparations for the trip. He said he had

organized it as a surprise for his wife as a delayed celebration of their

fifth wedding anniversary.

“We picked up a couple of bags, a cooler and a Boogie board [from

another place],” he said. The rental place “said we couldn’t have [a

bodyboard] on the boat.”

Bechler broke down and cried several times during the conversation,

and in many parts his speech was unintelligible because of his emotional

outbursts. At one point, the investigator asked him to “take a second, a

couple of deep breaths” to calm down before proceeding with the

interview.

Motley also testified Wednesday about the condition of the rented boat

the day after the incident and items found on the boat. He said the boat

was “very clean” when he looked at it the following morning.

There was no trash, debris, not even footprints, he said. Motley is

expected to continue his testimony today.

Earlier, prosecutors called Tami Janecek, ex-wife of Bechler’s friend

Kobi Laker. Laker testified two weeks ago that Bechler told him four

months before Pegye’s disappearance that he was thinking about stuffing

her in a barrel and dumping her in the ocean.

Janecek said Bechler and his wife did not seem to have a happy

marriage.

“When they were on the beach and she tried to talk to him, he’d look

away or give one-word answers,” she said. Janecek also said she, Bechler

and Laker would frequently go out for drinks or dinner after their

volleyball games at the beach, but Pegye never accompanied them.

When she or Laker suggested divorce, Bechler would brush it aside,

Janecek said.

“He felt with a divorce he’d lose the money and the kids,” she said.