[ad_1]
NORRISTOWN — The fate of a Limerick Township man accused of killing a single mother who was his business partner is in the hands of a jury.
A Montgomery County jury of seven women and five men began deliberating at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the homicide trial of Blair Anthony Watts, 33, of the 600 block of Hunsberger Drive, who faces charges of first- and third-degree murder in connection with the alleged Jan. 3, 2023, slaying of Jennifer Brown, 43, his partner in a restaurant venture.
The jury received the case after hearing closing arguments from the lawyers and receiving legal instructions from Judge William R. Carpenter.
After about 90 minutes of deliberations without reaching a verdict, jurors notified the judge they wanted to go home for the evening. The judge instructed jurors to return at 9 a.m. Wednesday to resume their deliberations.
Watts did not say anything to reporters as he was escorted from the courtroom by sheriff’s deputies to await the jury’s decision.
During the trial, First Assistant District Attorney Edward F. McCann Jr. and Kelly S. Lloyd argued Watts was a “broke narcissist” and a failed businessman who killed Brown, who invested $22,600 in a proposed restaurant business with him, when he feared she was going to expose his lies about his business dealings, specifically that he used her investment monies for his personal expenses.
Lloyd and McCann alleged Watts had a wife and three children to support and a pregnant girlfriend and ingratiated himself in Brown’s life and told her “lie after lie after lie” and killed her and then buried her in a “shallow grave” in Royersford to cover his tracks.
“He spent almost $23,000 of her money and he had nothing to show for it. He spent $23,000 and doesn’t have a restaurant and he doesn’t have any money. He’s lying to her. He’s getting money. He’s spending it on himself but it’s not for the purpose he’s telling her,” McCann argued during his closing statement to the jury of seven women and five men. “The evidence shows that he killed that woman…in a brutal way and put her in a shallow grave.”
But defense lawyer Michael Coard argued even if jurors believe Watts is a “broke narcissist” it doesn’t make him a murderer. Coard argued jurors must base their verdict on the evidence and not on sympathy for the victim and suggested prosecutors do not have sufficient evidence to convict Watts of a murder charge.
“Let’s say he is a broke narcissist. How does that prove first-degree murder? How does that prove third-degree murder?” Coard argued during his closing statement to jurors. “Don’t succumb to sympathy and emotion. Don’t let sympathy and don’t let emotion overtake the oath you took.”
A conviction of first-degree murder, which is an intentional killing, carries a mandatory life prison term. Third-degree murder, a killing committed with malice, a hardness of heart or recklessness of consequences, carries a possible maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison upon conviction.
Detectives testified Brown’s body was discovered by detectives shortly after 11 a.m. Jan. 18 in what they described as a “clandestine grave” or “freshly dug hole” at the rear of a warehouse in the 200 block of North 5th Avenue in Royersford after they were alerted to the site by employees of the warehouse.
An autopsy determined Brown suffered three broken ribs. The cause of death was attributed to “homicide by unspecified means,” with compression and asphyxia, a mechanism that would account for the fractured ribs, authorities alleged.
Referring to the testimony of a forensic pathologist, McCann argued it takes just three to four minutes to asphyxiate someone, “to cut someone’s air off so they can’t breathe.” That’s plenty of time, McCann suggested, for someone to form the intent to kill, which is a requirement for a first-degree murder conviction.
But Coard suggested Hood’s findings don’t shed light on how Brown was killed and don’t prove premeditation or intent.
Watts did not testify at the trial. Coard’s defense consisted of stipulated testimony from eight character witnesses who maintained Watts has a good reputation for being a law-abiding and nonviolent person.
The investigation began on Jan. 4 when Limerick police responded to Brown’s Stratford Court home to conduct a welfare check at the request of Watts, who told police he was a friend and business partner of Brown and had been unable to contact her, according to the criminal complaint filed by county Detective Mark Minzola and Limerick Detective Sergeant Paul Marchese.
Watts, according to testimony and court papers, claimed to detectives that he had last seen Brown at 2 p.m. Jan. 3 when he was at her home. Watts claimed Brown and he had agreed that Watts would pick up Brown’s 8-year-old son at the school bus stop that afternoon and would keep him overnight for a planned sleepover and take him to school on Jan. 4.
Watts told detectives he picked up the child at the bus stop and claimed that he texted Brown at 8:30 p.m. Jan. 3 and again in the morning of Jan. 4 and never received a response from Brown, according to the arrest affidavit. Watts allegedly claimed he went to the school bus stop about 4 p.m. Jan. 4, found that Brown was not there and picked up Brown’s son and went to her residence but no one answered.
But witnesses testified Brown was “very diligent” when it came to caring for her son. Prosecutors suggested Brown was a doting mother who would never leave her son unattended.
The search for Brown captured local news headlines and the attention of the public for two weeks as police and relatives desperately searched for the woman before her body was discovered.
Prosecutors argued there is a web of circumstantial evidence to link Watts to the crime including his inconsistent statements, cellphone analysis and a cadaver dog’s signaling human remains or human biological material inside two vehicles used by Watts.
Prosecutors wrapped up their case on Tuesday with testimony from an FBI cellphone analysis expert.
Detectives alleged cellphone analysis showed that between 8:27 p.m. and 8:42 p.m. Jan. 5 Watts’ cellphone was “within hundreds of feet of the location where Brown’s body was discovered.”
Surveillance cameras in the area also depicted a grey Jeep Renegade vehicle linked to Watts “in this same exact area, during the same exact time frame,” detectives alleged.
Testimony also revealed that when detectives used a Philadelphia police cadaver dog to search the floor mat behind the driver’s seat of the grey Jeep, the dog, “Patton,” signaled human remains or human biological material had previously been on the mat.
Additionally, a Jan. 8 search by Patton of a red Jeep Cherokee vehicle linked to Watts signaled human remains or biological material had previously been in the back seat area, according to testimony.
On Jan. 6 detectives interviewed Watts, who according to testimony was married and also had a girlfriend who lived in Stowe, and at that time he described Brown as a close personal friend and business partner. Watts allegedly claimed Brown had a business relationship with a restaurant he planned to open and had invested in the business.
During the investigation, detectives determined that on Aug. 28, 2022, Brown entered into a business partnership agreement with Watts to invest money in Watts’ restaurant which they were planning to open in Phoenixville by the end of January 2023.
However, when detectives spoke to the owners of the property they learned that the owners had never signed a lease with Watts and no renovation work had been completed on the building by Watts to ready it for a restaurant, according to testimony.
When detectives analyzed the contents of Brown’s electronic devices they found two cash transfers totaling $17,000 to Watts between 4:23 p.m. and 4:35 p.m. on Jan. 3, the day Brown went missing, according to testimony.
Prosecutors alleged that the $17,000 was never part of a written agreement between Brown and Watts. Authorities alleged that Brown was already dead when those money transfers occurred and that Watts made them using Brown’s computer tablet.
[ad_2]
Source_link