Wednesday, June 19, 2002
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Wednesday, June 19, 2002 |
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Daughter, sisters, mother testify that Watson never hurt his wife By JOHN MUNFORD
Several members of Jim Watsons family have testified in his defense as he faces a possible murder conviction for the death of his wife Beverley who he claims disappeared form their Southeast Fayette home in January 1997. Jim Watsons sisters, Sandy Wells and Kathy Ragsdale, and his mother Gail Watson each testified they never saw Jim Watson hurt his wife, as did his daughter Ashley, one of his friends, and one of his former employees. Gail Watson said Beverley once asked her for help in 1994, the same year Beverley first filed for divorce from Jim. Jim's mother said she asked her daughter-in-law if her son was hurting her in any way. "She looked me straight in the eye and said Jim has not hit me or harmed me in any way," Gail Watson told the jury. Although she admitted to asking Beverley whether there was any violence in her marriage, Gail Watson said she had no reason to believe that there was. Kathy Ragsdale , one of Jim Watson's sisters, testified that the night of Beverley's disappearance, she had offered to take the couple's son Todd to Discovery Zone. Both Todd and his sister Ashley spent the night elsewhere when their mother allegedly disappeared. Prosecutors allege that Jim Watson had his sister take Todd away from the home so there would be no witnesses to the alleged murder.
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