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Watson appeal argued to Ga. Supreme Court

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

James Lamar Watson Jr., convicted of murdering his wife Beverley after he reported her missing from their east Fayette home in January 1997, got another day in court Tuesday.

Watson’s lead defense attorney, Lee Sexton, argued to the Georgia Supreme Court that several witnesses in the Fulton County trial should not have been allowed to testify, largely due to a recent decision from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the admissibility of hearsay testimony.

Sexton asked the justices to overturn the jury’s guilty verdict in the case. But Fulton County Assistant District Attorney Christopher Quinn argued there was enough evidence to convict Jim Watson of murdering Beverley Watson, including eyewitness accounts where Jim Watson threatened his wife with a gun on two previous occasions.

Watson was convicted in June 2002 of murdering his wife, Beverley, whose remains were found in a rural wooded area off Red Mill Road in south Fulton County over two years after she disappeared.

In court Tuesday, Sexton argued that the testimony of three of Beverley Watson’s close friends should be declared invalid because “they all got together and discussed what they were going to tell the police” before they were interviewed by detectives.

Three of Beverley Watson’s close friends — Debbie White, Krista Hinkle and Ellen Lord — testified at the trial that Beverley Watson told them her husband threatened to kill her and hide her body where it would never be found.

“Jim never had the opportunity to confront Beverley about what she told these people each of the two times she was filing for divorce,” Sexton said.

Quinn said defendants can waive the opportunity to confront witnesses when it is determined they killed or threatened to kill those witnesses. He also argued that the state proved Beverley Watson was unavailable to testify by producing evidence that identified her remains through dental records.

“He stalked her for years. He abused her for years,” Quinn said, later adding that the stalking and abuse stopped after Jan. 18, 1997 because Jim Watson knew his wife was dead.

Sexton questioned the credibility of witnesses White, Hinkle and Lord since none of them ever filed a police report or called the Department of Family and Children Services to report abuse in the Watson household.

Sexton also said the court should overturn the verdict based on the hearsay testimony from a Fayette County sheriff’s deputy who responded to a call at the Watson’s home Aug. 3, 1994. Dep. Steve Borders testified that Beverley Watson told him “that Jim kicked her and tried to force her out of her vehicle,” Sexton noted. “... And that Jim very quickly became violent.”

Sexton said that testimony also would have been barred from trial under the new decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. Quinn argued the testimony would have been allowed because the statement Dep. Borders testified to was not a formal statement. Borders never filed a written report or an official statement from Beverley Watson at the scene, Quinn noted.

If the court overturns the jury’s verdict, there isn’t enough evidence left for Watson to stand trial on the murder charges, Sexton added.

The Watsons’ daughter Ashley was ill and could not attend the hearing. In a written statement, she said she stands behind her father because “I never had one doubt that he was in any way responsible for my mother’s death.”

If she did have doubts, Ashley Watson said she would not support her father “because she (Beverley) is my mother and I love her, too.”

Watson and his family have published a Web site, www.jimwatsonframed.com, to publicize their viewpoint on the case, alleging that numerous witnesses in the case lied to secure the conviction.