BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The Latest on a lawsuit accusing a Baton Rouge man of improperly collecting a $500,000 payout from his business partner’s life insurance policy after the partner killed his estranged wife and himself (all times local):
6:30 p.m.
A Baton Rouge man says he did nothing wrong in claiming a $500,000 payout from his business partner’s life insurance policy less than three weeks after the partner gunned down his estranged wife and shot and killed himself in Connecticut last year.
During an interview at his home Monday, Todd Hines said he hasn’t spent any of the policy proceeds and doesn’t want to profit from the “tragedy” that cost him two friends. But he said he has honored Billy Wayne Newman’s decision to make him the policy’s beneficiary after Newman’s wife, Lauren Beebe, filed for divorce.
Beebe’s family sued Hines on Friday to recover the money, which they argue should have gone to the couple’s two young children. Their suit claims Hines improperly collected the proceeds after Newman illegally replaced Beebe as the policy’s beneficiary with Hines less than two weeks before Newman killed her and himself on Nov. 25.
Earlier Monday, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Marshals Service to seize the money pending the outcome of the litigation.
Hines says he never saw any warning signs before the shootings and still can’t make sense of what happened.
___
3:30 p.m.
A lawsuit claims a Baton Rouge man improperly collected a $500,000 payout from his business partner’s life insurance policy after the partner gunned down his estranged wife and shot and killed himself in Connecticut last year.
A federal judge on Monday ordered the U.S. Marshals Service to seize money that Todd Hines received from the policy for his deceased business partner, Billy Wayne Newman.
The lawsuit says Newman illegally replaced his wife, Lauren Beebe, as the policy’s beneficiary with Hines less than two weeks before Newman killed her and himself.
The suit says Hines filed a claim for the policy’s proceeds less than three weeks after the Nov. 25 shootings. The suit claims Newman and Beebe’s two children are the rightful recipients.
Hines didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.