 Tony Terpstra. Gerard Creces/QMI Agency
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GODERICH - When the hitman called his cell phone on March 12, 2009 and told him “it’s done,” Tony Terpstra had a one-word reaction: “Yup.” Terpstra testified he was stunned at the news from the hitman, who was actually an undercover police officer, that his wife had been killed.
“I didn’t believe anything happened to Sheila. I couldn’t see how it could,” Terpstra said.
Terpstra and a woman he was having a long affair with, Serrena Benninger, are on trial, charged with conspiracy to commit murder and counselling to commit murder.
Taking the stand in his own defence, Terpstra told the jury Thursday he’d only been humouring Benninger when he went along with her suggestion to hire a hitman to have his wife killed.
When he handed over $7,500 to Benninger, half the sum demanded by the undercover officer, Terpstra said he never intended the money be paid to the hitman.
He planned to let Benninger keep the money for a short while and then ask for it back, he said.
When Benninger told him she’d made the downpayment on the hit, which was to be a staged car accident, Terpstra said he was shocked.
Phone conversations between Terpstra and the hitman and a recording of a face-to-face meeting have been played for the jury.
Examined by his lawyer David Humphrey, Terpstra testified in all of his dealings he was trying to delay the hit from going ahead.
He never intended to leave his wife, but wanted to maintain his affair with Benninger.
He was also having an affair with another woman during the same period and had other sexual encounters, court heard.
The night before the hitman confirmed he’d killed Sheila, Terpstra gave his consent for it to go ahead.
But he called back later that night and left a message on the hitman’s phone, saying the hit couldn’t go ahead because his wife would have a baby with her in the vehicle.
When he was told it was actually done, Terpstra asked if the hitman got his message the night before.
The undercover officer told him there were no kids involved in the killing.
Terpsrtra replied, “OK.”
He asked if it had gone smoothly. There was no problem, the hitman assured him.
In earlier testimony, Terpstra agreed he’d handed over pictures of his wife, the vehicle and licence plate to the hitman.
His plan, however, was to delay, delay, delay in hopes the man hired by Benninger would become frustrated and walk away from the deal.
If that failed, Terpstra said he was prepared to pay out the full $15,000 and call the whole thing off.
“Did you ever really intend your wife would be killed by him?” Humphrey asked.
“No,” Terpstra firmly replied, as Benninger took notes at a table across the courtroom and his wife Sheila looked on from the gallery.
Asked about a conversation he had with another person about hiring a hitman, Terpstra said he only brought it up because Benninger suggested the idea.
“I really didn’t think there would be anybody around like that in the area,” he said.
Although he’d learned his wife had affairs of her own, something that bothered him, Terpstra said he’d have never left her for Benninger.
He didn’t want to see his two children go through hell, as they did during an earlier separation between the couple, his business was thriving, and he was comfortable in his marriage, he testified.
But he testified several times that he cared for Benninger, the wife of a work colleague, and that she was fun. Their affair was carried on on roadsides, friends’ houses, an old barn, and once in his hot tub, where his wife found them naked.
Terpstra said the initial years of his marriage to Sheila were great and he didn’t know his wife was having an affair when he agreed to a wife-swapping arrangement.
The wife-swapping started when a neighbour’s wife approached him when he was combining.
Terpstra testified he just thought she wanted a ride on the combine and was shocked when she raised the idea.
Terpstra said he later discussed it with his wife and they decided to go ahead.
There were two swapping incidents, one in London, he said.
When he learned Sheila had been having an affair with the neighbour before the wife-swapping agreement, Terpstra said he was hurt.
Cross-examination of Terpstra continues Friday.
