A judge ordered prosecutors Friday to provide a full report to David Dwayne Watson, an ex-Tucson Fire captain found guilty in the murders of his ex-wife, her mother and her mother’s friend, about an Illinois inmate’s confession to killing the ex-wife.
Watson’s defense attorney, Paul Banales, filed a motion in May asking prosecutors to produce the entire investigative file from a Pima County sheriff’s detective into Corey Fox’s confession to killing Linda Watson, Watson’s ex-wife.
Banales had gotten a copy of a four-page letter from Fox, an inmate in Illinois, in December 2022, in which he confessed to killing Linda Watson and provided “sufficient details of the murder,” the defense attorney said in court filings.
Banales then spoke to Bradley Roach, head of the Pima County Attorney’s Conviction and Sentencing Integrity Unit, who said he and the sheriff’s homicide unit would investigate, court records say.
Linda Watson, 35, disappeared from her house in the 2600 block of West Curtis Road in 2000. Investigators later found blood on the floor of her house, on a plastic trash bag and on the cord of a vacuum cleaner, the Arizona Daily Star reported. Her skull was found three years later near the Silverbell Mine northwest of Tucson. The skull wasn’t identified as hers until 2011.
Three years after her slaying, her mother, Marilyn Cox, 63, and her friend Renee Farnsworth, 53, were shot and killed in Cox’s driveway by a lone gunman after Cox’s first unsupervised visit with the Watsons’ daughter.
In April 2015, Watson was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder. At his first trial in 2016, the county prosecutor, Jonathan Mosher, alleged Watson killed his wife to end a nasty custody battle over their then 4-year-old daughter, the Star reported. Mosher also said Watson assassinated Cox after she publicly blamed him for her daughter’s disappearance.
During Friday’s hearing, Pima County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Kuhn ordered that the state produce the complete investigative file about Fox’s confession by Aug. 18. She also ordered that no information be redacted unless state law requires it to be.
Banales said in court records that his investigator requested a complete copy of the file but the detective said the investigator would need to make a public records request for it. Banales said they should not be required to go through the expense and time of filing a public records request for information directly related to an investigation of another’s confession to a murder Watson was convicted of.
“It is imperative that defense counsel obtain all materials or reports which contain Fox’s statements in which he confesses to killing Linda Watson so that counsel can determine whether his statements are consistent, especially when it comes to his knowledge or personal facts about Linda and facts about the murder itself,” the motion said.
Roach, the prosecutor on the case, was not present at Friday’s hearing and didn’t respond to Banales’ motion.
According to court records, the state had not filed a response to Banales’ motion by June 19, the initial deadline. The state then had until July 7 to respond, but nothing was filed.
Due to their absence and lack of response, Kuhn also set an order-to-show-cause hearing for Aug. 11.
Friday’s hearing adds to a years-long legal battle. Watson’s first trial in 2016 ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury.
A year later, Watson went to trial again and was found guilty of the three murders. He was denied a new trial and sentenced to 16 years in prison for killing Linda Watson; a life sentence for killing Cox; and another life sentence for killing Farnsworth.
Watson’s counsel appealed to the Arizona Court of Appeals, but the appeals was denied in 2019 and his convictions were affirmed.
Banales has until Oct. 16 to file a petition for review, court records show. The deadline for the petition was previously extended by Kuhn since Banales needed additional time to complete the discovery and investigation into Fox’s confession.
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