Curtis Watson is a killer from Tennessee who would murder prison official Debra Kaye Johnson during an escape
According to court documents Curtis Watson was an inmate at West Tennessee State Penitentiary who was serving time for aggravated kidnapping and aggravated child abuse. Watson who worked as a trusty would go to the home of Debra Kaye Johnson, an administrator for the Tennessee Department of Correction, who he would sexually assault and murder before fleeing the prison on a tractor
Curtis Watson would be tracked down, arrested, convicted and sentenced to life in prison
Curtis Watson Now
| Supervision Status: | INCARCERATED | Assigned Location: | MORGAN COUNTY CORRECTIONAL COMPLEX |
| Combined Sentence(s) Length: | LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE | Supervision/Custody Level: | MAXIMUM |
| Sentence Begin Date: | 08/13/2012 |
Curtis Watson Case
A manhunt continued Friday for an escaped Tennessee inmate who the authorities said sexually assaulted and killed a veteran prison executive and then fled on a tractor, a crime that rattled a small rural community in the western part of the state.
The inmate, Curtis Ray Watson, who escaped from the West Tennessee State Penitentiary on Wednesday, was described as extremely dangerous and could be anywhere, officials said. As of Friday, the authorities said that they had fielded at least 250 tips about his whereabouts but that there had been no credible sightings.
Mr. Watson, who turned 44 on the day of his escape, had been a trusty and was released from the prison for his work assignment mowing lawns, according to officials and court records. As a trusty, he had access to prison equipment, including a golf cart and a tractor.
Officers said they saw Mr. Watson, who was serving a 15-year prison sentence for felony charges of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated child abuse, around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday at the home of Debra Kaye Johnson, an administrator for the Tennessee Department of Correction. Based on phone records, officials said she was alive and talking on the phone at 8:10 a.m.
Ms. Johnson, who had been with the department for 38 years, lived in a state-owned home on the grounds of the prison, which houses male inmates classified as maximum, medium and minimum security.
Between 9 and 10 a.m., Curtis Watson took a tractor and drove away, according to court records. Prison officials realized he was missing around 11 a.m. and later recovered the tractor a little over two miles away.
When Ms. Johnson, 64, did not report to work, co-workers went to her home and found her body at 11:30 a.m. Investigators discovered ligature marks and a cord wrapped around her neck. The medical examiner’s office determined that she had been strangled and sexually assaulted.
Tony C. Parker, the commissioner of the State Department of Correction, said at a news conference on Thursday that Mr. Watson was qualified to be a prison trusty but declined to discuss it further, saying the policy would be reviewed.
Warrants were issued on Thursday for Curtis Watson, charging him with first-degree murder, especially aggravated burglary and aggravated sexual battery. He had previously been convicted of aggravated child abuse, but that sentence expired in 2011; his current sentence started in 2013.
Curtis Watson has numerous tattoos, including skulls, a dragon and a tiger. He was described as 5 feet 11 inches tall, between 180 and 200 pounds and with a long gray beard.
Officials praised Ms. Johnson as a consummate professional who had worked her way up the ranks from a correction officer to warden and to her most recent position. They said she enjoyed good relationships with prison staff and inmates but knew of no particular link between her and the escaped inmate.
Her son Mychal Austin described his mother as “funny, upbeat and positive,” The Tennessean reported.
“The inmates would call her ‘first lady’ on the compound,” he said. “People would start to straighten up because she was so fair and delivered every promise she made to them.”
David B. Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, described Curtis Watson as “extremely dangerous.” Officials urged residents to be vigilant, to report any items missing from homes or storage buildings and to check trail and video surveillance cameras for anything unusual.
The escape rattled nerves in Henning, a rural community about 60 miles northeast of Memphis that is home to the prison.
“It has been chaos,” Rebecca Bell, a worker at the Fort Pillow Grocery and Bait store about five minutes from the prison, said in a phone interview on Friday evening.
“It’s terrifying to me,” she said. “There are correction officers in my parking lot with guns, thank goodness, because I don’t have anything to protect me.”
Ms. Bell said that it had been a long time since the last escape at the prison and that in past cases no one was hurt. “It’s a whole other ballgame when they’ve killed somebody,” she said.
She described the area as abundant with trees, fields and woods. “He could be laying down in a cornfield,” she said. “He could be anywhere.”