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.

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. 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.

Watson, a retired high school math teacher, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to die in 2010 for killing his wife, Evie. “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.” “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. Watson’s new lawyer, Jamie Resch, argued Tuesday before the high court that the trial attorney, Patrick McDonald, did so without consulting Watson. 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.Ī 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 was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2006 death of his wife in a Las Vegas hotel, but a judge later reversed the conviction. Watson appears in court for the sentencing phase of his trial in Las Vegas on June 1, 2010.

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