Kevin Michael Watts

Background

Kevin Michael Watts was a Black male who dropped out of school in the ninth grade. He was from San Jose, California, and moved to San Antonio, Texas, to live with an aunt when he was about 14 years old. He later became involved in street gangs and described himself as a full-time participant in street life.

Watts had a record that included prior misdemeanor convictions and additional matters discussed during later proceedings. He also had a weapons case against him as a sixteen-year-old.

Watts was described as having a history of drinking and drug use, including “thug passion,” cocaine, Xanax, ecstasy, and other pills, with witnesses describing drug problems since he was 14. He was also described as having engaged in fights while awaiting trial.

Watts’s common law wife, Tiffany Prince, testified about his drug use patterns, and a maternal grandmother of Watts’s child, Alicia Prince, testified about Watts’s drug problem.

The offence

On March 1, 2002, Watts entered the Sam Won Garden restaurant in San Antonio, Texas. He fatally shot three people inside the restaurant: Hak Po Kim, Yuan Tzu Banks, and Sun Chae Shook. He then kidnapped a fourth victim, Hye Kyong Kim, and sexually assaulted her.

Watts entered brandishing a Tec-22 pistol. He demanded money from restaurant manager Hak Po Kim. When Kim refused to comply, Watts made the manager and restaurant employees Yuan Tzu Banks and Sun Chae Shook kneel on the kitchen floor facing the wall. Watts then shot all three in the head.

After the shootings, Watts ordered Hye Kyong Kim to retrieve her dying husband’s wallet and car keys from his pants pocket and ordered her to empty the cash register. Watts then forced Mrs. Kim into her vehicle at gunpoint and fled with her.

Watts sexually assaulted Mrs. Kim in her vehicle. He later took her to his mother-in-law’s apartment where he again raped and sodomized her. He allowed his roommate, Terrance Bolden, to rape her.

The account also described Watts forcing Mrs. Kim to ingest narcotics and attempting to insert his pistol into her vagina. Mrs. Kim survived and testified against Watts at trial.

The amount taken from the cash register was described as about $100.

Investigation

A produce delivery driver, Jesse Rios, arrived at the restaurant and found Mr. Kim and Ms. Shook dead in the kitchen. Rios called for help from a neighboring business.

Rios told police that he observed a black male leave the restaurant, shove a dark-haired woman into a vehicle, and accelerate hard out of the parking lot. Mr. Kim’s father provided the license plate number of his son’s vehicle, which matched Rios’s description, and he confirmed that his son’s wife was missing. A police advisory was dispatched and publicized by local media.

Police were able to capture Watts after a citizen called 9-1-1 reporting a car with the matching license plate in a nearby apartment complex parking lot. Uniformed officers in unmarked cars surrounded the location. When Watts entered Mrs. Kim’s vehicle and started to leave, police blocked him. Watts swerved, struck a police car and a wall, and was arrested after some resistance.

The Tec-22 pistol carried by Watts at the time of his arrest was tied sling-style around his shoulder and torso. Shell casings and live rounds found in the vehicle and the restaurant, as well as bullets taken from the victims’ heads, matched his Tec-22 pistol. Police also found Hak Po Kim’s wallet in the apartment Watts visited between the killings and his arrest, and his widow’s tennis shoe in that apartment.

A medical examiner testified that the angle of entry into the three victims’ heads was consistent with them having been shot while kneeling.

Arrest

Watts was captured about three hours after the shootings, after he attempted to flee by ramming two police cars using the victim’s sports utility vehicle. After police read him his Miranda rights, Watts confessed to the robbery and murders.

Trial

Watts entered a plea of not guilty, and his trial began on Feb. 10, 2003.

Guilt-innocence

After hearing the evidence and deliberating less than three hours, the jury returned a guilty verdict finding Watts guilty of capital murder on Feb. 13, 2003.

The jury heard that Watts fatally shot Hak Po Kim while in the course of the same criminal transaction in which he fatally shot Yuan Tzu Banks, and that he fatally shot Hak Po Kim while in the course of committing and attempting to commit the robbery of Hak Po Kim, Yuan Tzu Banks, Chae Sun Shook, and Hye Kyong Kim.

Punishment phase

During the punishment phase, the prosecution presented documentary evidence and testimony of numerous instances of violent and disruptive conduct by Watts while in detention awaiting trial.

The punishment phase also included documentary evidence and testimony about prior convictions and other incidents discussed at trial. Correctional officers for Bexar County testified about fights Watts became involved in or instigated while awaiting trial, with dates including March 6, 2002, July 1, 2002, October 13, 2002, and November 14, 2002, and also included an altercation in the rec yard.

A mail supervisor, Mark Wells, testified about a letter Watts wrote containing threats of violence against whites and Hispanics, which was forwarded to prosecutors. Evidence was presented regarding Watts’s desire to become a member of a Black Gorilla Family prison gang, and prosecutors introduced the letter Watts wrote while in jail describing his desire for membership.

Watts’s attorney, Tina Tussay-Cooper, argued that Watts’s misdemeanor convictions did not make him a continuing threat to society. During trial, Tussay-Cooper told the jury: “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” “Don’t go back and retaliate because of the anger you feel.”

A witness, Sonia Watts, testified about the night before the murders and described Watts drinking quantities of “thug passion,” snorting cocaine, and consuming numerous pills. Another witness, Mike Watts, testified that Watts had a drug problem since he was 14 and described the night before the murder as including heavy drinking, snorting cocaine, smoking pot, and taking Xanax and ecstasy. Alicia Prince testified that Watts had a drug problem.

Tussay-Cooper also argued points in response to the jury’s decision. After the jury’s decision, she stated: “What a waste of four lives.”

In the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’s later direct appeal discussion, it was described that the trial court admitted Exhibit 105-A, a letter written by Watts while in jail describing how he wanted to become a member of the Black Gorilla Family prison gang. The trial court also heard testimony from Sergeant Ricardo Vijil, Sergeant Mark Gibson, Sonia Watts, and Tonya Prince regarding Watts’s gang membership, and it was discussed that defense objections at trial did not preserve constitutional claims urged on appeal.

The jury found that there was a probability Watts would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society. The jury also found that, taking into consideration all the evidence, including the circumstances of the offense and Watts’s character, background, and personal moral culpability, there were insufficient mitigating circumstances to warrant a sentence of life imprisonment rather than death. The jury returned its punishment verdict on Feb. 19, 2003.

Sentencing

Watts was formally sentenced to death on Feb. 19, 2003, following his conviction of capital murder on Feb. 13, 2003.

After the punishment was announced, Mrs. Kim was permitted to address Watts. It was described that she sobbed uncontrollably, and an employee with the district attorney’s office read her note. As Watts was being led away, he made a brief statement expressing love to his family. He also apologized to the victims’ families, but tempered his apology with the statement: “If they hate me, they hate me.”

Watts’s trial counsel, Tina Tussay-Cooper, responded to the jury’s decision by saying, “What a waste of four lives.”

Appeals

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Watts’s conviction and sentence in December 2004, and later procedural history included additional state and federal habeas proceedings.

The following procedural history was described:

• March 1, 2002 — Kevin Watts killed Hak Po Kim, Yuan Tzu Banks, and Sun Chae Shook and kidnapped and sexually assaulted Hye Kyong Kim.
• Feb. 10, 2003 — Watts entered a plea of not guilty and his trial began.
• Feb. 13, 2003 — Watts was convicted of capital murder.
• Feb. 19, 2003 — Watts was formally sentenced to death.
• May 3, 2004 — Watts filed an application for state writ of habeas corpus.
• Oct. 25, 2004 — Watts filed a supplemental application for state writ.
• Nov. 23, 2004 — The trial court entered findings and conclusions recommending denial.
• Dec. 15, 2004 — The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence.
• Jan. 18, 2005 — Mandate issued from the Court of Criminal Appeals.
• Oct. 19, 2005 — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found the habeas court’s findings supported by the record and denied relief, also holding the supplemental application was filed after the deadline and therefore depriving the Court of authority to do anything other than dismiss it as abuse of the writ.
• Nov. 14, 2005 — Watts filed a second subsequent writ of state habeas relief.
• Dec. 29, 2005 — Watts filed a federal habeas corpus petition.
• May 10, 2006 — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied writ of habeas relief.
• August 21, 2006 — The federal district court dismissed Watts’s federal habeas petition.
• Dec. 4, 2006 — Watts filed application for certificate of appealability in the 5th Circuit.
• Aug. 1, 2007 — The Fifth Circuit Court affirmed the district court’s denial of habeas relief.
• Sept. 11, 2007 — Watts petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari review.
• Jan. 7, 2008 — The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review.
• Oct. 16, 2008 — Kevin Michael Watts is scheduled to be executed on this date.

In the direct appeal analysis, it was described that the Court of Criminal Appeals held Watts failed to preserve for appellate review a claim of constitutional error in admission during the punishment phase involving evidence of his desire for membership in a black racist prison gang. It also held it declined to conduct proportionality review of Watts’s sentence, and that imposition of death penalty did not implicate the Eighth Amendment.

In the federal habeas corpus analysis referenced, the district court held that petitioner’s federal habeas claims were procedurally defaulted and denied relief. The district court denied all relief requested and denied a Certificate of Appealability on all claims.

Outcome

Watts’s conviction and death sentence were affirmed. All subsequent state and federal appeals described in the record were denied. Watts was executed in Texas by lethal injection on October 16, 2008.

Watts made a statement during the execution process. After the lethal injection was started, Watts said: “Can I say something? I’m dying but...” He then lost consciousness and was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m.

Aftermath

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Watts’s application for clemency and a 30-day reprieve request, clearing the way for his execution.

Watts’s final statement included encouragement to fellow incarcerated people: “For everybody incarcerated, y’all keep your heads up,” and “Stay strong and keep fighting, it’s not over yet.” He said: “I’m out of here, man. I’m gone. Keep me in your hearts.” He also asked the Lord to forgive him and finished with: “I am out of here. I am gone. Keep me in your hearts.”

It was described that Watts told friends he was thankful for their love and support. An account also described that he told Tiffany Prince and Sonia Watts to remember him.

A description of the execution day included that no one from the families of the victims attended the execution.