L.A. Sex Offender Arrested in Las Vegas

LAPD detectives on Friday brought back from Nevada a South Los Angeles man who fled after being convicted of two sex attacks in the San Fernando Valley last year.

Marill Watson, 34, who had been held in a Las Vegas jail after failing to register there as a sex offender, waived an extradition hearing, said Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.

Watson is scheduled to appear in Van Nuys Municipal Court on Monday where he will be sentenced for the original convictions as well as a new charge of failing to appear in court last Oct. 4, his original sentencing date.

Watson was convicted in September 1995 of one count each of child molestation, lewd conduct, lewd exposure and battery. He was released from custody pending his sentencing date, and authorities “unfortunately” failed to collect the $500,000 bail that had been set, the city attorney’s office said.

After Watson disappeared, Van Nuys Municipal Judge Lloyd M. Nash issued a warrant which was served at the Nevada jail Friday by LAPD Det. Diane Webb of the North Hollywood Division.

Webb traced Watson to Las Vegas using Nevada motor vehicle records which indicated that Watson had surrendered his driver’s license to authorities there. Webb tipped Las Vegas police, who located Watson and arrested him for failing to register as a sex offender.

The California charges against Watson grew out of two attacks in March 1995.

In the first attack, Watson accosted a 53-year-old North Hollywood woman as she walked near Riverside Drive and Vantage Avenue in North Hollywood, said Wayne Mooney, a deputy city attorney who worked on the case.

Watson grabbed the woman by the arm and attempted to force her into his car, Mooney said. She reported Watson was masturbating during the attack.

In the second offense, Watson, in a car, followed two school-bound teenage girls who were walking near Vesper Avenue and Burbank Boulevard in Van Nuys. At one point Watson moved his car slowly past the girls and one of the teens reported seeing him masturbating as they walked by, according to court records.