Prosecutors said Blair Watts had defrauded Jennifer Brown the entire time he worked with her, and killed her as tensions about his restaurant business mounted.
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A Royersford man will face trial in his business partner’s murder
Prosecutors said Blair Watts had defrauded Jennifer Brown the entire time he worked with her, and killed her as tensions about his restaurant business mounted.
Blair Watts defrauded his business partner Jennifer Brown for months, prosecutors in Montgomery County said Thursday. And as his desperation mounted amid his crumbling restaurant plans, they said, he killed her and dumped her body in a shallow grave.
Watts, 33, faces first- and third-degree murder, theft, and related charges in the death of Brown. He was held over for trial on all charges after a marathon preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Richard Welsh.
The Royersford native’s attorney, Christopher Mandracchia, vehemently contended at the hearing that the prosecution had assembled a “rubber shell of a case” that lacked evidence.
This is all circumstantial at best, and there isn’t enough to pass this level for a first-degree, intentional killing,” Mandracchia said.
First Assistant District Attorney Ed McCann disputed that characterization, saying the evidence, while circumstantial, was “significant and powerful.”
Watts acknowledged that he was the last person to see Brown, 43, alive in January, McCann said. He then reported her missing and concocted a story about her last few hours that the prosecutor said was patently false.