48 Hours - Burden of Proof

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

On January 18, 1997, Beverly Watson disappeared and her husband, Jim, became a prime suspect in the case. There was virtually no evidence: no witness, no body, and no proof that Beverley was even dead. But police noticed that Jim was wearing makeup to conceal what appeared to be scratches on his face. “48 Hours" Correspondent Harold Dow reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 5/28/2005. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We met in ninth grade. There were a lot of good times. We had the same dreams and the same goals. She was a good mother, and I believe she was a good wife. Her heart was just so big, and she had a wonderful laugh. It was like the best laugh. She was the most kind person that I had ever met in my life. She was the best friend a person could ever have.

A typical marriage, they had verbal fights like every other marriage. Well, we had our ups and downs. We separated several times in our marriage, but we always got back together. It was customary for them to fight. It was customary for them to have problems. Usually when we did argue, one of us would leave and cool off. I've never seen him lose his temper. He just turns around and walks away.

People don't quite understand exactly how controlling he was. He stopped her, he called her, he knew where she was. She was scared. I would never hurt Beverly, harm Beverly in any way. She had been out with a friend of hers. She got back home sometime around midnight. Ben and she got mad because I called one of her friends to see where she was. She had grabbed her purse and her keys, and when she did, I grabbed her arm, told her she

didn't need a leap. her keys at me and told me that she didn't need her keys to leave the house. And that was the last time I saw her. Beverly Watson disappeared from the Watson home in the early morning hours of January the 18th of 1997. She said, if anything ever happens to me, you tell them that Jim did it. And he told her that he would put her body somewhere where nobody would ever find it. Burden of proof.

It was three years ago in 2002. Graduating finally, thank God. My black shoes downstairs. I hope I don't fall. When Ashley Watson graduated from high school near Atlanta. Her proud father was by her side. So was her brother, Todd. But someone was missing.

Sorry that your mom wasn't there to see it. Yeah, that was sad. But I felt like I had. had a part of her with me. Thank you. And that she was looking down, so I just kept that with me. Tell us about your mom. She had a very loving side to her.

Her heart was just so big. And she had a wonderful laugh. It was like the best laugh. In 1997, when Ashley was only 12 years old, her mother, Beverly Watson, a bookkeeper at a local country club, vanished into the night. Did you ever think she was coming back home? I did. It's hard to believe, and you don't want to believe that, you know, something wrong happened to your mom and that she's not coming back.

So I definitely held out hope. Her father, Jim Watson, a part-time police officer who owns a locksmith business, was left to raise Ashley and Todd on his own. I never thought that I would be in a situation like this. It has completely changed. Not only my life, but my children's life. Your whole world's changed. And it was a little. never be the same. He's a great dad. He's real involved in my life. There's dad.

I played and dad coached. And we're my way up here. We have a really great relationship. We're very honest with each other. Dad gave me this one. He has a big heart. Jim Watson seemed to be a loving father. But was he a good husband?

The Watson's had a rocky marriage, and after 14 years, Beverly decided to leave Jim and take the children. On the last night she was seen alive, Jim wanted to talk about their problems, but Beverly didn't want to hear it. Instead, she went to see her lifelong friend, Debbie White. She was apologizing for just showing up at my house, and I said, Beverly, I said, you don't have to apologize to me. I said, you can come to me anytime. You know, I'll always be here for you. It was bitterly cold that Friday night, only 18 degrees. The women went to a nearby Wendy's to eat and talk.

and Beverly did not get home until midnight. And that's the last time I saw her heard from her. Back home, Jim Watson was waiting, and as soon as Beverly walked in the door, he says they began arguing. She got mad, she just closed the cabin door kind of hard, and went and got her car keys in her purse and tried to leave up the garage door.

When I stopped her from going, she threw her car keys at me and told me told me that she didn't need her car keys to leave. He says he heard her leave out the front door. You never saw her again. He never saw her again. Jim says he thought Beverly had gone to cool off at a friend's house. He let the weekend pass, but on Monday, he told his children their mother was missing.

I was in so much shock that, I mean, it was hard to believe. And then Jim called police. Was he cooperative with you? Yeah. He was. Major Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department says that Jim allowed police to search his house without a warrant. There were no traces of blood.

Nothing incriminating was found, but Jordan noticed something that startled him. Jim was wearing makeup. When you confronted him about the makeup, what did he say? He just said, oh, that's just some redness I had that I covered up. And I said, well, let's go inside and wash it off. And when we washed it off, it was obviously, to me, fingernail scratches. And then there was something else, a strange layer of fine dust on Beverly's car, first noticed by Ashley. We were in the garage and the girl came out and she said, why is mom's car so dirty?

What happened to it? And then we all looked and realized it was covered in a layer of dust. Police preserved the dust but didn't know what to make of it. I was frantic. I was absolutely beside myself. And then Beverly's friends, one by one began calling with the... the same chilling conclusion. Beverly was dead.

They knew who killed her, and they knew he thought it was the perfect crime. I don't think any of us had a doubt that something terrible had happened. She said, if anything ever happens to me, you tell them that Jim did it. Do you think she knew she was going to die? I think she did in some ways, which is, it's so sad. I think people don't quite understand exactly how controlling he was. From the time Beverly woke up in the morning, she couldn't go to the bathroom by herself without him being there. He called her from the time she left the house. He called her

all day at work. He knew every move she made. If he didn't like a particular type of clothing that Beverly wore, it disappeared. When Miracle bras came out, he cut the padding out of her bras. Who was she trying to impress? Who was she trying to look good for? That is not normal. He tried to control every aspect of her life, everything. Jim Watson became the prime suspect. Jim, let's play it on line. Did you kill your wife? No, I did not.

Why should anyone believe you didn't kill your wife? I would never hurt Beverly, harm Beverly in any way. Beverly has been my best friend for many years. She was the mother of our two children, and I would have never done any harm to her. You suspected Jim Watson from the beginning, But you never arrested him. Why not?

The problem in Georgia with a homicide is, it's difficult to get a conviction without a body. And that was the real problem. Despite everyone's suspicions, there was virtually no evidence. There was no witness, no body, no proof that Beverly was even dead. In short, there was no case. Domestics are complicated because they're usually almost always circumstantial, and that is because murder is not a spectator sport.

Prosecutor Sheila Ross says pursuing a wife killer is always tough. Jim Watson is not going to go out into his street and say, hey, neighbors, why don't you come into my home and watch me while I kill my wife. The domestic killer has an distinct advantage over a stranger-on-stranger homicide because they can kill in the privacy of their own home. People like that are far worse than killers who pick total strangers because they're violating that trust. They're stealing the mother.

from their children. And there is a special place in hell for men who kill their wives. But no matter what anyone thinks of her father, Ashley says they're all wrong. She is not living with her mother's killer. You've stood behind your dad all the way. Mm-hmm. Why? Because I know he didn't do anything. And it's so frustrating to hear all these people who don't even know him, just point a finger at him. And I think that's made me just stay, I mean, right by his side to let him know that, you know, hey, I love you and I do believe you. How can you be so sure that your dad had absolutely nothing to do with your mom's disappearance? Because in those 12 years, I've never seen any sort of physical abuse.

What keeps you going? Does this cloud of suspicion hang you over your head? The fact that I know that I'm innocent. Don't push me all the way out there. And the fact that I have two. Two children, they need their father around. So who is Jim Watson? A devoted dad? He's a great dad. A calculating killer.

Jim Watson is a wife killer, a typical, spineless wife killer. Or both. He would drive through the parking lot slow, writing down the descriptions of our undercover cars so he would know when we would follow him. I've never encountered a homicide suspect with the confidence that he would have. that he had to just flound it in your face. Major Bruce Jordan was sure Jim Watson had killed his wife, Beverly. But without any proof, he was forced to play a cat and mouse game with Watson.

He's a tit-for-tat kind of guy. When we started following him, he would find my family at night and follow us. And he would come to my daughter's softball games and stand there and stare at my daughter while she played softball. But the sad story of Beverly Watson remained a missing person's case. Flyers were handed out. We're friends of Beverly Watson. Vigils were held.

It helps us keep her in our hearts in mind. But she didn't turn up. A year went by, then too. And still, Beverly's daughter Ashley held out hope. I noticed you have a ring around your neck. Yeah, that's her engagement ring. My dad gave it to me probably about a year after she left, just to kind of, you know, give a part of her to me.

You know, keep a memory alive. memory alive. What about your brother? How was all this affecting him? He was six when she left, and that's incredibly young. I think a lot of it goes over his head. Same with me. I mean, a lot of stuff still just doesn't seem, you know, like it actually happened to us.

But it did happen to the Watson family, and two years after her mother's disappearance, a surveyor stumbles across a skull in the woods, 20 miles from the Watson home. tests prove it was Beverly's. It was kind of a kick in the face, like, she's not coming back now. Nothing could be changed after that point. You know, she was gone. She's not coming back.

Okay, is it good? Yeah. I always go to my crime scene. And this is 32 feet? Apart. Yeah. I think that you cannot adequately understand what happened to the victim if you don't go

to the last place that they were alive. In this case, she was probably dead when she got here. Your search was here, and this is where all the remains were found. This is all where all the remains were found. For prosecutors, she is, You searched beyond the stream, right? Yes. The discovery of Beverly's remains is a major break in the case.

She laid out here for two years waiting to be found here in this area. Police searched the dense undergrowth off Red Mill Road and find 12 bones total. So the leg bones were closer to the stream. All that remains of the once vibrant mother of two. Not only was she killed and her life snubbed out when she was very young, and she was deprived of the right to see her children grow old. But then he dumps her out here where she's literally just ripped apart by animals. And Red Mill Road yields yet another important clue.

Remember the layer of fine dust covering Beverly's car the day Jim reported her missing? It looks very much like the dust on Red Mill Road, a road that Ross believes leads straight back to Jim Watson. Now we get some answers and some closure to what has happened. to what has happened over two years ago. But the discovery of Beverly's bones provides almost no new answers. Beverly's cause of death is ruled undetermined,

and the case against Jim Watson remains shaky. What we have working against us is no physical evidence linking him to the scene. Also, no known cause of death. But that isn't about to stop Sheila Ross. Why don't you tell that, dear citizen, to eat crow? 32 and divorced, Ross learned at an early age how to fight for what she wants. She's one of five sisters raised by a divorced mother who worked nights.

My father moved out of state, so she had to work, and she had to work at night, and she did not have child care. And my mother did her best to raise us and keeps out of trouble. Sheila is one of those individuals who, when you give it to her, she's going to go line by line by line. Fulton County Detective Frank Martin is helping Ross with the investigation. She's not going to miss anything and she's going to drive you. She has the energy to make everybody around her get up and go and go and go.

That's why she's known as Sheila the Shark. You know they have a little nickname for you around the office. I've heard that. What do you think? I don't like it. You don't like it? No. But it's okay to be tough as a prosecutor.

I think it's necessary to be tough as a prosecutor. Sheila Ross is such a firecracker. I love that woman, and I think that she's going to be the end of Jim White's. Mandy Dunn, Beverly's niece and Scott Bennett, Beverly's brother, are relying on Ross for justice. But it's hard to be patient. I've begged the authorities for five minutes alone with them. Because I think the boy needs, I think he needs some of what he did to Beverly.

What would you say to Jim if you were still talking to him? Hide. Run and hide. We're going about this legally. We're giving the authorities their chance to them. take care of things, but there's enough people out there. They've expressed strong desire to hurt the boy. So my advice to him is high. Other than that, I have nothing to say to him.

Caught in the middle of this blood feud are Ashley and Todd who want nothing to do with their mother's family. I want everyone to know that I am ashamed of them. I don't like them at all. I mean, basically I do. I hate them. I wish that they would stop playing the media

to think that they're good people and that they try and look out for us, and that dad is this bad guy who shields us from him because he's not. We understand why Ashley is having bitter feelings towards us. She's lost her mother, and now we're going to take her father away from her. Good look. But again, it's the best thing for her. Sheila Ross is determined to do the best thing for Beverly.

Nearly five years to the day that she disappeared, Ross takes the case to a Fulton County grand jury. We could have been too afraid to try to be. bring the man to justice and sit in the corner and let him get away with killing his wife, or we could try. We chose to try. And the grand jury indicts Jim Watson for the murder of his wife. Ball's in our court now. He's had his time. He's, quite frankly, he was given an additional five years to live longer than Beverly was.

But Watson insists he's innocent, and in a show of good faith, agrees to a videotaped interview with Detective Martin, without his... lawyer. I didn't hit her, I didn't knock her down, I didn't push her down. I didn't do anything to her that night. I spoke with him for approximately two, two and a half hours and I could see fear in his eyes. Were you upset that night and did you kill her?

I could not see any sincerity in his eyes. Not really upset. I was ticked off. I am not an evil person. I'm not a bad person. I have always done what I thought was right and no matter what I do in life. I've tried a lot of murder cases in my career, and I've never tried one without evidence of murder. Lee Sexton is Jim Watson's attorney.

I don't know that anyone killed Beverly Watson. Based on the medical reports, we don't know that Beverly had a heart attack. We don't know that she was walking down the roadway and was struck by a vehicle and knocked into the woods. And we certainly don't know if someone else abducted Beverly and killed her and left her body in the woods. The state's going to attempt to get a jury to speculate him into being a convicted murderer. and speculate him into the rest of his life in a penitentiary. That's not the way we do law in the United States. We require proof, and there's not any.

Sexton gets Watson freed on a $100,000 cash bail and applies for a speedy trial so Jim can get on with his life. It's a tough homicide. There's no doubt about it. I anticipate an absolute dog fight. And Ashley will be in the middle of it. She will take the stand to defend her father. It's very intimidating, but I'm also very very, very... anxious to get it over with and to get out the truth.

At the 11th hour, Sexton tries to knock out the heart of the state's case. He says everything Beverly told her friends is hearsay. She said, if anything ever happens to me, you tell them that Jim did it. If the judge rules in favor of the defense, Sheila Ross will have to prove murder with her only evidence being scratches on Watson's face and dust on Beverly's car. Beverly's car. How would you describe the state's case against Jim Watson? The weakest I have ever seen in all of my years of practice. We're trying to get justice for Beverly, justice that she has been denied for five years. If the jury chooses to let him go, it's blood on their hands.

We've decided we're going to try. I'm new y'all to get together, but. Tomorrow, Jim Watson stands trial for killing him. for killing his wife Beverly. He didn't do it. It's totally out of character from Jim. Jim's a mild-mannered, easy-going. But today, we're having a little party

for Jim and his family. We thought it'd be good to bring them all together. Everybody have a little fun and eat some hot dogs and some hamburgers at I, Louie, Louie Louislew. Larry and Lynn Elsie Jim is a friend, a non-his friend, a true friend. Want Jim to know that his friends and family stand by him. I'll be there giving him my support.

This is Jim's Day. is Jim's Day of Reckney. We don't want a hung jury. We don't want a mistrial. We want to acquittal. He could spend the rest of his life in prison, but he says he's not worried. I am innocent, and I'd like for everyone else

to know that I'm innocent. But before the trial begins, Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Please be seated. Judge T. Jackson Bedford makes a decision crucial to the prosecution's case. The testimony is to what Debbie White, Krista Hinkle and Ellen L.

Lord heard Beverly Watson say, is admissible? The hearsay testimony will be admitted. It's a major victory for prosecutor Sheila Ross, who opens her case with the parade of Beverly's friends and coworkers. She told me that Jim had broken her arm. He grabbed her by her arm here and pulled her out the door. I saw bruises around her neck. He had his hand like this around her neck, and the other hand had a gun in it.

She said that Jim had threatened to kill her. and that he would put her body someplace where nobody would find it. One of the hardest things is when Sheila said we had to talk for her. We knew what a wonderful person she was. Very sweet, very loving, kind person. Would we ever be able to express that and get that across to a jury? She was a wonderful mother. Would we be able to make them feel what he did to her and how she felt

without them actually knowing her? Correct. The state calls Debbie White. Some of the most damning testimony comes from Beverly's best friend, Debbie White. She had said that they had argued all night long and that she wasn't speaking to Jim. As we were talking, Jim walked in the room

and he pulled a shotgun and put it to the back of her head. And he said, so are you going to talk to me now? What happened after he left? She said, this isn't the first time he's done anything like that to me. She said, I've woken up several times in the middle of the night. She said he'll be standing over me with a gun pointed to my head. And he would say, see, I could have killed you and you'd have never know what hit you.

Did Beverly ever tell you anything else? Beverly told me that when evening she was doing the dishes in the kitchen, and Jim had come up behind her and had sort of grabbed her around the neck. And before she knew it, he had flipped her over and had slammed her head on the kitchen floor and was on top of her choking her. And she said that she was screaming. Ashley had come into the kitchen, and she was screaming for Ashley to get him off of her,

that he was hurting her. Now it's defense attorney Lee Sexton's turn, and he begins by attacking Debbie White's credibility. Now your testimony is that Jim Watson came up and pointed a shotgun at Beverly Watson. Yes. And, of course, when that happened, he screamed.

Is that correct? I didn't scream, no. You called your husband who was downstairs, get up here, Jim's got a gun. Is that correct? No. You did nothing? No, sir. Throughout the prosecution's case, Jim sits stoically in court.

But he says his insides are churning. Having to sit there and listen to all the lies and the people telling lies about me that there's no proof of, that tends to get to you. It's got to be hard for them to walk out in public and just feel the stairs. or whatever, but he's really strong and he tries to be strong for us too. And Ashley is trying to be strong for her father. She sent her brother Todd to camp to avoid the trial. She can't attend because she will testify. What is this?

So she's at home helping to run her father's locksmith business. We're like the secretaries. I have no clue what this is. We're basically running it right now or trying our best too. This is a human skull. The days go by and Ross methodically builds her case. Were there any clothes located near the skull?

Using gruesome exhibits, like this tattered pair of women's underwear, found near Beverly's bones. And were these the condition of the panties when they were found? Yes. Seeing what happened to Beverly is almost unbearable for her brother Scott Bennett and the rest of Beverly's family. My only hope is that Jim Watson's life

is filled every day with the same fear, the same pain, We want him to hurt far more than Beverly ever hurt. And ladies and gentlemen, this is when it gets interesting. The case seems to be going Ross's way until the medical examiner takes the stand. I cannot determine a cause of death, and I defy anyone to be able to establish a cause of death. Sexton jumps on her admission. Can you medically exclude from your examination of the remains, a heart attack? Just from looking at the bones, no.

Can you medically exclude remains? medically exclude renal failure? Again, just from looking at the bones, no. Can you medically exclude strangulation? Just from looking at the bones, no. You do not know whether at the time Beverly Watson died, whether she was impaired by any drug or intoxicated by... I'm going to ask for a good faith basis for that,

Your Honor, it's a good... Temper's flair, as Sexton suggests, without any supporting evidence, that Beverly could have died from a drug overdose. I do not need a... need a basis to cross-exam this witness about excluding causes of death you have often used the term as if it was conclusive that in fact that condition existed that's the state's objection your honor that is not what I did

that's what you've said you're not she excuse me when I talk you don't all I'm doing is I'm simply trying to represent my client of with a thorough and sifting cross-examination of this witness do it right I did not right. I sustained the state's objection. And the manner of death again, as you put on the death certificate, was what? Undetermined. Undetermined.

Sexton scores another devastating admission from another prosecution witness who says tests done on the dust from Beverly's car are inconclusive. You can't pin the dust down to Red Mill Road, can you? No, I can't. You can't pin the dust down to Georgia, can you? No, I can't. You can't pin it down to any geographical low. because it's dust pretty much like all the dust everywhere.

Is that right? For the most part, yes. Thank you. I hope to God the jury finds him not guilty. This is one of those rare occasions where we're representing an innocent person. At this time, the state in Georgia rests. As the state rests, the question persists. Has Ross proved Watson guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?

Your Honor, really at this time called Jim Watson. Now Sheila Ross will get her chance to confront Jim Watson. Watson. He's not going to break down and admit it's not going to be any Perry Mason kind of moment. But the devil with him is in the detail. And he's lying. And he's a bad liar. Hey there, we're Corinne Vien and Sabrina DeAnna Roga here to introduce our newest podcast, Crimes of a Crimehouse Original. Crimes of is a weekly series that explores a new theme each season, from Crimes of the Paranormal, Unsolved Murders, and more. Our first season is Crimes of Infamy, the true crime stories behind Hollywood's most iconic horror villains.

Listen to and follow Crimes of, available now wherever you get your podcasts. Jim Watson accused of murder. His wife Beverly seemingly disappeared. Prosecutor Sheila Ross has been unyielding in her assertion that Jim Watson murdered his wife Beverly. Jim Watson is smart, but what you have to remember is that there's no such thing as a perfect crime. We call Ashley Watson. And so the pressure is on Ashley Watson to convince the jury that her father did not kill her mother. Ashley, you'd like to help your father, wouldn't you?

Yes, sir. Would you come in here and testify falsely just to help your father? No, sir, I wouldn't. All right. floor and you walked in? No sir, that never happened. Have you ever seen your father ever tried to hurt your mother? No, sir. Strike her? No, sir. Hitter? Have you ever seen him push her? No, sir. Choker? No, sir. And you're 18 now, is that right? Yes, sir. And you can live anywhere you want, can't you? Yes, sir. And where are you living now? I'm living with my father.

Thank you, that's all. Prosecutor Sheila Ross wants to downplay the importance of Ashley's testimony. she leaves the cross-examination to co-counsel Michelle McCutcheon. Have you ever seen your mother throw anything at your father, Ashley? No, ma'am. Have you ever seen your mother scratch your father? No, ma'am. So in January the 18th of 1997, Ashley, if your father told you that your mother threw keys at him and scratched him, that would be out of character for your mother, wouldn't

it, Ashley? It would be, but I believed him. He has coached that kid every day. about what she should say and what she shouldn't say. It was used to released. And I think it would be painfully obvious to anyone that this girl is just going to parrot her father. Here at this time called Jim Watson.

The most dramatic moment of the trial comes when Jim Watson decides to speak for himself. I think that he took the stand because he's a sociopath and that he thought that he could convince the jury that he was telling the truth. Did you ever make the statement to anybody that you are going to, you could kill Beverly and hide her body where it would never be famed. No sir, I've never made that statement.

Tell the jury what kind of impact Beverly's disappearance has had on you. It's been, it's been very tough trying to raise two kids on my own. And Beverly and I were high school sweethearts. She was my best friend. What kind of effect has Beverly's loss had on your children? It's been very tough on both of them. When I saw him up there crying to that question, it's almost as if he realized that he just deprived his children of their mother. Jim Barely has a moment to compose himself before he's facing the wrath of Sheila Ross.

But he's betting the rest of his life that he can handle her. And we saw you crying here today for the members of the jury. Were you crying when you reported your wife missing? I was not worried at the time when I reported my wife missing. Were you crying when Lieutenant, or excuse me, Captain Weaver told you that your wife was dead? When they told me I was in shock and I laid my head on my desk. So that would be a know you weren't crying, right? No, I did not cry at the time.

And you were shocked. they found her, weren't you? No, I was shocked that she was dead. Did you ever ask anyone from law enforcement or at the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office to tell you what killed your wife? I don't recall if I did or not. Would it not have been important to you

to know if your wife of 14 years, the mother of your two children, suffered when she died? It would have been important, yes, ma'am. And you didn't ask? I don't, I don't, do not recall if I asked and I do not remember if I had already heard on the news that they don't know how she died. Ross does her best to provoke him. Tell me about your experience with makeup, Mr. Watson.

I don't have much experience with it. Makeup is used to cover up things, right? That's correct. And you used makeup to cover up scratches on your face, right? They were covered up, yes. And what kind of makeup did you use? I don't know. Liquid or powder?

I don't recall. Well, you put it on, right? I did. Show us how you put it on. I don't recall how I'll put it on. We've got some makeup here. You can show us how you put it on. You're not a good object to that.

That's just totally unnecessary. That's improper. I'll allow it. We've got several types. Don't know which type you used. Powder. It's a cover-up, concealer, and base. Which one was it?

I do not recall. I do not recall what type she used at the time. Well, this would be the type that you used. Right. So you're not willing to show the members of the jury how you did it? I do not recall how I put the makeup on the moment. Well, did you look in the mirror to do it? I'm assuming I did, yes.

Could you want to make sure the scratches were covered up, right? That was my whole intention. Exactly. I realized that what she was trying to do was make me mad and just trying to embarrass me in front everybody. The rest of the defense Witnesses are Jim's friends and family. How did they act?

They were happily married. I never saw any bruises on Beverly's neck. She said, no ma'am. Jim has never hit me or harmed me in any way. So what will the jury believe that Jim Watson is a good father and friend or a killer, guilty of malice murder? Ladies and gentlemen, he left her out there to rot. He and he alone knew where she was for two years to live.

months and two days and he allowed her to be torn apart by wild dogs I would not be foolish enough to stand up here before you people and tell you that you should not suspect that Jim Watson might have done it that is the natural place you go when the wife disappears is you look to the husband you should suspect he did it but you are not allowed in this great country that we live in to make that quantum leap from suspicion to conviction unless the state can show some real evidence. Sheila Ross gets the final word. Help Beverly. Give Beverly what she deserves, which is justice.

Tell her killer that you will not reward him for being a good killer, that you see through and you speak for Beverly by letting her killer know that you're not going to let him get away with it. If you do not hold him responsible for her murder, no one ever will. After two weeks of testimony, the question of whether Jim Watson killed his wife Beverly is now in the hands of the jury. This is the worst time of a trial for any lawyer is just waiting to find out what the verdict is. If he is acquitted, then he would have managed to do what he always said he would do, which was killer and get away with it. Beverly's brother Scott Bennett can hardly bear the waiting.

It's at five years of pain is now sitting up there in the jury room. Court come to order, court's back in session. But they don't have to wait for long. Mr. Four persons, the jury reached a verdict. We have your office. After five hours of deliberations, the jury has made its decision. We, the jury, find a defendant, James and Moore, Watson, Jr., guilty of Dallas Burrish. Guilty.

I don't think I've ever been so. nervous about one thing in my life. I felt relieved. I felt like the weight of the world had just lifted off my shoulders. Are you affected by any of the emotions that pour out during trials, especially when the verdict's read? No. I make a concerted effort not to.

I have a line that we have at the prosecutor's office and that there is no crying in baseball. There is no crying in prosecution. I mean, you're doing your job. And it's my duty to be professional when the verdicts are read. And that's exactly what I do. Immediately, the judge issues the sentence. And I now sentence you to be imprisoned for the rest of your life,

and I direct that the state will take you into custody at this time. You're going to sit at the morning. When you saw him being let away in handcuffs, your feelings, your thoughts? Well, Watson, you're gone. We do not have to wake up in the morning and worry about Mr. Watson. about Mr. Watson anymore. Yeah. Justice was served here today.

Justice was served, Beverly's loved ones will tell you, thanks to Sheila Ross. It made me feel great that we had done our job, that we had told Beverly's story. He's in prison now, where he belongs. But this victory comes at a price. The children who lost their mother have now lost their father, too. What about his kids?

I mean, I guess Ash is an age, the baseball with on Todd. Well, Todd, it's going to have to have a guardian appointed now. I felt deep, deep sorrow for Ashley and Todd. I kept looking over at Ashley. I thought of how her mother loved her so much. And I really hate that she has been put in the position that she's in.

I wish I could change that for her. You could see anything to Ashley and Todd. We love you. And we're sorry that you gotta go through this. But what we did, whether they believe in or not, was in their best interest. This was for Beverly, it was for mom, but it was also for the kids. And we all have open arms and open hearts to the kids. These days, Todd is living with his father's sister.

Ashley is living on her own, in her parents' house, still trying to run her father's locksmith business. business. It is tragic all the way around for the children. But we can't let a killer roam free all because he has children. The fact that he has children is of no consequence. It's sad for them and it's tragic for them, but that doesn't mean he gets to get away with killing his wife. In 2016, Jim Watson died in prison.