Watson Murder Case - Discussion

[alohagal]

I have discussed a lot about what has happened with Gabe, most recently today. He is so relieved that this is all over. He has been away with Kim at a friend's place and for the first time in something like 4 years has been legally able to go out of his house after 8 pm. His mother told my wife that he laughed for the first time in 8 years yesterday!

The US ABC will be doing an hour long program on this matter on 20/20. I think this may be on Friday 2 March. They have interviewed many people, including me, for the show.

I think one of the most amazing things was that the prosecution appears not to have asked its witnesses questions that they should have anticipated that the defence would ask. As such, their witnesses nearly all became defence witnesses when they were asked very obvious questions. I even think that they have not read my web site articles even when they were given to them as defence witness statements or if they did read them, they did not even think to get a scuba diving witness to assist them. Either this, or they really did not want to win the case.

I think it was Dateline NBC that put Gabe on the public radar whereby he was eventually dubbed "The Honeymoon Killer." Will be interesting to see the spin 20/20 ABC puts on this thing now that all is said and done. Will they show the indisputable errors withinin some of the evidence or will they still leave a giant question mark as to his innocence or guilt.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

There was no trial in Australia. Gabe pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Also, there is no appeal in the US. Criminal case is completely over. However, the family does have the option to file for a civil trial because he was acquitted in the criminal trial. Just like the OJ fiasco.

I stand corrected... he Faced the court in Australia. The Australian Court decided there was not enough evidence to go to trial for murder and he plead guilty of failing to rescue his buddy. Had there been enough evidence I am confident there would have been a trial. IMHO the international media circus and the campaign by Tina's (no doubt well meaning) family created a hot problem that wasn't going to go away so when Gabe pleaded guilt they sure couldn't/wouldn't refuse.

Many people have pleaded guilty when they honestly didn't feel they had any better options. The cost and uncertainty of a trial or plead guilty and get it over with.. a no brainer in some cases. Of course I don't know what was going through Gabe's head any more than I know what was going through Thomas head.

I personally hope the Thomas's will leave it at this point and start working on the healing process. The longer this is kept open and raw the more pain for everyone involved.

BTW I have been impressed by the number of time that Watsons have expressed sympathy and asked for prayers for the Thomas family I am not so sure I would be as kind in their shoes!

 

[ItsBruce]

Tina's computer was not capable of being downloaded. All that can be ascertained was the depth and time.

Do you know a Rescue Diver can have as little as 5 dives!

IMHO, a diver who has a rescue certification is not a rescue diver, but rather a diver who has a rescue certification. A rescue diver is one who practices rescue skills and can use them and is present at a dive to be able to use those skills if needed.

 

[ItsBruce]

While some think the judge's ruling in this case was proper, I disagree. If the evidence against Watson was no more than a pile of poo, the case should have been dismissed a long time ago. I suppose one can argue that the prosecution deserved their day in court, but Watson deserved not to be tried for a crime there was not probable cause.

I get the impression that the court came close to dismissing long before. Recall that it set bail. That is rare in a murder case.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I get the impression that the court came close to dismissing long before. Recall that it set bail. That is rare in a murder case.

never thought of that. Bruce.. in your experience how much are the Courts influenced by public demand.. it does seem to me that was a factor in this one getting to court.

 

[DandyDon]

We had a local booked for murdering his daughter's boyfriend recently, out on $10,000 bail.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Maybe off topic maybe not .. here is and interesting article on Stress and Diving
Stress in Diving | Divers' Blogs

 

[Foxfish]

This article gives a damning summary of this whole fiasco.

Watson has been facing trial in his home state of Alabama for murder this month. As a result of years of shameless media beat-ups, bungling by Queensland detectives and the grief of his wife's parents, he had been charged with an offence that would normally carry the death penalty.

Yesterday, the judge hearing the threadbare case threw it out. His disdain for the prosecution's so-called evidence, a tissue of conjecture and speculation, was obvious.

There was never any cogent evidence against Watson. He was a patsy, assailed by his former parents-in-law, carved up by the media, pursued by ambitious prosecutors, abandoned by supine politicians and hated by a public that has been hopelessly misled.

There is, now, indignation among journalists and their audiences who have barracked for Watson to be convicted. They should be apologetic.

A media circus that became increasingly frenzied and ridiculous in its ignorance of readily available evidence led to a politically charged attempt to destroy a man who made a poor split-second decision.

He lacked the wit and the courage to rescue Tina as she panicked underwater on a scuba dive in October 2003.

The strongly-built Watson had next to no chance of winning public sympathy. Like Chamberlain, he was largely silent. He did not cry in public. He would not play the media game. He refused to give interviews.

He became a picture of wickedness in a one-sided story propelled by his parents-in-law and their supporters.

The relentless campaign in the media would repeatedly characterise Watson as a cold-blooded psychopath who murdered his bride on their honeymoon to collect a fortune in life insurance.

Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian

 

[Foxfish]

Correction on my part. In post 1781 I claimed the following:

Apparently Gabe told Snyder he tried to raise Tina but was unable because of her weight. Snyder claimed this was wrong because you are weightless underwater.

While Snyder did refute some of Gabe's comments about what happend, it was Milsap who made this comment.

 

[boulderjohn]

At the murder trial, the instructor who trained them both said you could do the Rescue Course as soon as you finished the Open Water. This means 5.

Foxfish, this was an American instructor. I thought you had to do Advanced first, but he testified that it could be done straight after Open Water.

It was obviously not a PADI instructor then. PADI has only recently made some changes in its rules related to this, but when Gabe was certified you absolutely did have to have AOW to take the Rescue Diver course. In PADI, the Rescue Diver course itself counts as 4 OW dives, so a PADI Rescue Diver would have had to have a minimum of 13 dives. I would be very surprised if anyone has actually done that, though.

There are, I believe, some agencies that allow Rescue right after OW, but I cannot name one. The show (I think Dateline) that I saw a long time ago on this case showed a card that was from NASDS, an agency that no longer exists. I don't think they were actually showing Gabe's card but were instead showing a sample of a Rescue Diver card.

I would also like to dispel the "weightless under water" myth. While water does indeed provide a buoyant force, it does not automatically make you weightless, If it did, we could float the Titanic with ease. I was recently talking to someone who told me about his first OW dive years ago. The DM slapped the only two (enormous) weights left on the boat on a weight belt, tied a knot in the belt because of the broken buckle, and sent the severely overweighted diver into the water. The DM tried to help another diver with a problem some distance away while the diver lay pinned to the ocean floor by his weights. At that point he realized the DM had also given him a near empty tank. It took all the strength this (then) athletic young man could muster to get to the surface. If someone is severely overweighted, he or she can sink like a stone, and unless you inflate his or her BCD or overinflate yours, that sinking diver can pull you down, too.