Seriously, WTH? Only jailed for 4 and a half years for killing his own wife? Just because he pleaded guilty? This is totally insane... He should be sentenced for life imprisonment.
/keeseng
Source
Coroner David Glasgow formally charged Watson with murder last June. Glasgow said it was likely Watson killed his wife by holding her underwater and turning off her air supply.
Watson's guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter means he will not be tried on the charge of murder, to which he pleaded not guilty.
Watson, an experienced diver who has since remarried, said in videotaped police interviews that his 26-year-old wife, a novice diver, started having trouble a few minutes into their dive.
He said he decided to go for help rather than attempt a rescue himself. One of the dive leaders pulled the woman to the surface, but efforts to resuscitate her failed.
A fellow diver told an Australian coroner's inquest last year that he saw Watson engaged in an underwater "bear hug" with his petite wife, after which he headed to the surface while she sank to the ocean floor.
Prosecutor Brendan Campbell told the court Friday that the manslaughter plea was accepted on the basis that Watson failed in his duty as her dive buddy by not giving her emergency oxygen.
Campbell said Watson also allowed his wife to sink to the ocean floor without attempting to retrieve her, and he did not inflate her buoyancy vest or remove weights from her belt.
"He virtually extinguished any chance of her survival," Campbell said.
The court was told Watson had been trained to rescue panicked divers.
Watson told police his wife knocked his mask off and then sank too quickly for him to retrieve her. But the prosecution rejected his explanation, saying it would not have been possible for her to sink rapidly.
Christina Watson's father, Tommy Thomas, her sister Alanda and friend, Amanda Phillips, flew from Alabama to attend court.
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