Ramona

An 80-year-old Ramona man convicted of trying to murder his ailing wife was ordered Friday to spend three months at Chino State Prison for diagnostic study.

Walter Watson is to surrender Monday and will return to San Diego Superior Court on May 31 for formal sentencing.

Judge Andrew Wagner said he agreed with the probation department recommendation for the study.

Watson pleaded guilty Oct. 27, 1989, to attempted murder of his 75-year-old wife, Mary, who is confined to a wheelchair and has Parkinson’s disease.

Mary Watson sat silently in the audience Friday, along with the couple’s two adult children.

The white-haired defendant sat in court clad in a dark business suit. He wears two hearing aids.

In the July 15 incident in their Ramona home, Mary Watson said two of her fingers were broken when her husband tried to smother her by placing a shopping bag over her head.

Walter Watson’s attorney, Albert Tamayo, argued against the study, saying the judge has all the information he needs to make a sentence for probation.

Tamayo said the incident was “something done out of frustration” because of his wife’s illness.

“He had a lapse in judgment,” said Tamayo.

Tamayo said the Ramona man was raised “as a strict Methodist” and has the support of the community.

“The only people who speak ill of my client are his children, who are in court today,” said the defense attorney.

On May 31, Wagner will decide whether Watson should serve a maximum nine-year sentence in state prison or less, or be placed on probation.

The couple has been married more than 40 years.