New trial denied, Watson will appeal to Ga. Supreme Court

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

James Lamar Watson Jr., convicted of murdering his wife in 1997 and dumping her body in a wooded area of south Fulton County, will not be getting a new trial.

The Fulton County judge who ruled over the case, T. Jackson Bedford Jr., has denied Watson’s motion for a new trial in a 12-page order filed late Tuesday afternoon.

Watson’s lead defense attorney, Lee Sexton, said Wednesday that he will file a notice of appeal with the Georgia Supreme Court as early as today.

“We’re very confident the Supreme Court will not let that conviction stand,” largely due to the amount of judicial error alleged by defense attorneys, Sexton said.

Watson, who claimed his wife Beverley disappeared from their south Fayette home after a heated argument between the two Jan. 17, 1997, will remain in the Fulton County jail pending further appeal of his case. He is there instead of the state corrections system because his attorneys want him close by to help with the appeal process, Sexton said.

Watson, who testified at trial and maintained his innocence, was sentenced to life in prison immediately after the verdict was read in June 2002.

Watson’s attorneys used 19 different claims asserting he should get a new trial, and Judge Bedford addressed some of those claims in detail while denying others with little comment.

Defense attorneys were particularly hopeful about their challenge of the indictment, which was ultimately denied. Specifically, they pointed out that the assistant district attorney argued in her closing that Jim Watson killed Beverley Watson at their Fayette home before dumping it in Fulton County.

But that claim could not be considered by the jury as evidence, Bedford noted.

“The evidence presented could have equally supported the conclusion that the defendant somehow was able to bring the victim to Fulton County prior to death (maybe while she was incapacitated) and inflict a mortal wound in this county,” Bedford wrote.

Watson’s defense team also complained several comments the judge made in front of the jury during the trial were prejudicial against Watson, but the judge ruled that some of those comments were “initiated and invited” by defense counsel and indicated that another comment attorneys complained about was obviously made in jest during a humorous moment of the trial.

Watson was convicted with little physical evidence, save for scratches on his face which he tried to cover up with makeup before he called the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department to report his wife missing two days after her disappearance.

Lt. Col. Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department first noticed the scratches when a TV news crew’s bright lights shone on Watson’s face.

Fulton County Assistant District Attorney Sheila Ross used photos of those scratches in her closing argument, urging that Beverley Watson used her fingernails to “mark her killer.”

Jim Watson testified on the stand that couple indeed argued that night and that the scratches on his face likely occurred when she threw keys at him.

Watson’s attorneys also complained that they were ordered not to air TV footage and a taped interview with a Fulton County detective during which Watson proclaims his innocence. Bedford also ruled the court did not err in forbidding that content from being played to the jury.