Former Tucson fire captain given 2 life terms for murders

TUCSON — A judge sentenced a former Arizona fire captain to two life terms in prison on Monday for killing his ex-wife, her mother and another person in a case that remained unsolved for over a decade.

David Watson, who worked for the Tucson Fire Department, cried as he told a Pima County judge that he was innocent.

“We’re clear that we’ll never know what truly happened,” Watson said. “There are people in this courtroom and obviously this court who think I was the one who did all that.”

The court previously said that his sentence was for 66 years. It revised its statement later on Monday, saying the judge had not read the full sentence in court. Watson got a life term with the possibility of release after 25 years for the killing of his ex-mother-in-law, Marilyn Cox, followed by another life term for the killing of her friend, Renee Farnsworth, that will begin after he serves the first one.

He was also sentenced to 16 years for the killing of his ex-wife, Linda Watson, in 2000.

Watson, 48, was found guilty in March after prosecutors said he killed his ex-wife, Linda Watson, during a custody battle.

Linda Watson vanished in 2000. Her body was found in the desert three years later, but it wasn’t identified until 2011 through DNA testing because of a backlog at the medical examiner’s office.

Three years after she went missing, her mother, Marilyn Cox, was embroiled in a legal battle with David Watson over visitation rights involving her granddaughter.

Cox and her friend, Renee Farnsworth, had just dropped off the girl after a courtordered visitation when they were gunned down in 2003.