Family’s accountant insists Irmo bookie knew of wife’s life insurance policy [The State (Columbia, S.C.)]

May 23--COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A Lexington accountant described Wednesday how he pressed a reluctant Brett Parker to put the inheritance from his dead wife into trust funds for their children.

Ben Staples, 62, said he advised Brett Parker that he would not be able to keep the money because the shooting deaths inside his home and the resulting revelation that he was a sports bookie would attract the attention of the IRS and Secret Service. And he would be open to civil suits from the families of his deceased wife and his sports betting clerk, who also was killed in the Parkers' home.

"There was no scenario where he could ever get his money," Staples said. "Zero."

Parker certainly knew about his wife's life insurance policy, Staples said. And he at first fought suggestions that the money be set aside for the children, he said.

Staples was one of the last witnesses for the prosecution, which rested its case Wednesday after 10 days of testimony. Staples' testimony was aimed at disputing the defense team's assertion that Parker did not know he stood to inherit $1.1 million in life insurance and retirement benefits if his wife died. The defense also has said the money is in an irrevocable trust for the Parkers' children, Brooke and Zach.

Prosecutors have said that Brett Parker killed his wife, Tammy Parker, and framed his sports betting clerk, Bryan Capnerhurst, for it in an attempt to escape debt and a troubled marriage.

But Brett Parker has said Capnerhurst, who worked in his gambling operation, came to the Parkers' house on April 13, 2012, to rob the couple, killing his wife first. Brett Parker said he was able to kill Capnerhurst in self defense after pulling a gun from the top of his safe.

Staples' testimony revealed that he was more than the Parkers' accountant. He had been friends with Tammy Parker for 13 years after meeting her when she made a sales call to his office. That friendship "became intimate" in 2010 but that aspect ended that same year, he testified. The two remained friends, and he continued to prepare the family's taxes.

Staples also had loaned Brett and Tammy Parker money against their house several years ago after Brett Parker lost an estimated $100,000 while gambling in Las Vegas. The money was repaid after Brett Parker's father, Jack Parker, bailed out his son, Staples said.

Staples said he became involved in the estate planning after Tammy Parker's death because he knew what needed to be done and was familiar with the family's finances. She did not have a will.

The urgency increased after he read a newspaper comment from one of Brett Parker's defense attorneys that he fully expected his client to be arrested for the shootings.

"We were moving quickly," Staples said.

Brett Parker did not want to put the money in his children's names, Staples said, but eventually agreed.

The inheritance was placed in a conservator trust account with Tammy Parker's father, Jerry Carswell, as the trustee. Each child now has an account with nearly $500,000 in it, Staples said.

"It was totally my idea to protect the estate of Tammy Parker," he said.

Staples also told the jury that Brett Parker and his attorneys had asked him to change his testimony regarding Brett Parker's knowledge of the life insurance policy, which was valued at $868,000.

Also taking the stand Wednesday was Sheriff Leon Lott, who testified that he had six meetings with Parker. Four were at the sheriff's office, one was at an Irmo ballpark and the final was at the Parker's 12 Tackeria Court home.

At the home, Parker walked the sheriff through the shooting scenario. Afterward, they sat at the kitchen table to talk.

"When we sat at that kitchen table was the first time I told him his story did not fit the evidence," Lott said. "He was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole."

Lott told Parker that investigators were meeting with the 5th Circuit Solicitor's Office to get an arrest warrant and that he would call when it was finalized.

Parker was at a hospital because of a panic attack when Lott called the next morning to ask him to turn himself in at the sheriff's department. Parker did so later that afternoon.

The prosecution's final witness was Maj. Stan Smith, supervisor of the sheriff's investigations division, who took the jury through the investigation step-by-step and pointed out the holes in Parker's account of the shootings.

Smith said he took the story at face value on the first day, but within 48 hours investigators knew there were problems.

He strongly defended the investigation during cross-examination by defense attorney Marc Whitlark, who has said the sheriff's department targeted his client because he was a bookie. Their heated exchange drew warnings from Judge DeAndrea Benjamin, who told them to not talk over each other.

"We only had one story," Smith said. "We owed it to Tammy Parker and Bryan Capnerhurst to test that story. That story should hold up."

But it did not, Smith said. Parker frequently changed his story and his account did not match evidence, he said.

"The truth is pure," Smith said. "The truth ought to be the same every time you tell it."

Reach Phillips at (803) 771-8307.

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