Cruise Ship Murder Bombshell: Wife Killed in Front of Child?

horrific new details in an awful case of an alleged murder on a cruise ship. A father and husband's now in custody, the FBI says he beat and strangled his wife inside a state room. Just hours into what appears to have been a family vacation. He allegedly committed this crime with one of his kids close by. And we're now learning more about the woman who authorities say lost her life. Susan Watford. "Sir, what happened?" We're also learning more about the alleged history of Jason Leon Watford. A violent past which includes allegations that he has tried to kill before. We're on the case presented by Law and Crime. I'm Christian. It was a detail I could not believe when the FBI confirmed it to the media yesterday that a child was found in the state room where Jason Leon Watford allegedly strangled and beat his wife to death. And all of this happened just hours into what was supposed to be a seven-day cruise with his family. This is a picture of the victim in this case, Susan Watford. The FBI confirmed her name to media outlets shortly after her husband Jason made his first court appearance in federal court in Texas. Now the FBI has not given a lot of details about the child that was found in the state room where this alleged murder took place. We don't know how old the child was. We don't know specifically where they were at the time of this alleged murder, but the fact that there was a child close by is horrific enough. Now a woman who says she is Susan Watford's foster sister posted pictures of Susan on Facebook. And it includes this picture here. And it appears to be Susan aboard a cruise ship. Another friend tagged a Facebook account which appears to be Susan's where she documented her trips. It appears that she loved to travel. We also found a LinkedIn profile that says a lot about who Susan was in life, someone who is pursuing to have a better career. Her job is listed as the warehouse team lead at Target in Tyler Texas, which is where she and her husband live. But the bio says that she is pursuing a bachelor of science and business administration with a focus on finance at Colorado Technical University. She was a member of the Delta Mood Delta Business Honor Society and quote, "I have a keen interest in financial analysis, budgeting and forecasting, and I apply my problem solving and communication skills to various projects and assignments." Now it's unclear how Susan met Jason Leon Watford, what their marriage was like, how long may have been married. That hasn't come out as of yet. But there's no doubt that this appears to have been a marriage that had issues in the past related to domestic violence, which we'll get into here in just a moment. And we also have some shocking information about Jason Leon Watford's past before he moved to Texas, which we'll also share. Now the criminal complaint, which this is interesting, did not mention a child being present during Jason's alleged attack on his wife, but then the FBI confirmed that detail yesterday to media outlets. The FBI said that the Watford's had boarded the ship, the MSCC escape, on November 8th. It was a Sunday and the cruise was supposed to be seven days long. They would leave Galveston, Texas, which is a big port town, go to a couple spots in Mexico, Honduras, then they would return to Galveston. You think of the excitement that people have when they go on a cruise, the excitement of a week away, maybe from work, from life, you can just be on the ship. But it appears that just hours into this cruise, there was trouble. The FBI says that the couple got into a verbal argument at dinner at one of the restaurants on board the ship. And then surveillance video shows Jason Leon Watford going back to the state room. Susan then arrives at that state room. This is Sunday night, just about 25 minutes after Jason went back. And the argument that they were having a dinner allegedly carried on into the state room. And Jason told federal agents that he allegedly, quote, snapped and attacked his wife physically. He said he hit her in the face multiple times and there was blood that was seen on Jason's clothes and in the cabin. It's awful. And Watford also said that he allegedly choked. Susan with both of his hands. And then he said he wrapped his arm around her neck while she was lying down and he applied pressure to her neck allegedly for as long as five minutes. And he said he only let go when he was tired. That about 10 minutes later, he said there was a knock on the door. And it was a member of housekeeping there to pick up towels. And that housekeeper reportedly saw what, quote, she believed to be blood on subjects hands, which is Jason and pants as well as emotionless female lying face down on the floor. The FBI says when staff entered the state room and they found Susan Watford, Jason was in different clothes. He had put on a fresh pair. And then he left the state room and they say there was surveillance video of him just sitting in the hallway scrolling his phone, presumably waiting for security to arrive. The FBI boarded the ship. They said they interviewed Jason Leon Watford. They read him his rights and he admitted to everything that I just told you that he allegedly killed his wife in that horrific way. Now we talked about a lot of those details yesterday, but then after our episode was posted, the FBI confirmed the detail about a child being in the room and you just read through that criminal complaint. And then you just imagine a child being close by. It is awful. So what happened? This is video that I 45 now got of Watford being brought into the Galveston County jail. He is facing a federal charge of murder because this crime allegedly happened at sea. And then this is video of Watford being transported to face a federal magistrate judge on Tuesday. Cameras are not allowed in federal court, unfortunately. And this though we have found was not the first time that Jason Leon Watford has been involved in a violent crime. Watford is originally from the Chicago area in Kankake, Illinois, which is a community south of the city. And we found previous addresses for him there. NBC Chicago says that they found that Jason Leon Watford previously was convicted of first degree attempted murder aggravated battery with a gun and drug violations. And he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. It is unclear when he made his way to Texas. But we know that in 2024 court records in Smith County, which is where this couple lived, show that Jason Leon Watford pleaded guilty in a misdemeanor assault case on a family member. And reportedly that was related to Susan telling police that Jason had grabbed her rest as the two of them were arguing about money. Now the Watford's apparently stayed together to the point where they went on this cruise this month. But now you have family and friends who are mourning her loss as her husband's now facing these terrible charges that could put him in prison for the rest of his life. Federal prison. Now the woman who said that she was Susan's foster sister on Facebook, she had not just the pictures of Susan, but a long post about what Susan meant to her. Part of it reads quote one thing about foster care is that you don't just meet strangers. You meet people who become family, people who grow up alongside you, people who leave permanent pieces of themselves in your heart. She had been part of my life since I was a little girl. We shared a bond that went beyond foster care and I will forever consider her my sister. It also says Jason Leon Watford, the pain and devastation left behind are beyond words. Because of what happened, a mother has been taken away from her children, a daughter from her family, and an extraordinary human being from so many people who loved her deeply. There are hearts that will never be the same, a child who must grow up without their mother and a family left trying to make sense of a loss that should never have happened. Joining me on to talk more about this is former Palm Beach County State Attorney in Florida, Dave Ehrenberg, always good to have you on law and crime. You know, we talked about the Anna Kepner case so much, which was the last, unfortunately, cruise ship alleged murder that we're talking about. In this case, there's certainly a lot of differences, but just what stands out to you about this suspect, Jason Leon Watford? Well, good to be back with you, Chris. How open and shut this case is. I mean, you've got a detailed confession. I mean, it can be it right there, open and shut case. You've got a forensic timeline here, stand by cruise ship surveillance. I mean, we've seen this with the Anna Kepner case that maybe the worst place to commit a major crime is on a cruise ship. There are cameras everywhere. There are witnesses all over the place. You've got a swipe card that tells you where you're going at all times. You've got also here a post crime demeanor where he changed clothes and scrolled on a phone while a victim lies dying sort of sort of complete shreds, any excuse of a sudden accidental snap. No, and that's the thing is like at this point, if you're his defense attorney, and the FBI says they spoke to him, read him his rights, and then it's a very detailed confession that it appears that he gave like as a defense attorney, what do you do now? Try to cut a deal or you just try to get it to manslaughter. And although the evidence shows that it wasn't just a guy who just snapped was pushed too far, the evidence is really going to be stacked against him, but it is something defense can do where they're going to try to say it's manslaughter that it's not murder one or murder two, and they'll try to get him out of prison before he dies, but it's tough when you give the full. confession and you get all this other evidence that shows that now this is murder. When we hear about, um, and I don't know how often it's actually effectively argued, but like the heat of passion defense, like if someone comes into the house and they're sleeping with your spouse and in that moment you just couldn't control yourself. Like, when you look at the timeline that the FBI is laying out where they're having an argument at dinner, then this argument continues on into the state room. Um, and then on top of allegedly hitting her, which she's admitted to, he admits to choking her for as long as five minutes, which is so, I mean, think about how long, like if you just sit here in silence for five minutes and to think that that was what was going on, like, um, I don't see how that defense would actually work in this case. It's a great point. It's one thing to shoot someone in a heat of passion. That's the whole heat of passion offense. You find someone in bed with your white boom here. You're choking for five minutes. I mean, and there are some things though that defense will try to capitalize on. I mean, in that confession, apparently he said that he snapped. Right. So they're going to capitalize on it. They're going to say, okay, he even said it was that he snapped. So they're going to argue that this was a sudden volatile escalation of mutual combat. There was an explosive emotional argument, rather than some calculated cold blooded killing, but you bring up an important point. I mean, my goodness, the duration of the choking says a lot. When I think of the demeanor part two of this, where, you know, there's a member of housekeeping that shows up, knocks on the door, sees Jason Leon Watford's wife Susan, like she's unconscious on the floor and there's blood everywhere. And then apparently she calls in more, you know, more staff members to come in. But then there's this moment in the, the criminal complaint where the FBI says that Jason Watford walks out. He's got new clothes on no longer the bloody ones. He has on and he just sits and he scrolls on his phone. How does demeanor impact a case like that? Because even if you're doing the sudden heat of passion, like how should someone act after that? I mean, especially if you're the defense, like what do you do with that piece of information? The defense could try to use that to their benefit because if you want to pursue an sanity defense, you don't want to show fleeing or that you knew what you did was wrong. Because if you knew what you did was wrong, then you cannot take advantage of the insane defense. Here he could say, "Oh, I was scrolled." He's nuts. He didn't know anything. Of course, when you change your clothes, why'd you do that? Because you knew you committed a crime, right? You're trying to cover it up. So the scrolling could be helpful in the insane defense. The changing of clothes? No. They can also try what's called the competency defense where it's not. It's to prevent a trial from even taking place. They could say that he is not mentally fit to stand trial where he is not able to understand the proceedings around him and he cannot assist in his defense. And so they can try to short-circate the trial even before it begins. What happens there is that if he's found to be mentally incompetent, then he'll get sent up to a facility to get restored to competency and then get tried. But that could last years and sometimes, if it never happens, the person has eventually set free. He has apparently a very violent history. The NBC station in Chicago, because he's apparently from the Chicago area, originally found that he was sentenced to 10 years on a first degree attempted murder charge. If you're a defense attorney on this case and you're trying to say, well, he was insane at the time, or it was a heat of passion, like how does his criminal history? I mean, short of murder. It doesn't get much worse than attempted murder, right? Like, how does that, and we don't know the details of exactly what it was, but certainly a high charge to be found convicted of. How does all of that factor into how the proceedings could go in for it? It's limited what you can bring in, especially if he's not going to testify. I don't expect him to testify, but if he did, if he goes trial, then they can bring up some of the stuff, but he has prior domestic violence, right? He was arrested in September of 2020. 2024, yeah. Right? Following an incident at their home in Texas. So, and in the proper cause after David, back then, this was a dispute over money that turned physical. So, I mean, that's the kind of thing that depends. You can't use propensity evidence. You can't use evidence. Well, he did this before, so he must have done it now. But if he takes a stand, or if he opens a door in some way to this, they can bring it in. If it's Williams-Rule evidence, if it's so like precise and exact to what he's done before, it could be like his fingerprint, his MO, they can bring it in. So, there are ways, but it's not clear that his past will ultimately come into court, but I don't think prosecutors need it. I mean, they have got a confession and they've got witnesses and they got surveillance cameras. They got the bloody clothes that he washed away. And so, they got plenty to find guilty beyond reason. What do you do if you're a prosecutor on this case? Because it's like, if this comes across your desk and it's like, you have a confession, post Miranda, you have the surveillance footage that, and you know, certainly you have the development of the child that was apparently in the room. And we don't know how old this child is in those details, but you have a pretty solid case. Like, what more is there to do at this point other than showing up at court for the particular hearings? Well, you would like to bring in the past incident of domestic violence, especially if the defense is going to, like I said, open the door. You're going to be listening. You're going to see, are they going to open the door? Are they going to say, this is unlikely? Can we just snap? Like, you just got to push too far. You're like, hold on, hold on, you just snap. This has happened before, right? This is a guy who has a temper problem. Look at his priors, and that's how it can come in. So as a prosecutor, you're looking to get that in, because that can eviscerate his defense of this was an accident, or it was just a one-time thing, or there was a mistake, you know, you could show that under the rules of evidence, and it's not considered propensity evidence. And it's, you know, the details that came out were just, you know, terrifying. When you just think of a child being found in the room and the FBI, like they told me, and they've told other media outlets, like they're not going to go into detail about the age of the child or where they were in the room at the time. But if they are old enough to be a witness, like, how do you handle that part of the story? Well, the jury's going to hate him for doing it in front of the child. That's going to really make him angry, and that could also lead to a tougher penalty by the judge. Thankfully, the child was unharmed, and that's, that's important, but, you know, if the child was present during the strangulation, the physical assault, it will add a little emotional, a level of emotional gravity to the narrative. There's witnessing trauma that's something, and from a proud perspective, that could help the government. They can bring forensic interviewers to testify about what the child heard or saw now. How old is this child again? I think she may be. We don't know at this point. You know, there's been, there's been speculation that, you know, old enough to, you know, and it's, it's really difficult to think about it this way, but like old enough, where we're not talking about a newborn, you know, this is someone who potentially was able to, would be able to understand what may have happened. We also don't know where they were in the state room. Not sure if they got one of the larger packages on the ship, where there's like multiple rooms, and if they saw it, but we just know that there was a child found in the room on hard. Yeah, well, and depending on the age of the child, the child could or could not be a witness, but also the fact that a child was present and the trauma that a child experienced could be used by the judge in sentencing, because according to the federal sentencing guidelines, that's a factor. And so that could ensure that he gets locked up forever. If federal prosecutors could also possibly bring separate explicit child endangerment charges, right? Possibly not. That's not as serious as the murder charge, but still it's serious enough that prosecutors could add that. And so the fact that a child was present does mean something the prosecutors, we just don't have all the information, enough information to know what it means yet. The death penalty is still legal at the federal level. It certainly would be in Texas if this was a local state or a local case as well, or a state case, excuse me, how might that factor into this? Because he's accused of murder, you know, carries 25 years of life is what the press release says, but when you look at some of the factors, I mean, it's just chilling, you know, I mean, the five minute part of it, I can't like get out of my head, the fact that he did it in front of a child, like what are the qualifications of a crime to get to the point where a prosecutor might say, you know what, this should be a death penalty case. It's got to be premeditated. You've got to show that and that cuts against the defense's main argument. This was a spontaneous reaction. This was my answer. So you've got to be able to show some sort of premeditation, some sort of planning. I think the fact that he has hands around her neck for five minutes could be enough. It's cold, calculated, premeditated, and that's enough. At least in Florida, you know, that's one of the what's called statutory aggravators, but at the federal level, yeah, it could be enough. Plus, this federal government is willing to seek the death penalty. So you could do that. Plus, there's an added advantage. If you seek the death penalty, that means that the potential jurors you have in the case must be death penalty qualified. It must be jurors who would be more likely or at least willing to give the death penalty. If you find a juror during jury selection, who's like, you know, I don't believe in the death penalty, they're off. They're gone. If it's a death penalty case. And that way, you actually get a more conservative, more prolonged order, tougher jury, and it is an advantage to the prosecutors. So that's one advantage of seeking the death penalty. And when it comes to ascend, like, if we even get there, I mean, if he's admitted to everything, I mean, this very well. I don't know why you would go to trial. I mean, we'll see what happens and what the arguments could be. But it's like, if you have the confession, you have the surveillance video of he and his wife going into the room. You can see how a jury would view that. And I know that there's a long way to go. But at sentencing, could his criminal history factor into what a judge would decide to say, "Hey, look, maybe you can't bring that in during the trial." But when you're looking at this individual and you're going to decide whether they should be free ever again, if he, you know, the reports are true that he was convicted of first degree attempted murder in the past and served 10 years, does that factor into, you know, what a judge would decide in a case like this? Oh, yeah. That's where it really can come back to hurt him. All the stuff he's done the past, that's very game for sentencing. The judge can look at it all. And that's why if he's convicted here, I think he never sees a light of day. And the fact that there was a child in there witnessing this is just another nail in this guy's coffin. You know, we've seen in, you know, very different case, like the Anna Kepner case, there was a whole debate of whether or not her stepbrother would be tried as an adult. And so we kind of waited that out. And then I know there's a trial date set for January. And we'll see if that actually happens. But in the case, in this case, knowing you have the confession, like, what does the timeline look like? If you were to take this to trial, what would the timeline be to having all of this resolved? Well, a lot depends on the judge and the scheduling that haven't you seen this in the Tyler Robinson case, Charlie Kirk's murder when you talk how slowly things go. And I think that's where you have national attention and you have media and you have a judge and it all comes together and slows things down. Here, although we're talking about it, it's not quite the level of a big national case. This is not casing Anthony. And so I think that it can move. It's hard to say exactly how long would take because I think the defense is going to try to get some sort of settlement in advance. They don't want to go trial on this. But if it does, yeah, we're talking a couple of years. And we'll see what happens next. Just tear every new detail that comes out as a softball in this case. Dave Aaron bird, former state attorney Palm Beach County Florida, always great to have you on long crime. Thanks for doing this. Thank you, Chris. Jason Lee Watford is next due in court Monday in Galveston. We'll keep a close eye on this story, but that will do it for this episode of on the case presented by law and crime. I'm Chris Stewart. We'll see you next time.