A multimillionaire from Newport Beach who jumped bail and was a fugitive for years has pleaded guilty to killing his wife in their home a decade ago.
According to CNS, 57-year-old Peter Chadwick pleaded guilty on Wednesday, February 9, to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. In the negotiated plea deal, Chadwick waived all his custody credit and will have to serve at least 85% of his sentence before getting a parole hearing.
On the morning of October 10, 2012, Chadwick killed his 46-year-old wife Quee Choo Lim Chadwick, who was known as Q.C., over a dispute regarding a possible divorce and related financial issues.
After jumping bail, Chadwick was captured in August 2019 near Pueblo, Mexico after spending seven years on the run.
"I just want to express that I am truly sorry," Chadwick said. "I destroyed everything. So I deserve whatever the court decides."
He also added that he hopes his sons and wife's family can "somehow carry on remembering what kind of a person she was. Such a great person, so loving and she cared for everyone. I am sorry for what happened."
The victim's sister said in a statement read aloud in court by Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker, "QC was chatty, inquisitive and compassionate and we would speak on the phone almost every day. Family was the most important thing to her. She would go to extraordinary lengths to do anything to help us. She looked after my family as I would hers. It was her who would initiate and spend countless hours planning our annual family reunions. We still feel her loss every year at these events, an emptiness that cannot be filled."