Portsmouth woman faces jail time for lying to ATF
Providing false alibi to feds in child’s homicide could mean 5 years in prison
Several months after Jazma Watson’s boyfriend was charged with shooting and killing a 7-year-old girl while the child was in her mother’s car, a federal investigator asked to meet with Watson.
A federal agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives asked Watson if she knew where Antonyo Taylor was when the child was killed Dec. 22, 2020, according to a court document.
Watson told the agent he was with her at their Portsmouth home, the document said. When the agent asked Watson if she knew if information from Taylor’s cellphone had been deleted, she said she wasn’t sure.
All that turned out to be false.
Watson, 25, pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk to providing a false statement to a federal law enforcement officer. The crime carries a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing was set for Oct. 21, and Watson was allowed to remain free on bond until then. Watson’s attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Lindsay McCaslin, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Friday.
The shooting that killed 7-year-old Mylani Everett — and also injured a 28-year-old man in another car — happened on Truxton Avenue in Portsmouth, near the intersection with Portsmouth Boulevard. Court documents didn’t indicate whether either victim was considered a target of the shooting.
Mylani was in a car being driven by her mother about 2:30 p.m. that day when a gold Acura TL pulled up next to them and someone inside began firing, according to testimony the girl’s mother provided at a preliminary hearing in August.
Mylani was shot in the head and died two days later. A man in a car behind was struck in the elbow. He told police his car was fired at first.
Taylor, 26, and another man, Avery Setzer, 25, were charged several days later. Charges against a third man were later dropped due to a lack of evidence.
The owner of the Acura testified at last year’s preliminary hearing that Setzer was in the front passenger seat, Taylor was in the back, and that all three had guns the day of the shooting. He said he heard gunshots but didn’t know who fired.
The ATF agent who investigated the alibi information provided by Watson found text messages between her and Taylor that showed the two weren’t together when the shooting happened, according to a statement of facts submitted in Watson’s case. Cellphone location data also proved they weren’t together, the statement said.
In addition, investigators found text messages between Watson and Taylor’s mother in which Watson said she’d deleted data from Taylor’s phone and had attempted to delete his iCloud data storage account.
Six months before the shooting, Watson purchased a pistol for Taylor, who was unable to buy it because he’s a convicted felon, the statement of facts said. Charges Watson had faced relating to the illegal gun purchase were dismissed Thursday as part of her plea deal with prosecutors.
Taylor and Setzer are charged in Portsmouth Circuit Court with first-degree murder and illegal use of a firearm in Mylani’s death. Taylor’s trial is set for October, but Setzer’s has not yet been scheduled.