Prosecution withdraws Watson murder count

14 Feb 2012, 1:39 pm   -   Source: AAP
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A US court is attempting to select 12 jurors from a pool of 69 to decide if Gabe Watson murdered his wife Tina on their Australian honeymoon.

For more than eight years, Tommy Thomas fought in Australia and the US for a jury to decide if his daughter, Tina, was murdered on her honeymoon while scuba diving off the Queensland coast.

On Monday Mr Thomas' wish was granted in his home state of Alabama but victory was bittersweet.

In a courtroom in Birmingham, Alabama, Tina's husband of just 11 days, Gabe Watson, and his five-member legal team, went head-to-head with prosecutors in attempting to select 12 jurors from a pool of 69 to decide if Watson murdered Tina.

Mr Thomas fought back tears at the end of the first day of proceedings as he spoke about how, in an ironic twist, Tina would have celebrated her 35th birthday on Monday.

"This has been a very emotional day for us as you can imagine as 35 years ago today at 1.32am Tina was born," he told reporters.

The trial is expected to take anywhere from a fortnight to a month, and just as the aftermath of Tina's death has had plenty of twists and turns, the first day of the trial started with the shock announcement prosecutors would withdraw one of the two murder counts against Watson.

Prosecutor Don Valeska asked for the charge of capital murder in the course of kidnapping to be dropped.

The count alleged Watson created a scheme to trick his bride to go to Australia on their 2003 honeymoon with the intention of murdering her.

Watson, 34, still faces a capital murder for pecuniary gain charge, with allegations he hoped to profit by cashing in his bride's insurance policies.

If convicted, Watson faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

"I was not surprised," one of Watson's lawyers, Joe Basgier, told AAP of the prosecution move to drop the charge.

"There was no evidence. They didn't have a choice."

Mr Valeska said the eleventh hour decision was strategic.

"It is just a strategic move to simplify the case," he said.

Mr Thomas supported the decision, adding: "We know we have a very strong case."

The defence and prosecution spent a little over three hours questioning the 69 potential jurors, which included three lawyers, an experienced diver, a volunteer firefighter, unemployed, a bartender and victims of violent crime.

"This is not a TV show," Mr Basgier told them.

"This is real life. This is not CSI."

The questions jurors fielded included: were they aware of the case from media reports; did they personally know Gabe Watson, his parents, Tina or Watson's new wife Kim Watson; did they understand what "beyond reasonable doubt meant"; have they had a bad experience with a police officer; have they ever felt panicked; have they taken out travel insurance; and have they scuba dived.

Just 11 of the 69 said they were unaware of the high-profile case.

The 58 jurors who knew about the case were then asked if they had a "fixed opinion" on Watson's guilt or innocence.

"I feel like he has been tried already in another country," said one potential male juror, referring to Watson's 2009 guilty plea to manslaughter for Tina's death in a Queensland court and 18-month jail sentence.

The juror then told Judge Tommy Nail he did not have a fixed opinion on Watson's guilt or innocence.

A female potential juror said after following media reports she felt Watson was guilty.

"From everything on TV and what I have read, I feel he is guilty," the woman told Judge Nail.

"I think because he took out life insurance beforehand ..."

At that point Judge Nail cut her off.

The judge ended the day's proceedings without any juror being dismissed and the selection process will continue on Tuesday.

Mr Thomas, who was distraught when Queensland prosecutors struck a plea deal with Watson in 2009 for the manslaughter guilty plea that avoided a trial, said he looked forward to watching the trial unfold.

But dealing with the emotions of his daughter's birthday would be heartbreaking, particularly for his wife Cindy, who had a special bond with Tina.

On every birthday when the clock ticked to 1.32am, Cindy would go to her daughter's bedroom, "crawl into bed with Tina, wake her up, kiss her and wish her a happy birthday".

"When Tina was 19 she was away from home in college and Cindy would call her and her roommate at the dorm to wish her a happy birthday (at 1.32am)," Mr Thomas said.

"That's something for the last nine birthdays she hasn't been able to do and it has been very hard for her."

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