Death penalty upheld in 2006 Vegas murder
CARSON CITY — A former California schoolteacher sentenced to death by a jury in 2010 for killing his wife in a Las Vegas hotel room had his conviction and sentence upheld Thursday by the Nevada Supreme Court.
The 5-2 ruling found that there were no errors that would require a new trial or penalty hearing for John Matthus Watson III for the murder of his wife, Evie Watson, in July 2006.
Her body has never been recovered, but Evie Watson’s DNA was found in a shower drain at the Tuscany, in a room she was not supposed to be in as the room he rented for them was at Circus Circus.
Prosecutors said at his 2010 trial that Watson rented the room at the Tuscany with false identification. It was there that Watson shot his wife and then cut her up with a band saw, according to evidence presented to the jury. In letters written from jail, Watson admitted to cooking and eating part of the body.
Watson lured his wife to Las Vegas ostensibly to celebrate her 50th birthday. In reality, he had been plotting her murder for more than a month because she was going to leave him and he didn’t want to have to give her half of the family assets, prosecutors said at his trial.
Justices Michael Cherry and Nancy Saitta dissented in part from the majority, saying Clark County District Judge Kathy Hardcastle erred by improperly defining mitigating circumstances to the jury that could have resulted in a lesser penalty.
As a result, the two justices said the error affected Watson’s substantial rights and that he should receive a new penalty hearing.
The dissent noted that Watson presented documentation showing that he had suffered from mental illness and had received psychiatric treatment but the jury found no mitigating circumstances present. The two justices said the jury might not have considered it as evidence favorable to Watson because of the erroneous jury instruction.
The court majority argued the claim regarding the jury instruction did not warrant relief.
Contact Capital Bureau reporter Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900. Find him on Twitter: @seanw801.
