John Watson, inmate on Nevada’s death row, dies | Local Nevada

An inmate sentenced to death for the 2006 murder of his wife was pronounced dead Tuesday by the Nevada Department of Corrections.

John Watson, 84, was pronounced dead at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center on September 23. Watson was serving a death sentence at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City after being convicted of first-degree kidnapping and murder in 2010.

Watson was a retired high school math teacher. Prosecutors said Watson lured his wife, Evie Watson, to Las Vegas in July 2006 to celebrate her 50th birthday. Fearing she would divorce him and take his money, he secretly planned to kill her, they said.

Watson rented a room at the Tuscany hotel-casino with a fake ID, the Review-Journal previously reported. There, prosecutors say, he shot his wife and mutilated her with a bandsaw.

Evie’s body was never discovered, although investigators found her DNA in a shower drain in Tuscany. According to court records, in letters written from prison, Watson admitted to cooking and eating body parts.

After the jury found Watson guilty in 2010, it sentenced him to the death penalty. Watson appeared in court again 11 years later, requesting a new trial. Then his attorney, Jamie Resch, said his client was legally blind and used a wheelchair while at Ely State Prison.

In 1967, Watson was arrested in Oklahoma after boasting about raping, killing and dumping the body of a hitchhiker. Police did not find his body after an extensive search and no charges were filed. According to court documents, years later, Watson was also accused of making threats against President Nixon.

The department has not released Watson’s cause of death, although a news release said attempts to contact his next of kin were unsuccessful.

Contact Akiya Dillon at [email protected].