MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - A prison escapee and accused killer is telling his side of the story from behind bars. Curtis Watson is accused of killing a West Tennessee State Penitentiary administrator and escaping the facility back in August.
Watson’s family gave two letters to a Tennessee River Valley reporter who shared them with WMC Action News 5. The family told the reporter they wanted share Watson’s side of the story, they say he is innocent in the killing of prison administrator Debra Johnson in her home on prison grounds.
In his own words..."I’m no monster." Watson wrote the letter to his sister from inside the Riverbend Maximum Security prison in Nashville.
Watson was captured in early August after a five-day manhunt by state and federal agencies in Lauderdale County. Investigators say the one-time trusty at the West Tennessee State Penitentiary in Henning strangled Tennessee Department of Correction administrator Debra Johnson at her home on the prison grounds and sexually assaulted her.
But in another letter to a friend, Watson adamantly denied having any part of Johnson’s death writing, “Everyones confused, I did not run away over a dead person. I was already running away. That lady was alive when I left. Can’t say no more.”
The two letters were given to Tennessee River Valley reporter Burt Staggs by Watson’s family. They told Staggs these were a chance to set the record straight.
“They seem to just want the public to know there are two sides to the story,” said Staggs. “That people should be open to his side of the case.”
They believe Watson when he says he is innocent in the killing of Johnson.
Watson says the catalyst for his escape was the grief from losing his mother.
He wrote, “I did not kill no one, I just wanted to take the rest of my broken heart to my mother grave site and cry and tell her I love her”
Watson wrote the five days on the run were not easy-- his feet were torn up from lying in thorny bushes and walking through creeks and rivers.
“I went on foot as far as I could, my feet soppin wet five days in, I couldn’t walk no more when y’all saw them puttin me {in} the van I was in pain”
Much of the letter to Watson’s sister is spent talking about how problems from the past lead him to where he is now. But the letter ends with Watson writing, “This is all a big misunderstanding, not guilty, someone else tryn to frame me.”
District Attorney Mark Davidson is now reviewing these letters. Before they could be entered into evidence Davidson says they would both need to be authenticated and contain information relevant to the case.
We’ve blurred a portion of the letters because he accused someone else of wrongdoing and we have not been able to corroborate that.