Jonathan Watson, a 41-year-old California prisoner charged with murdering two sentenced child molesters with a cane last month, has admitted publicly to the killings. Watson also stated that he had given jail officials enough notice before the assaults, but it had gone unheeded.
Watson admitted to killing 48-year-old David Bobb and 64-year-old Graham De Luis-Conti in a letter, only one week after being moved to the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran.
In the letter, Watson indicated that he notified a counselor hours before the assaults that he needed to be relocated and that the request was “urgent.” He said that he threatened to assault another inmate shortly, but he was disregarded.
Watson reported that he had been demoted from Level III to Level II security and was moved from a single-person cell to dorm-style housing at the Corcoran jail. The relocation irritated him, and he accused CDCR of making a “careless” mistake, stating that he had left “quite a paper trail” of objections disputing the transfer.
In the letter, he alleged that six days into his incarceration at the jail, a “child molester” moved into his unit. He doesn’t identify whether it was Bobb or Luis-Conti, instead calling him “Molester #1.” Molester #1 began watching PBS Kids in full view of the other detainees, who viewed it as an insult, according to Watson.
Watson wrote, he was unable to sleep having not done what every instinct told him he should’ve done right then and there, he packed all of his belongings as he knew one way or another the matter would be handled the next day.
The next day, two hours before the attacks, Watson told a prison counselor that he needed to be sent back to Level III before he really (expletive) one of these fellas up.
According to him, the counselor “shrugged and ignored him.”
Watson stated that after telling the counselor that he may become aggressive, he returned to his cell. He was pondering it all over when along came Molester #1 and he set his TV straight back on PBS Kids. But this time, someone else said, ‘is this person really going to watch this right in front of them?’ And he responded, he got this. And he took up the cane and began working on him.
Watson wrote that after leaving the unit, he was on his way to find a guard and report himself in when he spotted Molester #2 and chose to murder again.
He wrote, as he got to the lowest tier, he noticed a known kid trafficker and assumed he had simply done everyone a favor. A penny saved is a penny earned.
After his beatings failed to attract the attention of correctional officers, he approached an officer and admitted.
Watson’s letter was read aloud, he told him, he has got some rather awful news, to which he responded, ironically, ‘You’re not going to whack me with that cane, are you?’ So, after joking for a while and realizing that this could be the last pleasant moment he got for a long time, he told him what he had just done, which he also didn’t believe until he peered around the corner and saw the mess he had left in the dorm area.
Following the deaths, he indicated that he delivered a thorough confession to jail officials, detailing the circumstances as he just did for them.
Watson has not been charged as of yet. He is spending life in prison on a 2009 murder conviction, according to court documents.
He added that if the state brings him to court, he will plead guilty to both killings. He further implied that if he is placed among child molesters in the future, he will attempt to kill again.
