Afterward, some of the survivors spoke about seeing Watts in the courtroom.
“That’s the first time I’d seen him,” relayed Judy Wolf Krueger. “The only time I’d seen him was in photographs and it was not frightening . . . just real emotional for me.”
Harriett Semander seemed more relieved than usual. “I have this feeling that a heavy burden is being lifted off my shoulders,” she declared about Watts finally going to trial for murder. “I want to never, ever have to think about him again. That will be my freedom.”
Keri Whitlow calmly stated, “I’m guarded, but we’re very grateful Michigan is trying to make sure he never gets out of prison to walk the streets.”
Andy Kahan was just happy to see this day finally come to be. “We’ve come so far in less than two years when we’ve resurrected him and put him back on the map for all the world to see. I think it’s a true tribute to what grassroots movement is all about.”
Nearly two weeks later, on Tuesday, June 15, 2004, Watts was ushered back into a heavily secured courtroom. This time it was before Judge Richard Kuhn in the Oakland County Circuit Court. Watts, adorned in the jail-issued wardrobe of an orange-and-white-striped jumpsuit, stood before the judge. Watts looked bored. Judge Kuhn did not beat around the bush. He entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of Watts and scheduled a pretrial date
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for August 10, 2004, and a trial date for the defendant of November 8, 2004.
The entire hearing lasted two minutes.
Harriett Semander prayed that everything would stay on course. She prayed for her burden to be eradicated finally.
Almost two months later, Coral Watts’s pretrial hearing came up. The day before the hearing, Monday, August 9, on the thirty-fifth anniversary of the “Helter Skelter” massacre of Sharon Tate and four of her guests, Watts’s attorney, Ronald Kaplovitz, argued that Watts’s prior murder confessions should not be admissible in the Helen Dutcher case.
Randall Thompson, spokesman for the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, relayed that the prosecution had already filed a motion that asked the judge to introduce evidence that Watts was a serial killer. “In this case, Watts always targeted young single women of smaller stature, he stalked them, he would get them when they were alone, and would have no sexual assault involved.” Evidence of “prior bad acts” is admissible if the acts point to a consistent pattern that would tie the individual to the specific crime in question.
Kaplovitz, of course, argued that such information would be unduly prejudicial to his client. “My biggest concern is that it’s going to interfere with the ability of the jurors to focus their attention on what’s really important in this case.” He added, “What happened in Texas was dealt with by Texas courts.”
Kaplovitz informed the press that he would file a motion the next day to exclude the evidence. “I am
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hopeful that the judge will exclude it or at least limit it to some extent.”
On September 23, 2004, Harriett Semander and Andy Kahan made the nearly fourteen-hundred-mile trek from Houston, Texas, to Detroit, Michigan. This time it was to hear more arguments as to what the judge actually would allow into the trial. The issue of whether or not to include Watts’s confessions to any prior murders still had not been decided. Another issue was whether or not, if admissions of prior bad acts were introduced, the jury could hear of the immunity deal Watts struck to avoid thirteen murder charges.
Bernard E. Restuccia, first assistant state prosecutor, was somewhat reluctant about the immunity information being released. He stated that the downside of that would be that if jurors heard he received immunity for thirteen murders, then he probably did not commit the Dutcher murder because he would have admitted that too, since he knew he would not be charged with any murders.
Kaplovitz was still upset that the judge was considering entering any of Watts’s previous confessions. “The jury is going to convict him on this case, regardless of the evidence, simply to punish him for [the cases in which he was granted immunity].”
Not the most ringing of endorsements for Watts’s case.
Judge Kuhn informed the attorneys that he would make his decision by October 8, 2004.
Harriett Semander and Andy Kahan vowed to return in November for the trial.
*
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Two weeks later, on Friday, October 8, 2004, Judge Kuhn made his ruling. He would allow Watts’s admissions of previous bad acts to be included in the trial. He would not, however, allow information about Watts’s immunity deal that he struck with the state of Texas to be included.
Predictably, the prosecution was happy.
“Today is a major step forward in bringing a confessed serial killer to justice,” Attorney General Mike Cox stated. “We are pleased the judge recognized the consistency and relevance of Watts’s previous acts and look forward to presenting them in trial.”
Predictably, the defense was not happy.
“Obviously, we are concerned that the information will sway the jurors,” said Ron Kaplovitz. “We are hopeful we can get fair-minded jurors who can look at the evidence they have in this case.”
The few remaining weeks that led up to Watts’s murder trial were spiced up with the backdrop of the 2004 pres-idential election between Supreme Court-appointed President George W. Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry. Also, the Laci Peterson murder trial was coming to a conclusion. The tragic, yet sadly, all-too- common spousal murder case had captured a large part of the country’s attention—or at least the attention of the twenty-four-hour yell-i-vision networks.
Miraculously, the upcoming trial of possibly America’s most prolific serial killer—who killed more people than Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgway, aka “the Green River Killer,” John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, or Charles Manson (even though he literally never did kill a single person)—was finally getting some national attention.
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CBS’s top-rated television news magazine,
60 Minutes,
actually decided to run a headline piece on the Coral Eugene Watts case. The segment, entitled “A Deal with the Devil,” aired on Sunday, October 17, 2004. The piece was a basic rehash of the case, but was beneficial because it was the first medium that could have possibly reached millions of viewers with the information. Whether or not anyone paid attention would remain to be seen.
One week before the trial was to begin, the television network A&E, and its successful true-crime television program
Cold Case Files
, announced it would be sending cameras to the Oakland County Circuit Court to shoot some footage of the Coral Watts trial for use in a later special. Even more important, Court TV, the twenty-four- hour legal entertainment programming network, announced that it would broadcast the Watts trial live.
The case of Coral Eugene Watts finally was beginning to see some notoriety . . . twenty-two years after his initial arrest.
Inexplicably, however, the pertinence of the trial did not seem to take root with the Houston media. For some unknown reason, only one media outlet dispatched a reporter to Michigan. KTRK-TV Channel 13, the local ABC affiliate, sent Ted Oberg, a former University of Michigan graduate. Amazingly, no other local media outlet deemed the case worthy enough to cover it in person, despite the fact that this would be the first time that Watts’s Texas victims, dead and living, would have their voices heard in a courtroom in a murder trial.
A further sign of the erosion of quality investigative journalism.
In the modern era of media conglomeration and con-solidation, apparently the Houston media did not believe that a homegrown terrorist was worthy of news coverage.
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There was probably some flooding that needed to be covered or a dog that could whistle the “Dixie Chicken” through its nose.
At least Court TV would broadcast it live, in its entirety, every day that court would be in session.
Several participants in Watts’s legal life, who would not be a part of the current trial, were interviewed before his murder trial began. Charles Baird, Watts’s appellate attorney, reiterated that the prosecutors John B. Holmes Jr. and Ira Jones II’s last-second inclusion of the water-as-a-deadly-weapon ruling was instrumental in having Watts where he was today. “They should have informed him, long before sentencing, that they were gonna ask Judge Shaver to make a finding that a deadly weapon was used in the commission of this offense (the attack on Lori Lister and Melinda Aguilar). And they failed to do that.” Judge Doug Shaver, now retired, spread the wealth when it came to blame in the Watts case. “Almost everybody that touched this thing, you could find some fault in what they did. In almost every one of us . . . but I don’t know of any way that you could ever have changed it.”
Shaver also stated about Watts, “I thought he was probably the most evil person that I’d ever come across.” Andy Kahan continued to pound the bully pulpit, warning people what would be in store for their daughters, sisters, and mothers if Watts managed to elude justice one more time.
“I don’t think there is any doubt in anybody’s mind that if he is released, he will resume his carnage against humanity.”
Kahan was doing his part to make sure that every key witness from Texas would make the trip. He already had
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organized a trip for surviving family members, such as Harriett Semander, Maria Crawford (Elena Semander’s sister from California), John Semander (also from California), and Jane Montgomery (from Massachusetts). In addition to the family members, three of Watts’s survivors were coming from Texas to testify against him: Lori Lister, Melinda Aguilar, and Julie Sanchez.
On Sunday, November 7, 2004, on Coral Watts’s fifty-first birthday, Andy Kahan prepared for the trip to Michigan the next morning. He was concerned because he knew two of the three survivors did not want to make the trip to Michigan. They did not want to face Watts for the second time, in over twenty-two years.
It was imperative that they be there. Kahan had his work cut out for him.
“Ninety-nine percent of the public wouldn’t know Coral Eugene Watts if you handed them a picture, but he’s one of the most prolific serial killers in the country’s history.
“Serial killers don’t get reformed. This is his career— killing women randomly.”
On November 8, 2004, the day after Coral Watts’s birthday, there was one present he did not want: the appearance of a group of victims’ surviving family members and friends. Harriett Semander and Andy Kahan arrived in Michigan. They were joined by John Semander, Michael Clyne, Jane Montgomery, and various members of Helen Dutcher’s family.
The Dutcher supporters all checked into a nearby hotel. Kahan and Semander contacted Assistant Attorney General Donna Pendergast to make sure there were no last-minute changes. Everything was fine, the prosecutor assured them. Afterward, the crew went to a local restaurant and caught up with one another and chatted about the trial.
A sense of nervous anticipation filled the area surrounding their table.
Despite the impressive display of support, Kahan had his worries. The surviving Watts victims—Lori Lister Baugh, Melinda Aguilar, and Julie Sanchez—were not scheduled to testify until the second week of the trial.
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Kahan would not know until the last minute if any of the three women would hold out.
Instead, he focused on the following day’s landmark event—the first murder trial for the country’s most prolific serial killer.
The following day, the families and friends of Coral Eugene Watts’s victims stood waiting in the lobby of their hotel. They were accosted by a television crew from
60 Minutes
, actually the same team that filmed the original report that aired just a few weeks before. The
60 Minutes
team asked if they could film the group as they left the hotel and entered the courtroom for the first day of the trial. The group agreed and went on their way.
Outside the courthouse the group stood around, mainly several women in their sixties and seventies, mothers of many of the victims, and quietly chatted amongst themselves. The tall, looming figure of Andy Kahan peered through the maelstrom like a ray of light in a thunderstorm.
Court TV’s Jean Casarez held court nearby with her black-screen-covered stage with two chairs set up, one for her and one for whomever she would be interviewing as the trial progressed.
The buzz in the air was palpable.
Republican judge Richard Kuhn, seventy-five, qui-
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etly stepped out of his chambers and into the packed courtroom. He had never seen the courtroom so packed for a voir dire, or jury selection. He was prepared to take quiet control of the situation.
The thirty-two-year judicial veteran had overseen just about every type of case imaginable. From business matters to divorces, from child custody hearings to hired hit men, from teenage killers to teenage victims, and now, a serial killer. Judge Kuhn was not about to allow a little extra attention on a case to distract him from his duties.
Kuhn, a strict constructionist, did not feel the need to create a spectacle. He believed it would be pertinent to the country to televise the proceedings; however, he was not going to use the platform to showcase his political or ideological beliefs.
This would also be one of the judge’s final cases. He would retire at the end of the year, due to the state law that forbade judges from running for their seat after they turn seventy years old.
Judge Kuhn had led a storied career, beginning with two failed runs for political office in the 1960s. The first was for a seat with the United States House of Rep-resentatives. The second was for the county district attorney position. After failing to attain either position, Kuhn became a judge in 1972, where he remained for over thirty-two years.