Evil Eyes (17 page)
TL: Alright, was she out of her car? CW: Yeah.
TL: Alright, did she have anything in her hands when she got out of the car?
CW: I don’t know. Some papers and stuff. TL: Alright, what type of papers?
CW: Drawing papers, blueprints, or something like that.
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JL: Where would she have been stopped at? Was this in a neighborhood or was it on a main street or . . .?
CW: In a neighborhood.
JL: It’s in a neighborhood. Was it well-lit or was it, how was the lighting?
CW: Pretty lit.
JL: So she, correct then that she stopped on the street? CW: Yes.
JL: Did she stop on the right hand side of the street or the left hand side of the street?
CW: On the right.
JL: The right. Was it in the middle of a block or was it on a corner or was it in a driveway or where?
CW: About the middle of the block, I think. JL: Was it in a driveway?
CW: No.
JL: It was on a curb? CW: Uh huh.
TL: Alright, she got out of the car and she had some papers in her hands, then what did you do? Just approach her from behind?
CW: Yeah, I was already walking up. TL: Walking fast, slow, running?
CW: Running.
TL: When did she see you? How far were you from her when she saw you?
CW: Um, about five feet.
TL: She turn around and looked at you? CW: Yeah.
TL: Then what happened?
Ted Thomas (TT): Did you have the knife in your hand? CW: No.
TL: When she turned and looked at you, what happened? CW: That’s when I grabbed her.
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TL: Alright, how did you grab her? CW: From the side.
TL: Alright, where did you grab her? CW: Around the arm and by the neck.
TL: Around the arms and around the neck? Speak up Coral!
CW: Okay.
TL: Then what happened? CW: Ah, then I choked her.
TL: Alright, how long did you choke her? CW: Um, I don’t know. About a minute, two. TL: Did she struggle?
CW: Yeah.
TL: Did you hit her? CW: No.
TL: You just choked her? CW: Uh huh.
TL: You choked her to the ground? CW: Uh huh.
TL: Alright, did she say anything? CW: No.
TL: Did she fight? CW: Yes.
TL: Alright, describe her as best you can remember. CW: I think she was about 5' 4'', blonde hair, and she wore glasses and stuff. And might have had a brown coat or something. I think it was a blue coat. Either blue or brown. One of the two.
TL: What type of pants, or did she have pants on or a dress or . . .?
CW: I think it was a dress.
TL: Alright, after you killed her what did you do with her body?
CW: Put it in the trunk of the car.
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TL: Alright, were her keys in her hands or how did you open the trunk?
CW: Had the keys in her hands.
TL: Alright, when you opened the trunk, how did you put her in the trunk?
CW: I think it was face down.
TL: Alright, standing at the rear of the vehicle, looking towards it where the left tires would be on your left, the right tires would be on your right, did you put her head out the left side or the right side?
CW: The left side.
TL: Alright, did you have any trouble fitting her in the trunk?
CW: I don’t think so.
TL: Alright, how did you position her legs? CW: I think I might have folded one back. TL: Folded one back?
CW: Uh huh.
TL: What about the other leg? CW: I don’t remember.
TL: Alright, did you, what about her shoes? CW: I took them.
TL: You took them. Do you remember what kind of shoes they were?
CW: Uh, some kind of plastic shoes. TL: Alright, and what about her socks? CW: No, I don’t remember.
TL: Alright, what else did you take from her? CW: Some papers, a coat, and a purse, I think. TL: Alright, and her shoes?
CW: Yeah.
TL: Did you take any other jewelry off her? CW: I don’t think so.
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TL: Alright, what else did you take? You said you took her purse?
CW: Yes.
TL: Describe the purse if you can remember it. CW: I don’t remember what it looked like.
TL: Was it a handheld purse or . . . ? CW: Like a bag or something.
TL: Like a bag? CW: Yeah.
TL: Alright, did you take anything else? CW: I don’t think so.
TL: Alright, what did you do with the drawings? CW: I think I burned them.
TL: Alright, what about the purse? CW: That too.
TL: Alright, the shoes? CW: I threw those away.
TL: Where did you throw it? CW: In the trashbin.
TL: Alright, what about her coat? CW: I threw that away.
TL: Alright, why did you burn the drawings. CW: I figured it would kill the spirit.
JL: The property you burned, you burned the drawings and what else was it you burned?
CW: I think it was the bag, whatever it was. JL: Where did this burning take place at?
CW: I don’t remember. I just stopped and burned them. JL: How did you go about burning something like that?
CW: Just take a match and burn it up.
JL: Well, like the bag, obviously wouldn’t, you know, just automatically burn up if you put a match under it.
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Did you use any type of a something that accelerates flame or . . . ?
CW: No.
TL: You burned the drawings and the bag at the same time? CW: Uh huh.
TT: While we’re on the drawings here, what did they look like?
CW: Uh, looked like just drawings like a building or something.
TL: Do you know if there was any damage to that car, which the girl was driving?
CW: No.
TL: Okay, what did you do with the keys? To the car? CW: I don’t know.
U/K: Remember a watch or anything like that? CW: No.
U/K: There’s a lot of areas you’re sorta unsure on. We ask questions like this, talking about rings and watches and stuff and you seem to be unsure. Is that that you’re unsure in your own mind on these cases if those things were taken or . . . ?
CW: Yeah, I be sure. I’m not sure of what if I took it or not. I don’t think I did.
U/K: You don’t think you did? Is it possible you could have though?
CW: Yeah.
TL: Did you take anything from inside the car? CW: No.
TL: Did you go inside the car at all? CW: No.
TL: Let me ask you something. Why did you put the body in the trunk?
CW: No reason. I just put it there. TL: Why didn’t you stab her?
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CW: Just didn’t, that wasn’t, I didn’t stab her.
TT: Had you already thrown the knife away? The kitchen knife you used on the other two?
CW: Yeah, I throwed that away.
TL: Alright, just for the records, that’s gonna be the Margaret Fossi case we talked about.
JL: Do you remember reading anything about that case or anything after it happened?
CW: No.
JL: Do you read the newspapers? CW: No.
TL: When was the last time you read a newspaper? CW: In jail.
TL: Alright, before you were arrested, when was the last time you read a newspaper?
CW: Um, I’m not sure. TL: A long time?
CW: Yeah.
TL: Alright, do you watch the news on television? CW: Not too much.
TL: Did you hear, remember hearing anything at all about that particular case either on television, the radio, or read it in the newspaper?
CW: No.
TL: Did you know that she was a student at Rice? CW: No.
TL: When did you first find out she was a student? CW: Just now.
TL: First time you’ve known about it? CW: Uh huh.
JL: You described her shoes, plastic shoes. Do you know what happened to them?
CW: I think I threw them away or something. I’m not really sure.
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TL: Any particular reason why you took her shoes? CW: No.
Later that same morning, Coral Watts attacked Julie Sanchez as she repaired a flat tire on her automobile on the Southwest Freeway. Watts walked up behind her, grabbed her head, pulled it back, and slit her throat twice. Sanchez managed to escape, ran into traffic, and nearly caused a multicar pileup. She was rescued by her husband and taken to a nearby hospital. Sanchez barely survived the attack.
The following text is the actual interrogation and confession by Coral Eugene Watts in regard to the attack on Julie Sanchez:
Coral Watts (CW ): Okay, well a girl was off by the Astrodome. Right off, was right off the freeway. It was on the freeway out by the Astrodome. There was a girl standing by a car and I walked up to her and grabbed her and cut her across the throat. Think they were changing a tire or something or other.
Jim Ladd ( JL): You said “they”?
CW: Yeah, it was just one there when I got there but someone else may have been there and went off somewhere. JL: How long ago was this?
CW: Um, I don’t know. About a few months ago. About six months ago maybe.
JL: What time of day was it? CW: It was at night.”
Tom Ladd (TL): Was it on the freeway itself? CW: Yeah. On the side of the freeway.
Ted Thomas (TT): On the service road or what?
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CW: No, on the freeway, on the side where you pull over to the shoulder.
TT: Okay.
TL: Describe the person. CW: Huh?
TL: Describe the person.
CW: Ah, I don’t know. All I seen was her back. I think it was a short woman, kinda skinny.
TL: White or black?
CW: Wasn’t black. Was either white or Mexican, either one.
TL: You say you cut her across the throat? CW: Yeah.
TL: Deep?
CW: I don’t know.
TL: What scared you off?
CW: She managed to get away and run into the freeway where the cars were coming.
TL: Did she get hit?
CW: I don’t know. I turned around and walked away. She had on like a, well, she had on a shirt and some pants.
TL: Was she an older woman or a younger woman? CW: I don’t know.
TT: What kind of car was she changing a flat or what? CW: Hmmm, I don’t know that. Yeah, I think it was a Caprice maybe.
TL: New or older model? CW: An older car.
TT: What color? CW: Huh?
TT: What color was it?
CW: I’m not sure but I think it was green. TT: Was the car jacked up?
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CW: I think so.
TL: Was she there alone? CW: Yeah.
TL: Did you see anybody come up?
CW: Yeah, that, somebody else came up and stopped right after she had ran into the freeway.
TL: Did she get in their car? CW: Yeah.
TL: How bad did she bleed? CW: I don’t know.
TL: Was it just one slice across the throat? CW: Yeah.
TL: Did she try to fight you or anything? CW: Yeah.
TL: What did she do? Claw you or scratch you or kick you or what?
CW: She was scratching and kicking and somehow she got around and slipped under and ran out.
TL: Slipped under what? CW: My arm.
TT: Did you cut her for sure? CW: Yeah.
TT: Could you see the Astrodome from where you were at? CW: It was just off Main, as you would turn off going down Main and making a right. Going towards the freeway, it was maybe a block or two blocks down past there. TL: Going back away from the Astrodome?
CW: Yeah.
The following text is the actual interrogation and confession by Coral Eugene Watts in regard to the attack on Alice Martell:
Tom Ladd (TL): Are you sure she was driving a solid white car?
Coral Watts (CW ): Uh huh.
TL: Alright, you saw her . . . Is this about January, February? For the purpose of the tape, we’re talking about a possible victim, at the time this occurrence was in the winter months believed to be in January or February. Coral Watts had driven to the Kemah-Seabrook area after following a female in a vehicle. During the course of his following this female she lost him, and at this time, he saw another female pulled over off the street past NASA. This female turned onto NASA Road 1 and drove in the direction of Highway 136. Alright, this is where we are right now. Alright, so how far did you follow her? All the way down that curvy road over the railroad tracks?
CW: Yeah.
TL: Alright, so she crossed over the railroad tracks and then across 136 then went back in those little . . .
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CW: Uh huh.
TL: Little streets back there. Okay, then what happened? CW: Ah, she stopped and got out.
TL: What did she stop in front of?
CW: Some kind of white apartments or something like that.
TL: Were there many apartments or just a few of them or what?
CW: There was . . . I’m not sure. I know they were white. TL: She park her car?
CW: White apartment building. TL: What?
CW: White apartment building. TL: Did she park her car?
CW: Yeah.
TL: Alright, then what happened?
CW: She got out and walked into the apartment.
TL: Alright, did you come up behind her? Or to the side of her car or . . . ?
CW: Behind her.
TL: Directly behind her? CW: Behind her.
TL: Okay, did she see you at this time when you pulled up behind her?
CW: Ah, she seen the car, I believe. Yeah. TL: Alright, did she do anything?
CW: No.
TL: Did she appear to be alarmed in any way? CW: No.
TL: Alright, so she’s walking towards the apartments? CW: Uh huh.
TL: Alright, then what happened? CW: She had walked in and a . . . TL: . . . Walked in where?