Closing Arguments Presented In Luther Watkins Capital Murder Trial; Jury Begins Deliberations

TUSCALOOSA, AL — A Tuscaloosa County jury heard closing arguments Friday morning in the capital murder trial of Luther Bernard Watkins, Jr., the man accused of the 2019 shooting death of Tuscaloosa Police Department Investigator Dornell Cousette.

Watkins, who Patch reported Thursday took the witness stand in a surprise move, sat quiet at the defense table Friday wearing a black three-piece suit with a white undershirt and black bowtie.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Paula Whitley Abernathy began the closing arguments for the state and immediately focused on Watkins' own words from the witness stand the day before.

"Yesterday, the defendant took the stand and told us he had a gun in his waistband," she said. "He told us he knew Officer Cousette, told you he knew he had warrants for robbery and assault. He told you he was hiding from police by sleeping in a tent behind Nannie Chambers house [on 33rd Avenue]."

Abernathy then pointed out that Watkins heard Cousette tell him to stop and not run.

She then criticized the "narrative played out in the media" that Cousette did not want additional police backup while serving the warrant with a bail bondsman.

"At no point has anyone on this side of the room acknowledged the one thing that could have stopped this," Abernathy said, pointing to the defense table. "None of us would be in this room if responsibility for actions instead of blame for the victim was the narrative."

The prosecution, during its closing statements and later rebuttal, underscored how Watkins' story evolved into three different forms over the last several years and on into the trial.

Abernathy said the first version included Watkins saying he wasn't at the house on 33rd Avenue when the shooting occurred on Sept. 16, 2019. She also mentioned a recording of a phone call played for the court this week that featured Watkins telling his family and friends to say he didn't have a gun.

The second version of Watkins' evolving story, she said, could be found when he insisted that Cousette shot him in the back as he was running into the house with his hands raised.

And the third version, Abernathy argued, came when Watkins said he was "shot while I was tripping over my fashionably tied Air Force Ones" — a thinly veiled dig at Watkins' testimony that he lost his shoes after the shooting because of the way the laces were tied.

Instead of taking Watkins at his word, Abernathy said Cousette shot him center mast in the back, exactly where he is trained to shoot when neutralizing a threat.

She then contended that the speed of the shots fired was evidence that Cousette knew Watkins had a gun.

"He saved his own life by murdering Officer Cousette," Abernathy told the jury. "That doesn't make it self-defense."

Abernathy eventually stood before the jury holding a large picture of Cousette in his TPD uniform, before painting a verbal portrait of the slain officer as a father, fiancé, military veteran, police officer on the TPD honor guard, a school resource officer and a juvenile investigator.

"He cared about neighborhoods, even the one where the defendant hung out," she said. "This Luther Watkins sitting here today in his tie and his suit is not the same Luther Watkins Cousette was aware of."

To reinforce her point, Abernathy then showed jurors photos posted on Facebook of Watkins brandishing firearms in a post accompanied by violent rap lyrics — a fact that appeared to confound some investigators who were unaware they were song lyrics.

She followed this up with a print out of a screenshot sent to Watkins prior to the shooting that showed his numerous warrants for burglary and assault on the Tuscaloosa County Jail booking app.

Defense attorney Justin Forrester delivered the first half of the defense's closing arguments, telling the jury that special care was taken to be straightforward and honest in telling Watkins' side of the story.

"We didn't want to hide anything," he said.

Forrester then reiterated several key points made by the three-person defense team over the course of the last week, including that no records have been presented that showed Cousette was on duty at the time of the shooting. He also pointed out how Cousette went to the house on 33rd Avenue to serve the warrant without backup and after having been advised to not do so without additional officer support to apprehend an allegedly violent individual.

Forrester also pointed out that investigators never took bail bondsman Edward Giles' Taser into evidence, despite Giles wielding it at the scene in the moments before and after the shooting, with some even arguing that this influenced Watkins' actions.

He then underscored his thoughts that Giles could not keep his story straight, especially as it relates to his work with fellow bail bondman and sometimes his competitor, Napolean McEwan of Tuscaloosa's ABS Best Bail Bonding Co., Inc.

This is important because the defense says the bondsmen had a list of violators they aimed to make money off of and Cousette died in the process of assisting them to do so, while also disregarding policy intended to keep him safe.

Another part of the defense's closing arguments were two aspects of testimony that Forrester believed were "hurtful" to Cousette: (1) That he got out of his black Ford Taurus with his handgun drawn and pointed at Watkins, and (2): That nobody testified to seeing Watkins with a gun in the moments right before and during the shooting, despite several witnesses acknowledging they had seen him with a gun earlier in the day.

Forrester wrapped up his part of the closing arguments by reminding the jury of what Cousette told Giles when he couldn't get backup after locating Watkins.

"He said, 'fuck it, let's go,'" Forrester said.

The second part of the closing arguments from the Watkins camp came from defense attorney Christopher Daniel, who told the jury that his client had been waiting six and a half years to take the stand and tell his side of the story.

He then said that everything Watkins said on the stand Thursday was the truth.

"You can't impeach it," Daniel said, before later telling the jury that "You can't just believe somebody because they are a police officer."

To stress this point, he mentioned the large number of police officers seated behind the prosecution in the courtroom.

"Do you think all these people would be here if Cousette was the guy in the hall taking out the trash?" Daniel asked.

Daniel went on to discuss the shooting itself and argued that the way Cousette handled the situation resulted in it escalating and costing him his life at the hands of a scared Watkins who was acting in self-defense while fearing for his life.

"Generally when somebody points a gun at you, it's a good time to run away," he said. "And that's what [Watkins] did."

After discussing previously mentioned issues with the Tuscaloosa Police Department's use of force policy, which factored in prominently in Thursday's testimony, Daniel reminded the jury that none of those selected raised their hands when asked during jury selection if they thought it was acceptable for a police officer to shoot a suspect just because they are running away.

"The death penalty isn't a punishment for robbery," Daniel said after telling the jury, "this very well may be the hardest decision of your life.

"It's a heavy decision, but it's the right decision," he added.

District Attorney Hays Webb provided the rebuttal for the state's closing arguments and told the jury that the only job of the prosecution is to "find the truth."

"The truth remains that he, Luther Watkins, shot and killed Cousette," he said. "This is the cold-blooded killer, not Officer Cousette."

Webb also circled back to the prosecutions previous assertion that Watkins' story changed as more evidence was presented.

"After days of listening in here, he gets to create the version he wants you to hear," he said.

Webb then took off his suit coat and, using a blue dummy handgun, recreated what the prosecution believed was the actual movements by Watkins when he shot Cousette, demonstrating to the jury how he put the gun in Cousette's face and pulled the trigger.

"The mischaracterization of this is really upsetting," he said, before circling back to an important phrase said by Cousette that Webb used when beginning his opening statements on Monday. "'Don't you run.'"

Judge Almond instructed the jury Friday to elect a foreman before breaking for lunch and commencing deliberations this afternoon.

Tuscaloosa Patch will have more coverage on the verdict when it is handed down.