Nevada high court weighs murder case of retired teacher on death row

The Nevada Supreme Court is considering whether to grant a new trial for a death row inmate accused of murdering his wife in a Las Vegas hotel room and cooking her body parts nearly 15 years ago.

A lower court judge reversed John Matthus Watson III’s conviction and death sentence after finding in 2019 that his trial attorney conceded a second-degree murder charge in an effort to avoid capital punishment.

Watson’s new lawyer, Jamie Resch, argued Tuesday before the high court that the trial attorney, Patrick McDonald, did so without consulting Watson.

“The undisputed fact of the matter is simply that everyone, from Watson, his lawyers, the judge, the clerk, and the prospective jury, all understood that Watson’s position at trial was that he was innocent of the allegations against him,” Resch wrote in court briefs. “Trial counsel took it upon himself to argue the exact opposite of what Watson wanted and in so doing acted both ineffectively and inconsistent with the obligations of functioning counsel.”

Watson, a retired high school math teacher, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to die in 2010 for killing his wife, Evie.

Prosecutors said Watson lured his wife to Las Vegas to celebrate her 50th birthday in July 2006, but he had been planning to kill her because he was afraid she would divorce him and take his money. Prosecutors also said that while in Las Vegas, Watson checked into the Tuscany Suites and Casino using a fake ID, shot his wife and then cut her up with a band saw.

Her body was never discovered, but investigators found her DNA in a shower drain at the Tuscany, though her husband had rented a room for her at Circus Circus. In letters written from jail, Watson admitted to cooking and eating part of the body, according to court records.

In closing arguments, McDonald argued that “something happened” to Evie Watson.

“Admittedly, you may very well find him guilty of second-degree murder, if and only if, you feel that the circumstantial evidence warrants it,” McDonald said, according to court records.

A 70-year-old Watson told jurors that if he was convicted, he wanted the death penalty. The jury did just that, finding aggravating circumstances in the slaying: that Evie Watson was killed during the commission of a kidnapping and that she was tortured or mutilated.

In May 2019, District Judge Michelle Leavitt found that “the individual and collective effect of these arguments was to concede” Watson’s guilt to second-degree murder. She overturned his conviction and sentence, and prosecutors appealed.

Should the high court uphold Leavitt’s decision, Watson would receive a new trial. Resch said the condemned 81-year-old is legally blind and uses a wheelchair at Ely State Prison.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo argued that McDonald’s statements were part of a trial strategy that could not have been avoided. McDonald did not tell jurors that Evie Watson was murdered, the prosecutor said.

“There’s nothing unreasonable about what the defense attorney did, which was trying to limit the liability,” DiGiacomo told a panel of five justices.

McDonald, whose law license was suspended in 2013 while he faced charges of misappropriating roughly $480,000 in client funds, could not be reached Tuesday. He remains on disability-inactive status.

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.