Wednesday, September 17, 2003
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Wednesday, September 17, 2003 |
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Convicted murderer proclaims innocence, predicts run for sheriff By JOHN MUNFORD
In a prison cell all to himself, serving life in prison for murdering his wife, Jim Watson has had plenty of time to plot how he'll clear his name. "I work on it day and night," Watson said Friday afternoon in an exclusive interview with The Citizen. "When I received the transcripts (of the trial) I stayed up three nights straight separating people's testimony. When you're sitting in jail alone for 23 hours a day you've got nothing else to do." Watson has been jailed since last June when a Fulton County jury convicted him of murdering his wife, Beverley. Her remains were found in a wooded area of south Fulton County in 1999, over two years after Jim Watson told police she walked away from the couple's south Fayette home and never came back. Watson's attorneys have argued that he deserves a new trial because of a mistake Fulton County prosecutors made with the indictment. Watson hopes a new trial would not only convince a jury that he's innocent, but also prove his innocence to residents here. "I really want another chance to prove to the people of the town that I was innocent and I was framed," Watson said. "I want the media to cover it and show the lies that were told." Does he regret taking the stand in his own defense during the trial last summer? "Oh no, no. Not at all. And I'll do it again," he said. "... Some people might say I'm cocky. I'm not cocky, I'm confident. I know I'm innocent." *** If Watson can get himself cleared of the murder charges, he also wants to make a run at becoming Fayette County's next sheriff. The term of current Sheriff Randall Johnson ends next year. "Ever since I got into law enforcement I've always wanted to run for sheriff in Fayette County when Randall Johnson retires," said Watson, who has been a police officer for the cities of Riverdale and Manchester in addition to working undercover drug stings with the Tri-Cities drug task force. "Since the early '90s I've wanted to run for sheriff in the county I grew up in." Watson says he would get support from his friends in the law enforcement community. He wants to see Fayette take a tougher stance on illegal drugs,little surprise since he formerly served as an undercover police officer on drug stings for the Tri-Cities drug task force. "If I can ever get this all behind me by March or April of next year... I'm already planning my foundation and platform, everything I want to bring to the table," Watson said in a phone interview Friday afternoon. *** Watson now lives the life of an inmate, and a convicted murderer at that. He has been confined to Reidsville State Prison in protective (solitary) custody because he is a former police officer,and mixing him with other inmates could have bad results. As Watson puts it, "There's several of them I've put down there." Protective custody means he gets his own cell, with its own sink and toilet, all to himself 23 hours a day. He gets one hour daily to go outside and exercise, getting fresh air with a group. He also eats alone in his cell, Watson said, noting that one inmate at Reidsville saw him through a window and shouted some threats at him. Watson added that he's not scared of the inmates because the prison staff keeps him well away from inmates who know him from his police days. "They don't let anybody near me," he said. While he helps his attorneys plan his appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court, Watson likely will spend his time behind bars in Fulton County's jail, a process that could take many months. *** In Reidsville, family and friends are allowed visits on weekends, with daughter Ashley making trips often to visit and help her dad plan his legal battle. When she's not there, Watson will call her several times a night sometimes to discuss the case. "She knows this law stuff like crazy," Jim Watson said. Watson contends several witnesses lied on the stand to help secure the jury verdict against him. He contradicts the account of two neighbors who claimed to see him outside the evening of Beverley's disappearance, both of whom admitted they were driving home after having drinks at bars. As for his theory about what happened to Beverley after he last saw her during a heated argument on Jan. 18, 1997? "My gut feeling? I'm kind of 50-50 but I'm (thinking) a friend didn't pick her up but something else happened on the side of the road." That was Watson's original theory about how his wife disappeared. He told Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents in a three-hour interview after her disappearance that he thought she had called a friend to get a ride.
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