Murder Suspect Got a Deal on Earlier Charge

To prevent a man charged with kidnap and rape from walking away scot free from Compton Superior Court in December, Deputy Dist. Atty. Tim Smith decided to offer the defendant a plea bargain.

Under terms of the arrangement, Leon Watts, 19, of Compton agreed to plead guilty to kidnaping charges in exchange for prosecutors dropping the rape charge. He would be freed on his own recognizance from the County Jail until Jan. 30, when he would return to court to be sentenced to three years in prison.

Last Sunday, Compton police arrested Watts and charged him with the bludgeon murder of a Compton grocer on Jan. 29, the day before he was scheduled to appear for sentencing.

Smith’s problem in December was that his star witness, the victim of the alleged kidnap and rape, failed to show up in court to testify against Watts and two other defendants.

As a result, the charges would have been dismissed, Smith said Friday. “No if, ands or buts,” he said. “The law requires (the dismissal) because we could not proceed.”

Rather than see the charges dismissed, Smith offered the plea bargain on Dec. 27, holding out the possibility that he would refile the charges if they were dismissed. Watts accepted, and Judge Robert L. LaFont ordered him to report to a probation officer before his sentencing date.

Watts never saw the probation officer, but he did show up in court on Jan. 30--the day after grocer Eddie Warren Adams, 60, was found in an aisle of his A & A Meat Co. grocery store at 310 W. Alondra Blvd. Police said he had been hit in the back of the head with a baseball bat.

After Watts failed to contact his probation officer, Christine White, by Jan. 24, she notified the court and recommended that he be again placed in custody when he appeared in court on Jan. 30. Despite that recommendation and a similar one from Smith, the judge allowed Watts to remain free until a new sentencing date on Feb. 28.

By the time of that January hearing, however, Adams had already been murdered. Watts, who is being held without bail, faces murder charges with special circumstances alleged, meaning that he could receive the death penalty if he is convicted.