Jury convicts man of killing business partner
Watts convicted of first-degree murder, sentenced to life in prison
NORRISTOWN — A Limerick Township man will spend the rest of his life in prison after a Montgomery County jury convicted him of intentionally killing a woman who was his business partner and burying her in a “shallow grave” in Royersford.
Blair Anthony Watts, 33, of the 600 block of Hunsberger Drive, looked down as a jury convicted him of first-degree murder, which is an intentional killing, on Wednesday in connection with the Jan. 3, 2023, slaying of Jennifer Brown, 43, his partner in a restaurant venture.
The jury of seven women and five men rejected a lessserious third-degree murder charge, which would have carried a sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison.
Judge William R. Carpenter, who presided over the six-day trial, immediately sentenced Watts to “the rest of his natural life in prison,” the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder.
Members of Brown’s family wept openly as the verdict was announced, obviously relieved about the jury’s decision that came after nine hours of deliberations over two days.
“Justice was served for my niece Jennifer Brown,” Diane Brehm, Brown’s aunt, said as she left the courtroom after the trial.
“It will never bring her back, but at least I know he will never walk out and hurt another family again the way he has destroyed ours.”
Watts, who did not testify at the trial, didn’t address the courtroom before the judge imposed the sentence. As sheriff ’s deputies escorted Watts from the courtroom he defiantly uttered to reporters, “I didn’t kill Jennifer Brown.”
“He’s been saying that from the beginning, but we just spent five days proving that he did, and I think we proved it beyond any doubt,” First Assistant District Attorney Edward F. McCann Jr. said.
“Frankly, I don’t really think reasonable doubt was even an issue. I think the case was very strong. Clearly, the jury considered this thoroughly. Clearly, the evidence that he did it was overwhelming.”
McCann and Deputy District Attorney Kelly S. Lloyd sought the first-degree murder conviction, arguing at trial that Watts was a “broke narcissist” and a failed businessman who killed Brown, who invested $22,600 in a proposed restaurant business with him when he feared she was going to expose his lies about his business dealings, specifically that he used her investment monies for his personal expenses.
“In court, I characterized him as a manipulator who lied and he was trying to hide on the surface who he was underneath: a broke narcissist who was always concerned about himself and his own image,” Lloyd said. “I think that came out through the testimony and through all the evidence we showed in this case.”
Detectives testified Brown’s body was discovered by police shortly after 11 a.m. on Jan. 18 in a “clandestine grave” or “freshly dug hole” at the rear of a warehouse in the 200 block of North 5th Avenue in Royersford after they were alerted to the site by employees of the warehouse.
A forensic pathologist testified that he determined Brown, a mother of two, suffered three broken ribs. The cause of death was attributed to “homicide by unspecified means,” with compression and asphyxia, a mechanism that would account for the fractured ribs, the pathologist said.
Brehm, tearfully addressing the courtroom before Watts was sentenced, said, “Our whole world has been turned upside down,” adding she is now caring for Brown’s 8-year-old son.
“This is an immense tragedy. Jennifer was beloved by so many,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd and McCann alleged Watts had a wife and three children to support and a pregnant girlfriend and ingratiated himself in Brown’s life, told her “lie after lie after lie” and killed her and then buried her in the “shallow grave” in Royersford to cover his tracks.
But defense lawyer Michael Coard argued at trial that even if jurors believed Watts was a “broke narcissist,” it didn’t make him a murderer. Coard argued jurors must base their verdict on the evidence and not on sympathy for the victim and suggested prosecutors did not have sufficient evidence to convict Watts of a murder charge.
Coard did not comment about the outcome as he left the courtroom.
The investigation began Jan. 4, when Limerick police responded to Brown’s home in the 1400 block of Stratford Court to conduct a welfare check at the request of Watts, who told police he was a friend and business partner of Brown and had been unable to contact her, according to the criminal complaint filed by county Detective Mark Minzola and Limerick Detective Sgt. Paul Marchese.
Watts, according to testimony and court papers, claimed to detectives that he had last seen Brown at 2 p.m. on Jan. 3 when he was at her home. Watts claimed that he and Brown had agreed that Watts would pick up Brown’s 8-year-old son at the school bus stop that afternoon and would keep him overnight for a planned sleepover and take him to school on Jan. 4.
Watts told detectives he picked up the child at the bus stop and claimed that he texted Brown at 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 3 and again in the morning of Jan. 4 and never received a response from Brown, according to the arrest affidavit.
Watts allegedly claimed he went to the school bus stop at about 4 p.m. on Jan. 4, found that Brown was not there, picked up Brown’s son and went to her residence, but no one answered.
But witnesses testified Brown was “very diligent” when it came to caring for her son. Prosecutors suggested Brown was a doting mother who would never leave her son unattended.
The search for Brown captured local news headlines and the attention of the public for two weeks as police and relatives desperately searched for the woman before her body was discovered. The investigation involved more than four dozen law enforcement officers.
Members of Brown’s family and McCann and Lloyd thanked the law enforcement community. The entire county detective bureau and police from Limerick, Royersford and Philadelphia and the FBI worked the investigation.
“This was an unbelievable joint effort,” McCann said. “We had so much law enforcement … just so many agencies since Jennifer went missing helped in this case, and the community as well. It was a real joint effort.”
Prosecutors argued there was a web of circumstantial evidence to link Watts to the crime, including his inconsistent statements, cellphone analysis and a cadaver dog’s signaling human remains or human biological material inside two vehicles used by Watts.
Detectives said cellphone analysis showed that between 8:27 p.m. and 8:42 p.m. on Jan. 5, Watts’ cellphone was “within hundreds of feet of the location where Brown’s body was discovered.”
Surveillance cameras in the area also depicted a grey Jeep Renegade vehicle linked to Watts “in this same exact area, during the same exact time frame,” detectives alleged.
Testimony also revealed that when detectives used a Philadelphia police cadaver dog to search the floor mat behind the driver’s seat of the grey Jeep, the dog, “Patton,” signaled human remains or human biological material had previously been on the mat.
Additionally, a Jan. 8 search by Patton of a red Jeep Cherokee vehicle linked to Watts signaled human remains or biological material had previously been in the back seat area, according to testimony.
On Jan. 6 detectives interviewed Watts, who according to testimony was married and also had a girlfriend who lived in Stowe, and at that time he described Brown as a close personal friend and business partner. Watts allegedly claimed Brown had a business relationship with a restaurant he planned to open and had invested in the business.
During the investigation, detectives determined that on Aug. 28, 2022, Brown entered into a business partnership agreement with Watts to invest money in Watts’ restaurant which they were planning to open in Phoenixville by the end of January 2023.
However, when detectives spoke to the owners of the property they learned that the owners had never signed a lease with Watts, and no renovation work had been completed on the building by Watts to ready it for a restaurant, according to court documents.
When detectives analyzed the contents of Brown’s electronic devices they found two cash transfers totaling $17,000 to Watts between 4:23 p.m. and 4:35 p.m. on Jan. 3, according to testimony.
Prosecutors alleged that the $17,000 was never part of a written agreement between Brown and Watts.
ssAuthorities alleged that Brown was already dead when those money transfers occurred and that Watts made them using Brown’s computer tablet.