Jonathan Watson, a 41-year-old prisoner from California, has admitted in public to killing two convicted child molesters with a cane last month. Before the attacks, Watson added, he had warned prison officials repeatedly, but they ignored him.
One week after being moved to the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, Watson confessed to the murders of 48-year-old David Bobb and 64-year-old Graham De Luis-Conti in a letter to Mercury News.
Watson said in the letter that he had expressed his want to be moved to a counselor just hours prior to the attacks, adding that the request was “urgent.” He said that he was ignored when he threatened to harm another prisoner shortly.
Watson wrote that he had been given a lower-level security classification, from Level III to Level II, and was transferred from a single-person cell to dorm-style living at the Corcoran prison. The transfer displeased him, and he called it a “careless” mistake by CDCR, explaining that he left “quite a paper trail” of grievances protesting the transfer.
Six days into his incarceration, he wrote in the letter, a “child molester” moved into his pod. He refers to the man as “Molester #1” without specifying if it was Bobb or Luis-Conti. According to Watson, Molester #1 started watching PBS Kids in front of the other prisoners, which they saw as an insult.
According to Watson’s account of that night, “I packed all of my belongings because I knew that the situation would be resolved the next day, but I could not sleep having not done what every instinct told me I should have done right then and there.”
Watson spoke to a prison counselor the next day – two hours before the attacks – and stated that he needed to be transferred back to Level III “before I really (expletive) one of these dudes up.”
He said that the counselor “scoffed and dismissed me.”
Watson wrote that he returned to his pod after warning the counselor that he might turn violent.
He wrote: “I was mulling it all over when along came Molester #1 and he put his TV right on PBS Kids again. But this time, someone else said something to the effect of, ‘Is this guy really going to watch this right in front of us?’ and I recall saying, ‘I got this.’ And I picked up the cane and went to work on him.”
Watson wrote that he then left the pod and was on his way to find a guard and turn himself in when he encountered Molester #2 and decided to kill again.
“As I got to the lower tier, I saw a known child trafficker, and I figured I’d just do everybody a favor,” he wrote. “In for a penny, in for a pound.”
His beatings failed to draw the attention of the correctional officials, so he approached an officer and confessed.
“You’re not going to hit me with that cane, are you?” was his sardonic response when I informed him I had some really awful news. The letter from Watson read. Knowing that this might be my last good moment for a while, I informed him what I had just done after joking for a little while. He didn’t believe me until he turned the corner and saw the mess I had created in the dorm area.
He said that he fully confessed to jail officials following the deaths, “detailing the situation as I just did for you.”
Watson is not yet facing any charges. He is receiving a life sentence for a 2009 murder conviction, according to court documents.
He stated that he will plead guilty to both murders if the state takes him to court. He also hinted that he would try to kill again if he is housed with child molesters in the future.
