Man gets six to eight years for attacking girlfriend

Posted 6/16/15

One of Watts’ public defenders, Nick Beduhn of Cody, filed notice last week that they’re appealing Watts’ conviction and sentence to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

The Jan. 9, 2014, altercation reportedly began when Watts and his long-time …

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Man gets six to eight years for attacking girlfriend

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A Park County jury determined it was a North Fork resident’s attack — and not a fall — that broke multiple bones in his girlfriend’s face last year. Now, Ernest Watts, 50, is headed to prison.

Watts was convicted of felony aggravated assault and battery in April and sentenced in May to six- to eight-years behind bars.

One of Watts’ public defenders, Nick Beduhn of Cody, filed notice last week that they’re appealing Watts’ conviction and sentence to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

The Jan. 9, 2014, altercation reportedly began when Watts and his long-time girlfriend started arguing about whether he could watch TV in the upper level of the home, where she was reading.

The woman said that when she went to shut off the cable service, Watts knocked her down and twice kicked her in the head, wrote Park County Sheriff’s Deputy Chad McKinney in an affidavit used to support the charge against Watts.

The woman couldn’t remember much of the altercation beyond that, McKinney wrote. When the deputy first interviewed her at West Park Hospital, he said the woman’s eyes were so swollen that she could barely see, she was throwing up, had a concussion and had blood and fluid coming out of her right eye.

The woman was initially treated in West Park’s Intensive Care Unit and later transferred to Billings, Montana,  for surgery on her face. Charging documents say she suffered multiple broken bones below her eyes.

Watts — who’d reportedly been drinking before the 2014 argument — denied hurting the woman and had told her she’d passed out and hit her face, McKinney wrote.

When the case went to trial this year, Watts told the jury he’d been in the basement when he heard a crash, the Cody Enterprise reported; Watts said he’d come upstairs and found his girlfriend on the floor with a fallen plant on her face.

However, Dr. Kirk Bollinger of Cody testified that the woman’s injuries didn’t appear to have come from a fall and were more consistent with multiple blows to the face, according to the Enterprise’s account.

The Park County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office asked for a nine- to 10-year prison sentence for Watts. Watts’ public defenders, meanwhile, asked that he be credited for the year and four months he’d served in jail since his January 2014 arrest and released on probation.

District Court Judge Steven Cranfill opted for the six to eight years of prison time and ordered Watts to pay $45,387.49 in restitution, mostly for the woman’s medical care.

Watts has a prior criminal record: in 1996, a jury in Idaho convicted him of multiple felonies that included aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.

According to court records, Watts got into a fight with his then-wife and fired two shots at responding Twin Falls, Idaho, police officers. Two officers were hit by pellets from Watts’ shotgun, the records say.

Although he was a convicted felon — and thus prohibited from owning firearms — the Park County Sheriff’s Office found five guns (two shotguns and three rifles) and a large amount of ammunition in Watts’ bedroom in a January 2014 search, court records say. Additional firearms and ammunition were found in other parts of the home.

Watts was initially charged with a separate felony count of possessing a firearm while a convicted felon, but it was dropped by prosecutors last month.

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