New Hampshire Sexual Assault Suspect, Fugitive Felon Arrested In Massachusetts

CONCORD, NH — A convicted kidnapper, wanted on a probation violation, was arrested in Massachusetts on Tuesday.

Cory Michael Watts, 54, was wanted by the New Hampshire Department of Corrections after being convicted on a felony kidnapping charge and then failing to report to the Manchester parole and probation district office. Watts, investigators said in May, had been a fugitive for more than a year.

Recently, officials said, corrections investigators received a tip that Watts was living in Springfield, MA.

The information was given to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department. And on Tuesday, employees from the sheriff’s department and other agencies went to the address and found Watts, according to a report, and was arrested without incident.

Corrections thanked the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, United States Marshals Service, District of New Hampshire Joint Fugitive Task Force and the District of Massachusetts Fugitive Task Force, the Springfield MA Police Department Firearms Investigation Unit, and the Mass. State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section.

According to superior court records, Watts criminal history dates back more than two decades.

Watts was accused of two burglaries, charges that were nolle prossed later, and simple assault in Dover in May 2002.

Seven acts prohibited; controlled drug charges followed in August and October 2010 in Dover. After pleading guilty to four of the charges, he was found guilty of violating probation in July 2013 — after being charged again with acts prohibited in Dover after an incident in March 2013 that he pleaded guilty to.

The next year, it was a cocaine possession charge in Dover and a guilty plea in November 2014.

Also in November 2014, he was charged with second-degree assault-strangulation and witness tampering, both felonies, in Dover. Watts pleaded guilty to the charges in August 2015.

In Manchester, in September 2020, he was arrested on six counts of kidnapping and single counts of criminal threatening with a firearm, handguns; armed career criminal, and felon in possession of a dangerous weapon charges, all felonies. A year and a half later, he pleaded guilty to a single kidnapping count.

In March 2022, he was accused of witness tampering in Manchester, but the charge was nolle prossed.

In July 2022, he was accused of violating probation. That case is still open, according to records.

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