MI MI/TX - CARL EUGENE WATTS, "The Sunday Morning Slasher"

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Update:

Oakland County Circuit Judge Richard Kuhn also told the jury it may consider second-degree murder charges.

"A juror who was an alternate is now a regular juror back on the case," Kuhn told the 12-person panel. "He has been in seclusion for the duration of deliberations."

This is the second juror shuffle for the panel after a juror was dismissed earlier for talking with a prosecutor about the trial. The panel has no more alternates.

In a press conference outside the Pontiac, Mich. courtroom, Watts' lawyer, Ronald Kaplovitz, said that a male juror was removed for visiting the scene of the crime during off-hours.

www.courttv.com
 
lisafremont said:
Now, knowing those facts, do you still believe that Foy's ID, which btw was tested on the stand by cross examination, is suspect? I don't.
Click to expand...
Lisa,

Concerning the sketch:
eugene1.jpg


(the hat looks to have been superimposed in that photo in order to facilitate a comparison)

Hat or no hat, there is a similarity, no doubt about that. However, it would be logically fallacious to conclude the man is Watts based primarily on the fact that the photo is consistent with the sketch. To do so would be to discount anyone else -- and without knowing about other possible suspects in the area that would be wrong. I don't lend much weight to the identification made two years on because people tend to fill in the blanks when making observations. However, I do agree that his spotting Watts on TV, two years since the murder, is much more reliable than if he did a couple of decades on.

The identification was made potentially more damning given the supporting evidence, i.e. proximity of the attack 30 days prior and the pattern in his attacks. Considering all these facts I think that still leaves reasonable doubt; therefore, I still believe it will be his past history that eventually gets him convicted, not the evidence in this particular case.

I also read that one of the jurors was dismissed for checking out the alley. This leads me to suspect that some jurors may be questioning the validity of the identification. With only a single alternate left, a mistrial is possible...

Having said all that, if the jury do convict, I won't be shouting from rooftops in protest.
 
The man is a confessed serial killer. IMO, there is NO reasonable doubt. There is no way I could acquit this man.

I am not surprised to see Jayne Weintraub arguing in his favor. Perhaps the jury could acquit Coral and then Jayne could take custody of him!
 
lisafremont said:
The man is a confessed serial killer. IMO, there is NO reasonable doubt. There is no way I could acquit this man.

I am not surprised to see Jayne Weintraub arguing in his favor. Perhaps the jury could acquit Coral and then Jayne could take custody of him!
Click to expand...

Not just take custody. They should make her marry him and move them to a deserted island. :angel:
 
Jayne Weintraub is arguing passionately in defense of Coral Watts and saying that eyewitness IDs are notoriously faulty.

Hmmmm. But Jayne, isn't eyewitness testimony DIRECT EVIDENCE? And don't you denigrate CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE??

Hmmmm. Jayne, isn't it true that all evidence against defendants in your mind is faulty??
 
The Verdict is In!!

Going to read it in about a half hour 4pm eastern
 
He's going to be guilty.
He's going to be guilty.
He's going to be guilty.
Please!!!!!!!!

Thanks Peanut!!
 
My daughter is home now and CourtTV is off and spongebob is on... can someone post what happens here? LOL
 
It made our local news already:

Texas inmate convicted of Mich. slaying

PONTIAC, Mich. - A confessed serial killer was convicted of murder Wednesday in a case brought by prosecutors desperately trying to keep him from getting out of prison in less than two years.

Coral Eugene Watts, 51, was convicted of stabbing 36-year-old Helen Dutcher to death in a Detroit suburb in 1979. He faces a mandatory life sentence without parole.

Watts showed little reaction as the verdict was read. Victims and family members hugged and flashed smiles in the courtroom after Watts was led away in shackles.

Watts was due to be released from a Texas prison in April 2006.

He received immunity for 12 killings -- 11 in Texas and one in Michigan -- as part of a 1982 deal with Texas prosecutors that led to a 60-year sentence for aggravated assault. But mandatory release laws and an appeals court ruling lopped more than 35 years off his sentence.

www.dallasnews.com
 
Sometimes the mechanisms that are in place to protect the truly innocent are exploited by the guilty. Fortunately, for the families of all the victims, we can all probably agree that justice has ultimately been served.
 
November 17, 2004

LANSING – Admitted serial killer Coral Eugene Watts, who was slated to be released from prison in 2006, was found guilty today of first degree murder, Attorney General Mike Cox announced today.

"Today, justice has prevailed and Coral Eugene Watts will spend the rest of his life in prison," Cox said. "Through outstanding efforts from my office, as well as local and state law enforcement, Michigan will be a safer place to live."

Watts had been serving a 60-year sentence in Texas after pleading guilty to aggravated burglary in 1982. When pleading in 1982, Watts confessed to killing 13 women to Texas and Michigan authorities, including two victims from Michigan. In addition, Watts is suspected of 26 murders and has claimed to have killed more than 80 victims.

Through unusual circumstances, credits for good behavior while in jail, and automatic sentence reductions in the Texas parole system, Watts was scheduled to be released in May 2006.

http://www.michigan.gov/ag/0,1607,7-164--104916--,00.html

This slipped under my radar during all the Thanksgiving travelling...phew. Thank God. Amazing how you can, in cold blood, kill a person, or many people, and have a chance to go free.

I read somewhere recently how Kenneth Bianchi, one of the Hillside Stranglers, is due for a parole hearing around now. He probably won't get it, but it amazes me he even gets a chance.

And Karla Homolka, the female half of that Canadian duo who raped and killed several women goes free next year. Madness!

BBMc
 
Personally, I don't believe in time off for good behavior. Why be rewarded for doing what you should be doing anyway? If they want to reward them, give them better food or the ability to rent movies, or take a class or something on that scale. You don't take off one year for every year served simply because they follow the rules. You punish them more severely when they don't.
 
A judge has ruled that a serial killer's past convictions and confessions will not be admissible at his trial in the 1974 stabbing death of a young single mother who attended Western Michigan University.

Coral Eugene Watts, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 19-year-old Gloria Steele. While in her second year at Western Michigan, Steele was stabbed 33 times in the chest on Oct. 30, 1974, in the apartment she shared with her 3-year-old daughter.

Watts, a confessed serial killer, was raised in the Detroit suburb of Inkster and attended the university at the time of Steele's killing.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MI_SERIAL_KILLER_MIOL-?SITE=MITRA&SECTION=HOME
 
The Michigan Court of Appeals has denied a request from the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor's Office to hear an appeal of a court ruling in the case of serial killer Coral Eugene Watts.

Watts, 51, is accused of first-degree premeditated murder in the 1974 death of Gloria Steele, 19, who was stabbed more than 30 times. Watts, like Steele, was a Western Michigan University student at the time.

Prosecutors wanted the appeals court to review a ruling from Kalamazoo County Circuit Judge William Schma in May that said a district court shouldn't have considered testimony about Watts' past convictions and admissions to other killings when he decided to bind him over for trial for Steele's murder.

http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1123323649278040.xml&coll=7
 
The murder case against a Texas serial killer accused in the 1974 stabbing death of a Western Michigan University student is on hold while prosecutors appeal a lower court ruling to the Michigan Supreme Court.

Kalamazoo County prosecutors plan to ask the state's highest court to decide whether a district court should have considered testimony about Coral Watts' past convictions and admissions to other killings in deciding to bind him over for trial, the Kalamazoo Gazette reported Saturday.

Watts, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 19-year-old Gloria Steele. She was stabbed 33 times in the chest on Oct. 30, 1974, in the apartment she shared with her 3-year-old daughter.

Watts attended the university at the time of Steele's killing.
http://www.click2houston.com/news/4821195/detail.html
 
A serial killer accused in a 1974 stabbing death in Kalamazoo and convicted in a 1979 murder in Ferndale has denied involvement in the Michigan killings in a letter to The Detroit News.

In a five-page, handwritten letter from Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility, Coral Watts maintains his innocence in the two killings. The letter, which rails against authorities, was in response to an Aug. 8 request by the newspaper for an interview.
http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3759936
 
great day today..I hope the families of other victims can find some peace in knowing he is not getting out to mock what is left of their humanity
 
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