Honeymoon dive killer David Watson has jail term extended

[Case]

Honeymoon dive killer David Watson has jail term extended | National News | News.com.au

A US scuba diver who left his wife to sink and die at the bottom of the ocean has had his one-year jail term extended by six months.


Just a warning, the photo in this story is kind of disturbing, it's not graphic but it did send chills down my spine.

The caption for the photo reads "An unsuspecting diver poses for a photograph, while American Tina Watson (right rear) lays dying on the ocean floor as an instructor (left) rushes to help her "

View at your own discretion. All round a very sad story.

[OTGav]

Husband gets more jail time over dive death - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Same story - with the hard-core picture.......

[TJDiver]

This guy was trained in rescue, and he did what?!!! Holy crap! That being said, does this really constitute manslaughter charges? Don't get me wrong, the diver in me feels like he should be whipped to within an inch of his life in the public square, but are we now convicting people for stupidity? If so, I run across at least a dozen people in my every day commute that should be up on charges. I lost my best friend to a motorcycle wreck a couple years ago where an idiot made an illegal u-turn in front of him. That idiot actually performed an illegal manuever, killed my best friend in the process, and got a slap on the wrist in the form of a ticket. This guy panicks, makes a very stupid decision, and he gets jail time? I don't get it. Am I missing something here?

[Foo2]

Originally Posted by TJDiver

This guy was trained in rescue, and he did what?!!! Holy crap! That being said, does this really constitute manslaughter charges? Don't get me wrong, the diver in me feels like he should be whipped to within an inch of his life in the public square, but are we now convicting people for stupidity? If so, I run across at least a dozen people in my every day commute that should be up on charges. I lost my best friend to a motorcycle wreck a couple years ago where an idiot made an illegal u-turn in front of him. That idiot actually performed an illegal manuever, killed my best friend in the process, and got a slap on the wrist in the form of a ticket. This guy panicks, makes a very stupid decision, and he gets jail time? I don't get it. Am I missing something here?

Yeah...you're missing a lot. It wasn't just a stupid mistake. The man was found guilty for killing his wife. You can use the search function here on the forum to find a few very long threads about this case.

[Desert_Diver]

Originally Posted by TJDiver

This guy was trained in rescue, and he did what?!!! Holy crap! That being said, does this really constitute manslaughter charges? Don't get me wrong, the diver in me feels like he should be whipped to within an inch of his life in the public square, but are we now convicting people for stupidity? If so, I run across at least a dozen people in my every day commute that should be up on charges. I lost my best friend to a motorcycle wreck a couple years ago where an idiot made an illegal u-turn in front of him. That idiot actually performed an illegal manuever, killed my best friend in the process, and got a slap on the wrist in the form of a ticket. This guy panicks, makes a very stupid decision, and he gets jail time? I don't get it. Am I missing something here?

I guess it depends on whether you think he just paniced, or if this was cold blooded and calculated murder. He bought a large life insurance policy on his new wife just prior to the dive trip. And his dive computer data did not match his story of what happened. In my mind, the prosecutor did not prove cold blooded murder. But I have very serious doubts about Watson's story.

Art

[TJDiver]

Ah...I knew I had to be missing something. The linked article above didn't mention any of those details, and I had not seen coverage of this case before now. I thought it fishy that a trained rescue diver would make such a "mistake", but training and cert doesn't always mean someone is capable of putting it to use. The other details of the case do seem to point to something other than a bad decision don't they.

[jugglematt]

i followed this story with interest when it evolved in Australia.

when i first heard the alleged facts i thought "this stinks " there is something not right here .

he got of very light

[Diver Kat]

Originally Posted by jugglematt

i followed this story with interest when it evolved in Australia.

when i first heard the alleged facts i thought "this stinks " there is something not right here .

he got of very light

I too have been following this on & off for some time. I feel for her family that have been fighting this so long and then have to settle for seeing him get off with a slap to the wrist. I'd really love to know what the 'replacement' wife thinks of all this, and if she's naive enough to actually still think he was innocent.

[Sansho]

This is a case where the punishment should be for the perpetrator to experience the same fate as his subject. It seems just too odd that he tried to increase her life insurance before the trip, she didn't do it but didn't tell him (as I recall), and then she paid the ultimate price. One can only hope when he does get back to the US that someone presses additional charges against him.

[Grizbear98]

It seems almost too light a punishment to only get a year and a half plus for pleading guilty to manslaughter. Had he not plead guilty they would have charged him with murder anyways so they should have at least had a punishment fit of murder if that's what it was ruled. I've been following this case for awhile and his story never seemed right.

Sidenote:
It says the victim's family wants to press charges in the States too, I wonder if it constitutes as double jeopardy or if they can press charges against a crime committed in a different country?