MSC Seascape Passenger Charged With Murdering Fellow Guest: Ship Ordered Back to Galveston as 48-Year-Old Faces Federal Charge
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas announced on Nov. 10 that Jason Watford, 48, of Tyler, has been taken into custody on a charge of murder. Prosecutors allege that on the evening of Nov. 8, following a dispute in their room aboard a cruise ship in international waters, Watford struck a female passenger several times before strangling her with his hands and arm. The ship was the MSC Seascape, which had departed Galveston, Texas, that day and was ordered by authorities to return to port.
According to the federal criminal complaint, the two argued first at a restaurant aboard the ship and then continued the dispute back in their cabin. Watford told FBI investigators that he "snapped," struck the woman multiple times and choked her for about four to five minutes. The complaint says that at about 9 p.m., a housekeeper who knocked to deliver towels became aware something was wrong; the woman was found with multiple facial injuries and was dead. Ship security detained Watford, and the cruise line reported a suspected homicide to the FBI's Texas City Resident Agency at about 11 p.m.
The MSC Seascape departed Galveston at about 4 p.m. on Nov. 8 for a scheduled seven-night Western Caribbean cruise calling at Costa Maya and Cozumel in Mexico and Roatán in Honduras. At about 5:20 a.m. on Nov. 9 the ship turned back, docked in Galveston later that morning, and Watford was taken off and booked into the Galveston County Jail on a federal hold; the ship departed again that evening to resume its itinerary and is due back in Galveston on Nov. 15. Watford was set to make his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Edison in Galveston on Nov. 10, and court records listed no attorney for him.
An FBI maritime liaison agent from the Texas City Resident Agency is leading the investigation, assisted by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Port of Galveston Police Department, Customs and Border Protection and the cruise line, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Anh-Khoa Tran is prosecuting. If convicted, Watford faces up to life in prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine, the Justice Department said. The woman's identity has been withheld pending notification of her family, and the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office scheduled an autopsy for Nov. 10. The Justice Department noted that a criminal complaint is a formal accusation, not evidence, and that a defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：邮轮资料图（Ovation of the Seas 号，非事发船只）。照片：Frans Berkelaar，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons，本站档案图复用。 / Photo: File photo of a cruise ship (Ovation of the Seas, not the vessel involved). Photo by Frans Berkelaar, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. GSM archive image reused.
