Shocking Arrest in Texas Cruise Ship Murder

We are following a chilling update of an alleged murder at sea. "Sir, what happened?" This man is now in federal custody accused of beating and strangling his female companion in a state room just hours into a cruise. We have the federal criminal complaint that was just released and I will warn you it is a haunting read. How ship staff learned that a woman was dead and what the alleged killer did before the FBI came on board. We're on the case presented by Lawn Crime. I'm Kristen. I'm going to give you a trigger warning because what the FBI is alleging in this case. I just read through the federal criminal complaint. It is graphic. What a man named Jason Leon Watford is accused of doing to a woman who he believed was his female companion on board this cruise. It's horrific. This was a cruise that was just beginning. They had just left port in Galveston, Texas. "Sir, what happened?" This is Jason Leon Watford now. This is video per I-45 now in Galveston, Texas of him being brought into the county jail. You can see he didn't show his face to the camera, didn't say anything to the reporter who had asked him some questions. This is his mug shot in the Galveston county jail. Now, even though he's in the county jail, he was there on a federal hold because crimes at sea are federal jurisdiction. I just went through the federal criminal complaint in this case that says that Watford is accused of murder and the details of what he did are horrific, but also there is a chilling part to this story of what he allegedly did after the attack. Now, this is the ship that Watford was on with his female companion, we believe, the MSC C-Scape, a massive boat, 20-deck cruise ship, capacity of roughly 5800 passengers, and it seems like this was going to be a really nice cruise. Left Galveston, Texas on Sunday, November 8th, Galveston is a major port for cruise ships in the Gulf, and it was going to be a seven-day cruise to the Western Caribbean, a couple stops in Mexico, a stop in Honduras, and then it would return to Galveston the following Sunday. And this is the location where the FBI says this murder took place. They gave us the coordinates and you can see it here in the Gulf. This is international waters. And here's a video that was posted by a passenger when the ship had to turn around and head back to port. And this was just again hours into this cruise. Now, let's lay out the timeline here of what authorities are alleging. And the FBI says that trouble began on this cruise around dinner time on Sunday. So the first day at sea, Jason Leon Watford and a woman were at dinner and they get into some sort of altercation verbally. And Jason leaves to go back to his state room at a 746 pm. And security footage, according to the FBI, shows him going into this state room and then the victim gets to the state room about 25 minutes later at 8.11 pm. And they are the only people in the state room according to the FBI. Now, Jason Leon Watford would later allegedly admit to the FBI that this argument that they had at dinner would continue into the state room. And then things would go physical. And we'll talk a little bit more about that here in just a moment. But the timeline is very important in laying out this case because just after 9 pm, which is about 50 minutes after the female victim returns to the room, a member of housekeeping is seen on video knocking on the door of the state room. And this was just a person who was bringing fresh towels. A couple minutes after that, security footage shows more members of the ship staff coming to this room. And the FBI says that housekeeper with the towels, they saw what quote she believed to be blood on subjects hands and pants as well as motionless female lying face down on the floor. Then there's a line in the complaint that I found to be chilling. And this says a lot about Watford if what is being alleged is true. He allegedly leaves his room a couple minutes after the several staff members arrived and they have apparently made this terrible discovery. And they say he was wearing different clothing than he was when the housekeeper came and knocked on the door. And he is observed quote sitting on the hallway floor outside the room scrolling on his smartphone. That's it. And this is the part of the complaint that lays out what the FBI says happened inside of that room. Because the FBI came aboard the ship and then read Jason Leon Watford his rights. And he allegedly agreed to answer their questions after that. And appears to have admitted a lot. He allegedly told investigators that they had this fight at dinner. And the fight then continues to the state room. And at some point during this argument, agents say that Watford told them he quote snapped. And according to the complaint, Watford admitted that he struck the woman multiple times in the face. And the FBI says that there was blood in the state room. And on Watford's clothes that were found on the floor, he also allegedly said that he choked the woman with both of his hands. And he also said that he wrapped his arm around her neck while she was lying down and applied pressure to her neck allegedly for as long as five minutes. He said that he only let go once he was tired. And five minutes, and you think about how long a period of time that is. And it just lays out for you how disturbing this murder allegedly was. And it was 10 minutes after Watford said that he stopped having his arm around this woman. And she was unconscious. That there was the knock on the door from the housekeeper with the towels. And then this investigation began passengers posted on social media that they saw a lot of activities surrounding a state room on the 10th floor of the ship. So this is the layout of that floor per the MSC website. You can see it's just state room after state room. This is a really big cruise ship. Now, we are still working to learn more about Jason Leon Watford. The FBI says that he's 48 years old from Tyler, Texas, which is just about four hours north of Galveston. As of right now, the name of the victim and their specific relationship to Watford have not been released and autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday. Now, I do want to make note that we often do not cover crimes like this. We often don't see crimes like this murders on cruise ships, but we have covered a pretty high profile case of one that happened almost exactly a year to the day. The death of Anna Keppner, she was 16. Her stepbrother Timothy Hudson allegedly strangled her and sexually assaulted her onboard a cruise ship inside of a state room, a carnival cruise ship out of Miami. And it is eerie that we are talking about another alleged murder on a cruise ship. Though the circumstances here are different in a lot of ways, but it took place almost exactly a year to the day of this case. Anna Keppner died on November 7th, 2025. And here we are talking about a murder that took place on November 8th, 2026, according to authorities. Now, in Anna Keppner's case, her stepbrother Timothy Hudson is facing charges of murder and sexual assault. He's being tried in adult court and he has a trial date set for January. Now, as for this case, Watford faced a federal magistrate judge today, he is facing a charge of murder, which could put him in federal prison for the rest of his life. Now, before I get to more about the legal side of things, how it's going to play out a maritime attorney, we had a really good conversation. I'm going to bring that up here in just a moment. I do want to share the statement we received from MSC Cruises. They say, quote, "On reporting a guest incident aboard our ship, we were instructed by authorities to return to the port of Galveston. We are cooperating fully with the investigation and providing support to those impacted. The ship has left the port and resumed its planned itinerary. As this is an active investigation, we cannot provide more details. Our thoughts are with the guest family and friends at this difficult time. Join us now to talk more about this as Alex Perez maritime attorney. Great to have you here on Lawn Crime. I know that we don't often see murders on cruise ships. There was one last year involving a girl and a keptner, and in that case, certainly has made national news. This was a tough read, this criminal complaint. When you just go through it and see what Watford's accused of, as someone who is involved often with cases on cruise ships, just what was your response kind of as you read through this? I think it's a rare occurrence. You don't normally see incidents as violent as this occurring on cruise ships and the fact that the FBI ordered the vessel to turn around so the FBI can investigate tells you that the FBI has taken this very seriously and was able to, I think, timely preserve the scene and protect the integrity of their investigation and potential prosecution. So in a case like this, and as far as the details that have been laid out, this terrible murder allegedly happens in the state room, and then you have a member of housekeeping, 10 minutes after, knocks on the door with towels, and you just think of this person, and what they thought was probably just the first night of the seven day cruise is they do every single week, and then they call other members. There's apparently an investigator on board who takes over from there, but what do you make of the response? Like in a case like this where you're at sea, and you have you know a member of the crew discovers this like what typically happens next on a cruise ship because it's not like you can call police that are going to be able to show up in a cruiser from right down the street. So interestingly the there's a legal framework for this and there's something called the cruise vessel safety and security act and that was passed in 2010 and the reason it was passed is in the 10 years prior to that and obviously many years as long as cruising has been around there were many high profile incidents of people falling overboard or sexual assaults and so Congress created this act to make sure crew members are have training in crime scene investigation and preservation. For exactly circumstances such as this as I've read the criminal complaint and the stories about this incident it appears MSc didn't act those procedures they contact the FBI immediately and they allowed the scene to be timely investigated so that the FBI can preserve its investigation. So at least in this case the law was followed and that allows for a protected investigation and potentially a conviction here. In a case like this and I know you know just from like past stories that you know you may have a case of someone had too much at the bar and you might have those type of incidents that take place but when you have a crime it's certainly like this one that's incredibly serious I mean if this guy's guilty of what he's accused of I mean this is a horrific crime very dangerous person frankly to be on a cruise ship as they're investigating and maybe boat security you know cruise ship security comes like to the scene and preserves the scene like what happens with him like where does he go before you can get to shore and like the FBI would be able to get on board and take them in the custody. So all ships have security officers like you explain sometimes there are alcohol events where someone is belligerent and they need to be detained for the safety of other passengers. In this particular case I'm sure the accused was detained until the ship made its way back to port and allowed the transfer to the FBI to conduct its investigation and retain the suspect. In reading through it also seemed like there was someone on board from the cruise line MSC that was almost like a detective like an investigator on board where it's not like you just have like bar bouncers who are on board like what is the expectation and I think for a lot of people watching this right and I know these cases don't happen but there's a ton of people that go on cruises and and want to make sure that they're safe like what is the expectation someone should have as far as especially with these big-time cruise lines as far as the law enforcement presence even if it's private that's on board a cruise ship. So the first order is the ship board security officers there's a handful of them patrolling the ship there's also maybe a shoreside investigator and that may be who you refer him to it's unclear from the reporting whether that investigator who was the main point of contact for the FBI was ship board or shoreside and the headquarters of the cruise line but passengers can be can rest assured that they do have crew members on board whose specific goal is security officers now in this particular case the alleged crime occurred in it in a cabin state room. So that was cabin to the specific cabin that's occurred but otherwise the security officers do patrol the ships frequently and investigate and keep their ears and eyes open. So I also just think and this is from you know the previous case that I covered Anna Keppner and that's still a prosecution that's ongoing like reading through the criminal complaint in that case like the amount of evidence that is there just based off like surveillance footage typically what is I just think of you know in this case you have this individual wadford he gets into this fight apparently at dinner and it's important that like there were only a couple hours into this cruise so like this this altercation began before even the first night of of this what was supposed to be a seven day cruise and I imagine you know the FBI has a ton of access to be able to follow the individuals who were involved clearly there's not a camera of course in the state room but typically what type of access does security have to an individual on board a cruise because I imagine that there is video that is able to show them a lot that will lead up to what happened inside of the state room. So going back to the cruise vessel safety security act in 2010 at that point it became a requirement that all cruise ships have CCTV closed circuit television. So to your to your question the FBI because this was reported timely the FBI was able to preserve all footage available most likely from the the time of the cruise to the reporting but you're right the CCTV is going to be of paramount importance to this investigation because it gives you a timeline of what occurred just reading from the criminal complaint you can see really chapter by chapter of what happened from the dinner to getting to the room to the time the housekeeper knocked on the door and they're after when the embassy responded to the incident. In this case you also have the accused giving a statement to police essentially a confession so you have personal knowledge from inside the room and then you have the FBI's ability to investigate within hours of the incident to lock down the scene look at the room observe the the victim in her state and perform an autopsy later on so the FBI because this was reported so quickly and because the vessel hadn't gotten that far from land was able to turn around and the FBI does have a good investigation and good feel for the case at this point what was like the issues that cruise lines had prior to 2010 you know what what really propelled this law to go into place where we're now I think a lot of people and we've seen it and of course in difficult cases like this that there is perhaps more sense of security that people have on board a ship than maybe they had prior because like 2010 well I guess I graduated college in 2010 so it doesn't feel like that long ago but it is you know 16 years ago at this point but like what were the issues that cruise ships are having prior to that law being put into a fact one issue was evidence preservation so for example sexual assault where the there's no standard set in law as to how to collect evidence or reporting reporting to the FBI as soon as something occurs that was one issue another another issue was CCTV was it mandatory at that time some cruise lines had it some didn't but it's a paramount importance in investigating any criminal accident or incident and the the CBS essay required CCTV the third thing it did among others is requiring certain types of locks for passengers cabins and then the fourth thing is having crew members trained in evidence preservation so all those things you can see why they're important in this particular case and and I even think of the housekeeper because I mean I've done stories in the past not related to cruise ships but even out of hotel and the importance that you know staff have like when they go into a hotel room and maybe they can find you know as they're cleaning you know signs of human trafficking or drug issues or wherever it may be what does that training look like for someone who even might be someone who just you know their job not to say it's a small job but they're not steering the ship but they're you know bringing towels to guess in that like what are the you know in terms of evidence preservation like what does that training actually look like for them so it's some of the standards are provided by the FBI and it's some are just the basic things don't touch anything unless you have cleared it with security for example the body I think the body of the victim that the doctor should at first see if life saving measures could have been enforced to safer but beyond that it's the basics of not touching evidence and bringing in the security officers to report and then listen to the FBI on what they can and can't do to maintain the scene and the integrity of the scene and in this situation they're in the Gulf they're in international waters like the Longitude Latitude or are you know it's not not in U.S. waters but it is a U.S. ship what makes this and I know it's federal jurisdiction but if it was a citizen of another country who was accused of this crime and is it where the ship is flagged out of that gives the jurisdiction typically in international waters of like who would prosecute this type of case so the ship is actually foreign flag it's it's flagged under multiple but in this case the FBI does have what's called special maritime jurisdiction when two elements are met one is whether the vessel touchter was going to touch U.S. port and here it's Galveston Texas and the second element is whether the accused or the victim is a U.S. national here we don't know the victim's identity but the accused is reported to be a Texas citizen so on those two bases the FBI would have jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute I haven't been on a cruise since I was a kid and like I'm aware of like Disney cruise lines then you have like Carnival cruise lines of course um how like in the world of cruising like MSC I know this was a cruise ship that can hold like 5800 passengers and has 20 dacks it seems pretty large Galveston huge port in the Gulf lot of cruises go out of there just what is industry-wise like where MSC ranks in terms of the type of cruises that they offer so MSC has some of the largest ships when you're when you're exceeding 5,000 passengers you're really in the extreme category of size they MSC really is I would say more like a Walmart or Costco they really appeal to the masses they provide a good above average quality to their passengers but they are on the larger size which invites the issues of maintaining safety for a lot of people when you're going between the US and a foreign port yeah because I mean I did notice like just looking it up um you know in some case you get like a luxury like that did stand out to me because there's like luxury pedals packages where maybe this is like an all-inclusive deal. It's like $4,300 is like the height for a week at sea, but $269 as the lowest package I found for a week at sea. And I'm sure that would come with add-ons of paying for dinner and things like that. But in terms of cruises, that felt like incredibly affordable in terms of tickets. And I know you know the cruise industry well. Is that read, right? I think that's what MSC markets do is to the masses, people who can afford a vacation like that. There are extreme, more extreme packages, but I think MSC really cabins itself to normal everyday people. But at the same time, given the size of the ships and how many passengers that can hold, that's where MSC's business lies in providing a large good quality to a lot of people. - I think of the civil side of things and that seems like as we're trying to figure out what happened to this woman on board a ship, seems very minor in the, you know, compared to the criminal and the loss of life. But you do have people who are on board a cruise. They had to turn around and go back to Galveston, not sure what the status is of the cruise as we're talking right now. But I also think for individuals who, maybe they were next to the Watford, to Watford when this happened. And we don't know the name of the victim at the time that we're recording this either. What type of civil liability could MSC when you have something like this on board? What might civil liability look like in a case like this? - So that's an important question. It raises a couple of different issues. The first question I would ask from the victim's family's perspective is, what if anything did MSC know about the accused and his propensity to commit a violent act? So I don't know these answers at all. I don't know what MSC knew, but if the accused made a statement or yelled at that dinner that proceeded this crime and a crew member heard something, that would be very significant as to whether MSC had a knowledge or notice or should have known that something like this can happen either to the victim or to other passengers. So that's a very critical question. For other passengers, the question is whether they were in the zone of danger. Again, that ties to what MSC knew. Now, importantly, passenger on passenger cases are different than crew member on passenger cases. Passender on passenger, you have to ask that question of what did the cruise line know? That's the lynch pin for liability. If it's a crew member who commits a crime on a passenger, that's strict liability and there's really no defense or not any viable defense in that situation. And then when it comes to an MSC has released a statement they're cooperating. It seems like just to this point that they have followed the law, but from a civil side, and this is more a general question, I'm not just saying from MSC, but from a civil side and maybe it's the victim's family, maybe it is someone who knows, but just in a general sense, how cooperative can cruise lines be when you have something like this, which certainly is not the type of publicity that a major cruise line is looking for. Like what does cooperation typically look like? What are they required to do in terms of cooperation in cases like this? - So first and foremost, they need to comply with the CVSSA in reporting to the FBI, and then from there they need to follow the FBI's instructions. So if the FBI in this case, I assume requesting that they turn around the vessel as harder that is for the passengers, the other 5,000 plus passengers who have paid a lot of money for a cruise and took time off from work, the ship must listen to the FBI, otherwise there are repercussions and consequences for the entire cruise line when it calls a US port again. Now for the passengers themselves, they may have not gotten the benefit of their bargain, all the ports that they paid for, that's something that needs to be adjusted between MSC and their passengers. - And we'll see what happens next. I mean, certainly just a horrific story. It was a tough read that all the criminal complaints in cases like this are not pleasurable reads, but this one, there's very chilling when you see what law enforcement is laying out in this case, Alex Perez, Maritime Attorney. Great to have you on Longcrime. We'd love to have you on again. Thanks for doing this. - No problem, thank you. - That will do it from the case presented by Longcrime. I'm Chris Stewart. We'll see you next time. (upbeat music)