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Alabama Man Pleads Guilty to Honeymoon Scuba Diving Manslaughter Charge
Thursday , June 04, 2009
An American man charged with the murder of his wife who drowned during a honeymoon scuba diving trip has pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
David Gabriel Watson, 32, from Alabama, entered his plea in Brisbane Supreme Court. The guilty plea means he will not go to trial for killing his wife and will be sentenced immediately, the Australian Associated Press reports.
It is not immediately clear what prison term Watson faces.
Watson was arrested Wednesday after voluntarily returning to Australia from the U.S. to face the charge of murdering his wife Christina known as Tina while the couple were diving at a reef off Townsville, north Queensland, in October 2003.
Watson is accused of killing his wife, Yongala Wreck, 11 days into their honeymoon while scuba diving on their honeymoon on the Great Barrier Reef.
Watson had originally denied any part in TinaÃÔ death, but inconsistencies with his story about what happened the day she died, and a long campaign by her parents in America, led to an inquest in Queensland last year.
Last June, David Glasgow, the Townsville coroner, found that it was likely that Watson killed his 26-year-old wife by holding her underwater, bear-hugging her until she suffocated, and turning off her air supply.
An extraordinary photograph was released by police showing Tina, arms outstretched, lying motionless at the bottom of the ocean, as another diver, unaware of what is happening behind him, poses for the camera.
Watson, a bubble wrap salesman, has since remarried in the U.S., and his lawyers had indicated that they would fight his extradition to Australia.
The reason I love the sea I cannot explain — it’s physical. When you dive you begin to feel like an angel. It’s a liberation of your weight.~ Jacques-Yves Cousteau
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