Eugene Wayman McWatters Jr. was convicted in Martin County, Florida, of the murders of three women: Jackie Bradley, Christal Wiggins and Carrie Ann Caughey. The killings took place in 2004, one in late March and two within a few hours of each other around the Memorial Day weekend at the end of May. A jury found him guilty on all counts on September 28, 2006. On December 4, 2006, Circuit Judge Larry Schack sentenced him to death for each of the three murders. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed every conviction and sentence on March 18, 2010, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case on November 1, 2010.
McWatters was born on June 20, 1978. His childhood, schooling, family and work are not on record; the trial judge found several nonstatutory mitigating circumstances drawn from his background and gave them minimal weight.
The three women were Jackie Bradley, Christal Wiggins and Carrie Ann Caughey. Their ages, families and lives are not on record. Each of the three died in 2004 in Martin County.
Jackie Bradley was the first, killed on or around March 28, 2004. Carrie Ann Caughey and Christal Wiggins were killed within a few hours of each other on or around May 31, 2004, during the Memorial Day weekend. The March death was therefore a separate event from the two in May, and the trial court handled it differently from the other two.
Investigators questioned McWatters twice in June 2004, and on both occasions he denied any involvement. On June 23, 2004, he was arrested on a charge that had nothing to do with the killings, and he was read his Miranda rights.
In a recorded interview that followed, he confessed to killing all three women. The warnings were not repeated before that interview began, and the point became the center of his first appeal.
On July 6, 2004, McWatters was indicted on six counts: first-degree murder and sexual battery for each of the three women. The prosecution moved to try the cases together under the Williams rule, which governs evidence of other crimes. The motion was granted: the Wiggins and Caughey cases were consolidated for trial, and the evidence from the Bradley case was admitted as similar-fact evidence on consent, premeditation and intent.
The trial took place in the 19th Judicial Circuit in Martin County. McWatters was represented at trial by a privately retained lawyer, Bob Watson. The defense sought to exclude the confession, arguing that the interview followed an incomplete warning. The trial court denied the motion to suppress. The defense also raised conflict-of-interest objections to the lawyers who had represented him earlier and asked that the State Attorney's Office, the prosecuting office, be disqualified; the Supreme Court later found no basis to reverse on either point.
On September 28, 2006, the jury returned its verdict: guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of sexual battery with great force.
The penalty phase ended on October 4, 2006, when the jury recommended death for each murder. The votes were 9 to 3 for the murder of Jackie Bradley, 10 to 2 for the murder of Christal Wiggins and 10 to 2 for the murder of Carrie Ann Caughey.
Judge Schack sentenced McWatters on December 4, 2006. He imposed death for each of the three murders and life imprisonment for each of the three sexual battery counts. In his sentencing order he found four aggravating factors and gave each great weight: prior violent and capital felony convictions, which were the contemporaneous convictions in the other counts; the commission of a murder during a felony; a statutory factor concerning the nature of the killing; and the cold, calculated, and premeditated factor. He found no statutory mitigating circumstances, including neither of the two statutory mental-health factors, and he found a number of nonstatutory mitigating circumstances drawn from McWatters's background, which he described as minimal.
The direct appeal was filed on January 10, 2007. The Public Defender's Office for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, with Assistant Public Defender Jeffrey L. Anderson, represented him. The court heard oral argument on January 8, 2009, and issued its decision, a per curiam opinion, on March 18, 2010.
McWatters raised a long list of issues, among them the denial of his motion to suppress, the use of the Bradley evidence, the testimony of two prosecution witnesses, the sufficiency of the evidence of premeditation and of the sexual battery counts, the disqualification of counsel and of the State Attorney's Office, and the constitutionality of the sentencing scheme. The court rejected nearly all of them.
On the confession, the court held that the rule from Missouri v. Seibert on deliberately delayed warnings did not apply, and that a brief gap after a proper Miranda warning did not invalidate his waiver. On the Bradley evidence, it held that the trial court had not abused its discretion in admitting it, because it bore on consent, premeditation and intent. It found that the testimony of the two witnesses did not intrude on the jury's role. It denied his claims for judgment of acquittal on the premeditated murder and sexual battery counts, finding that the evidence was inconsistent with any reasonable hypothesis of innocence. It held that one lawyer's conflict of interest had been validly waived, that another lawyer had no actual conflict, and that the State Attorney's Office did not need to be disqualified because recorded jail calls had been made after warnings.
The court did find one sentencing error. It struck the cold, calculated, and premeditated aggravating factor as to the murder of Jackie Bradley, then held the error harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. It upheld the factor as to the Wiggins and Caughey murders, upheld the other aggravating factors, rejected the argument that Florida's sentencing scheme was unconstitutional under Ring v. Arizona, and found the death sentences proportionate.
Chief Justice Charles Quince concurred in the result and wrote separately to express concern about the way the interrogation was conducted. Justices Labarga and Perry took no part in the decision. A motion for rehearing, filed April 1, 2010, was denied on June 2, 2010.
McWatters filed a petition for certiorari on August 20, 2010. The Court denied it on November 1, 2010. That ended the direct review of the convictions and sentences.
As of February 2011, no postconviction filings had been made and postconviction counsel had not yet been named. Later postconviction proceedings, any federal habeas petition and his present custody are not on record.
No killings beyond the three have been charged or attributed to McWatters. The three murder convictions rest on the jury's verdict of September 28, 2006, which the Florida Supreme Court affirmed, with the one sentencing error treated as harmless.
March 28, 2004 (on or around): Jackie Bradley killed, Martin County, Florida.
May 31, 2004 (on or around): Carrie Ann Caughey and Christal Wiggins killed within hours of each other, Martin County.
June 2004: McWatters is questioned twice and denies involvement.
June 23, 2004: arrested on an unrelated charge; confesses to all three killings in a recorded interview.
July 6, 2004: indicted on three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of sexual battery.
September 28, 2006: jury finds him guilty on all counts.
October 4, 2006: jury recommends death for each murder (9 to 3 for Bradley; 10 to 2 each for Wiggins and Caughey).
December 4, 2006: sentenced to death for each murder and to life for each sexual battery.
January 10, 2007: direct appeal filed with the Florida Supreme Court.
January 8, 2009: oral argument.
March 18, 2010: convictions and sentences affirmed; rehearing denied June 2, 2010.
November 1, 2010: U.S. Supreme Court denies certiorari.