Man murders wife for life insurance; gets 4.5 years

[The Yosemite Bear]

He'll only serve one year.

Tell that to one of our board members who served TWO years for a crime he was innocent of.

[JointStrikeFighter]

He'll only serve one year.

Tell that to one of our board members who served TWO years for a crime he was innocent of.

Sorry your well acquainted with the Australian legal system how exactly?

[The Yosemite Bear]

Sorry, I was just refering to Chris, of course I could mention the Dingo Case....

[JointStrikeFighter]

So your experience with the Australian legal system amounts to a trail by media and a guy you know over the internet? Clearly you're the man to judge.

[Kanastrous]

He'll only serve one year.

Tell that to one of our board members who served TWO years for a crime he was innocent of.

That's what CNN was reporting the day I posted that; sorry for not properly sourcing the report.

What has this case got to do, with the other?

[Havok]

He'll only serve one year.

Tell that to one of our board members who served TWO years for a crime he was innocent of.

Well from the information we have, this case is just as flimsy as the case against Stofsk was.
It is pretty much all based on hearsay and the fact that a newly married couple got life insurance. Really the only thing that sounds fishy is that the wife died, after her policy was maxed out, or at least was requested to be maxed out, and again that is only hearsay from the father. From my reading, the article doesn't make it clear if the policy actually was maxed out. Just that the husband checked on the policy after his wife's death.

[Kanastrous]

It still smells bad.

My wife and I don't SCUBA, but we do skydive. And you had better believe that I check her rig thoroughly, and she mine, and when we're doing that - or something else that's hazardous - together we watch out for each other. What this guy did certainly doesn't sound like watching out for his wife, which impresses me as suspicious considering that he is after all a rated dive instructor...

[tim31]

Watson may face murder charges in Alabama

JAILED honeymoon dive death killer Gabe Watson may still be charged with murder in the United States, according to American news reports.
Prosecutors in the Alabama attorney general's office said they will pursue the charges against Watson, if they can find evidence that he plotted to kill his bride of 11 days, Christina "Tina" Watson while at home in Alabama and then carried out the plan while honeymooning in Australia, The Birmingham News reports.

Watson was last week jailed for 4-and-a-half years, to be suspended after 12 months, after pleading guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court to the lesser charge of manslaughter over his wife's death while on a diving trip off Townsville in October 2003.

Don Valeska, the chief of the Alabama attorney general's violent crime division, told The Birmingham News that prosecutors believe Watson murdered his wife because he thought she was carrying a $160,000 life insurance policy with him as beneficiary.

He also believes that Watson may have learned the state had been approached by investigators and Tina Watson's family, asking prosecutors to consider charges against him, and that prompted Watson to surrender to Australian authorities.

"We intend to show Gabe Watson was interested in insurance on Tina Thomas's life before they were married and this would be a motive for her death," Valeska said.

"We contend the plot to kill her started here in Alabama and we think the evidence shows that.

But, he added: "We'll look at a variety of charges, from murder to perjury to fraud."

The developments in Alabama coincide with coroner David Glasgow, who ruled that Watson probably killed his wife deliberately by turning off her air supply, standing by his call for the convicted killer to face a murder trial.

Queensland Attorney-General Cameron Dick is considering an appeal amid public outcry and outrage from the family who have condemned the sentence as an "injustice".