Hrm...this is definitely going to be an interesting case, just because of the possible Double Jeopardy...
Hrm...this is definitely going to be an interesting case, just because of the possible Double Jeopardy...
If we can speak ill of the living, why not the dead?
If absence makes the heart grow fonder, what does presence make?
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This is an interesting case. I will be watching it with great interest.
Personally, I don't think they should be able to try Watson in criminal court for this, even though the verdict and sentence in Australia were wildly disappointing. It is double jeopardy, unless they can find some other charge to run with. Also, it didn't happen on US soil.
That said, I love the fact that Mexico will sometimes try people who kill their citizens in the US, even after they've been tried here. I tend to cheer for the expulsion of illegal Mexicans from the US just so they can be tried for killing other Mexicans here.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. ~Will Rogers
Thats what I was asking about lastnight in chat box
So does this mean people like Shit Knots Shafia Family will do 25 here then go back to Iraq and have another trial there??
Opening up a can of worms I think with this shit
I believe he did it,but happened in diff counrty and should have to deal with their terms/laws
I understand he got a slap on the wrist but hey buck up so did casey anthony
"Rescuing one animal may not change the world, but for that animal their world is changed forever!" - Unknown
For every murdered child
We fly with all prevailing winds of change,
For any quirk of fate we may arrange.
We are not "meek" or "mild";
Don't turn your back when twilight dims the sky -
We'll haunt the perpetrators till they Die
Accused 'Honeymoon Killer' Showed Pics of Dead Wife Posing Near Signs Warning of Drowning
http://abcnews.go.com/US/accused-hon...ry?id=15752949The best friend of newlywed Tina Watson said today that Watson's husband, accused "honeymoon killer" Gabe Watson, showed off pictures of his dead wife in front of "Caution: Drowning" signs at Tina's funeral.
[...]
Amanda Phillips, who was Tina's maid of honor at her wedding, told an Alabama courtroom today she initially believed Gabe's story about Tina's death. Shaking and crying on the stand today, Phillips recalled when she was first told about her best friend's scuba diving death. She said she talked to Gabe Watson almost immediately after, and he convinced her it was an accident.
Gabe Watson told Phillips that his wife had "swatted at him and knocked off his mask and regulator" deep under water, and by the time he put his scuba gear back on, she had drifted dangerously far away. Rather than trying to go after her, Watson decided to ascend, Phillips said.
"He says he made a split decision to leave her. He thought it was better to get help," Phillips testified.
But after Tina Watson's funeral, Phillips began to suspect Gabe had played a more malicious role in her best friend's death. At a family gathering at his home after the service, Gabe showed pictures and videos of Tina posed next to caution signs warning of drowning. Phillips said that she may have seen other photos of the trip, including Tina in front of the opera house and zoo, but she could not fully recall which pictures she had seen aside from the warning signs.
The testimony came on day five of the trial in which Gabe faces capital murder charges in what prosecutor's say was a meticulously plotted killing in order to collect a $130,000 life and travel insurance payout.
[//..]
"Rescuing one animal may not change the world, but for that animal their world is changed forever!" - Unknown
For every murdered child
We fly with all prevailing winds of change,
For any quirk of fate we may arrange.
We are not "meek" or "mild";
Don't turn your back when twilight dims the sky -
We'll haunt the perpetrators till they Die
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More on Amanda Phillips testimony:http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/q...-1226276662652Mrs Phillips sobbed as she described how her "absolute best friend" was found dead after diving Townsville's SS Yongala 11 days after marrying Watson.
She attended Tina's wake and approached the casket with Watson.
"I said she looked pretty in her dress," she said. "Gabe said, 'At least her breasts are perky'."
Mrs Phillips said Watson showed video taken from the honeymoon trip with Tina standing in front of warning signs and she thought it was "morbid" considering what had happened.
[...]
Mrs Phillips said Watson told her he was going by Tina's employer, Parisian department store, to check on her insurance benefits and remarked that a $1 million policy would have been available if Tina had paid $10 more a month, but that he'd probably be in a Queensland jail.
[...]
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I still just don't understand, WHY? You would have to seriously hate someone to kill them, but even moreso to destory their flowers at their gravesite after you've murdered them. Why even marry someone you hate? Why marry them and kill them 11 days later? I don't understand it.
Originally Posted by MotherManderkin
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Well yeah but if he's gotten his fucking money I just don't understand why he is STILL malicious enough to show up at a gravesite and destroy her flowers. That takes some serious hate.
Murder case dismissed in death of newlywed wife
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/23/justic...html?hpt=ju_c2CNN) -- An Alabama judge on Thursday abruptly dismissed the murder case against a man accused in the scuba-diving death of his newlywed wife off Australia's coast.
The decision from Judge Tommy Nail came near the end of the second full week of David Gabriel "Gabe" Watson's trial in Birmingham.
According to Ken Glass, the judge's judicial assistant, Nail dismissed the case "after the state rested its case against Gabe Watson (and) the defense filed a motion for a judgment of acquittal due to a lack of evidence."
"I'm going to grant the defendant's motion for acquittal. This case is dismissed," Nail said, prompting an outburst of applause in the courtroom.
Afterward, a visibly emotional Watson put his face in his hands, then began hugging people around the room.
His 26-year-old wife, Tina, died October 22, 2003, while the pair were diving at a historic shipwreck off the Great Barrier Reef -- some 9,000 miles from Birmingham, where the two had wed 11 days earlier.
His father, David Watson, called the entire situation "terrible, it's tragic," while expressing satisfaction with the judge's decision.
"I'm just thrilled for Gabe, and I just hope everybody can begin to heal, get their lives back together," said David Watson, calling his son a "good kid."
Prosecutor Don Valeska said "this case is over forever," since there is no appeal possible.
"I strongly disagree with him," Valeska said of Nail. "I'm just extremely stunned, and I'm at a loss for words."
Amanda Phillips, a friend of Tina Watson, said outside the court that she wanted the jury to decide the case and feels that the "only justice that comes is the one that God provides, and we will never be there for that day."
"(Watson) knows everything that happened, he knows how it went down, he knows what was involved, he knows what the intent was, he knows what the feelings were, the motives were," she said. "He doesn't need to have a jury tell him what happened."
After his wife's death, Watson returned from Australia -- where media dubbed him "The Honeymoon Killer" -- to the United States and remarried five years later.
That same year, in 2008, he pleaded guilty in Australia to criminally negligent manslaughter and subsequently served 18 months in prison in that country.
In October 2010, an Alabama grand jury indicted Watson on two counts -- murder for pecuniary gain and kidnapping where a felony occurred. Those charges were based on the premise that Watson hatched the plot to kill his wife while in Alabama.
The doctrine of double jeopardy -- which says that a person cannot be tried or punished twice for the same crime -- did not apply because two separate sovereigns, a state government and a foreign government, were seeking to prosecute, said John Lentine, a Birmingham criminal defense attorney and law school professor.
After his sentence was complete, the Australian government held Watson for a short time in immigration detention in light of its policy of not extraditing anyone who might face the death penalty.
Australian authorities deported him back to the United States after getting assurance from U.S. authorities that "the death penalty would not be sought, imposed or carried out," said Sandi Logan, a spokesman for the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Watson was then arrested, in November 2010, in Los Angeles.
In the opening arguments of Watson's U.S. trial earlier this month, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Arrington told jurors that Watson had changed his story on what happened several times. The prosecution also alleged that Watson had expected to gain about $210,000 in insurance and death benefits due to his new wife's deaths.
"This whole case ... is about murder and gain," Arrington said.
But defense attorney Brett Bloomston said that Tina's father was the beneficiary on her workplace insurance policy. Watson filed for some expenses from a travel policy, but it was denied on a technicality, Bloomston said. His client did sue an insurance company when it denied him an accidental death benefit, the attorney said.
"Gabe never stood to gain anything from Tina's death; he lost," said Bloomston.
The defense argued that Tina Watson was wearing too much weight with her suit when she died, and that a strong current, her relative diving inexperience and a pattern of anxiety during dives were contributing factors.
During the trial, Judge Nail spelled out what he believed were the basics of the prosecution's case -- that Gabe Watson had schemed in Alabama to kill his new wife.
"The defendant buys an engagement ring. He gives it to his future bride. He marries her. He plans a trip halfway around the world that's paid for by him or his family," Nail said. "And he did all of that, and planned it all here, so he could go over there and kill her so he could get the same engagement ring he purchased?"
After Thursday's decision, Bloomston called the entire ordeal a "nightmare for Gabe and his family (and) a nightmare for Tina and her family."
[...]
"Rescuing one animal may not change the world, but for that animal their world is changed forever!" - Unknown
For every murdered child
We fly with all prevailing winds of change,
For any quirk of fate we may arrange.
We are not "meek" or "mild";
Don't turn your back when twilight dims the sky -
We'll haunt the perpetrators till they Die
3 Member(s) thanked for this post
Bsh. Judge gettin' all logical and shit."The defendant buys an engagement ring. He gives it to his future bride. He marries her. He plans a trip halfway around the world that's paid for by him or his family," Nail said. "And he did all of that, and planned it all here, so he could go over there and kill her so he could get the same engagement ring he purchased?"
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So...if he had an insurance policy on her would they have to pay off now, since legally it was an accident.
Prosecution has to show it all started here or they can't prosecute him
That's what the mumbo jumbo's all about
Yeah that's right he's already been found guilty and served his time in OZ, so that lets out the insurance money. I wasn;t thinking very good.
I don't think at all.
Yeah that's right he's already been found guilty and served his time in OZ, so that lets out the insurance money. I wasn;t thinking very good.
I left that because somehow I managed to post before and after you @Bohring, I left the proof that it happened.
Why do you think that he could still get the insurance money, just curious.
Last edited by cubby; February 23rd, 2012 at 08:07 PM. Reason: who knows!!
Man, how come I don't get post before and after?! I am obviously not as awesome as @cubby.
So was it legally an accident here or in Australia? He was found guilty in Australia and served his time? Can he or can't he collect the insurance money? See, this requires too much thinking. I have no idea what's going on right now...
This is the way I understand it and, of course, that doesn't account for too much. He was tried in Australia and found guilty of something I don't know the charge, and served 18 months. He was acquitted here, of I don't know what. I'm thinking that the prosecutor here probably overstepped himself and was just taking a wild swinging ass chance that this would ever get in front of a jury, and he crapped out when the judge said, No way, dismissed.
I feel that whatever he was convicted of must mean that he was at fault for her drowning, or else he wouldn't have been convicted, thus disallowing him from getting her insurance money.
And that's what I think, @Bohring, don;t know if it means anything.
And yeah I'm so awesome that I can make the same post twice without even trying and I tried for 15 minutes earlier to post a picture and I finally gave up!!
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I am not shocked by this verdict. I understand how Tina's family feels. IMO,this was murder and Gabe got a slap on the wrist for it. Regardless of that fact,to me it seemed obvious from the start this was done because they didn't like the verdict and sentence he got in Australia,so the DA in Alabama threw murder and kidnapping charges at him with a motive and hoped it would stick.
It didn't. The evidence wasn't there for a conviction. All they had to go on was the fact he acted like a #@! after she died. That's not enough.
The system worked...even though this piece of puke got off,it worked.
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"FATAL HONEYMOON" airs Saturday night on Lifetime
http://www.al.com/entertainment/inde...honeymoon.htmlThe principals depicted in the upcoming Lifetime movie “Fatal Honeymoon” — which is based on the story of Hoover’s Gabe and Tina Watson, whose 2003 honeymoon in Australia ended with Tina dying while scuba diving and Gabe a suspect in her death — aren’t saying much.
Dave Watson, Gabe’s father, says via email that he and his wife won’t watch the movie, and he doesn’t suspect Gabe or his wife, Kim, will watch it, either. Cindy Thomas, Tina’s mother, says via Facebook message that she won’t have any comment until after the movie airs on Saturday at 7 p.m.
[...]
Through flashbacks and scenes set in the present day, “Fatal Honeymoon” tracks the Watson story from when Gabe and Tina met in high school, their marriage, the honeymoon, Gabe Watson’s imprisonment in Australia on manslaughter charges, and his acquittal of murder this year in a Birmingham courtroom.
[...]
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I haven't watched a Lifetime movie forever. Do you think they'll make a spin on his innocence or leave the audience wondering? Because no matter someone's going to be offended, be it Gabe or Tina's family.
With the few Lifetime movies I've seen the man is always guilty. If he seems innocent then you have to get ready for a plot twist.
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