The man accused of killing his wife and former Dapp School teacher Laura Letts-Beckett is expected to stand trial in Kamloops Supreme Court beginning Tuesday, Jan. 19.
Peter Beckett will be tried on a charge of first-degree murder in relation to the 2010 drowning death of Letts-Beckett.
Beckett also faces two counts of counselling to commit murder and one count of obstruction of justice after he allegedly tried to arrange the murder of several key witnesses while in custody.
The trial is expected to run until March and begins after a lengthy voir dire process that began in October.
Voir dire, known as the trial-within-a-trial, is an in-trial procedure and was used to determine the admissibility of evidence, specifically disclosure of the police investigation into Beckett.
The couple met in 1995 at a tourist attraction on New Zealand’s North Island while Letts-Beckett was on leave from her job as a teacher in Dapp, Alberta.
By 2003, the two married. In 2004, Beckett was granted residence in Canada and the two moved to Letts-Beckett’s home in Westlock.
In 2010, the pair took a fishing trip to Shelter Bay Provincial Park in August 2010.
Beckett claims a gust of wind carried his wife overboard, while police say he pushed his wife from the boat.
