Texas man charged with murder of woman aboard MSC Seascape cruise ship, Digi Mart USA News (Galveston, Texas): A passenger aboard the MSC Seascape, a Texas-based cruise ship, has been charged with murdering a woman in their cabin on Sunday, the first day of the voyage, according to an FBI affidavit.
Crew members found the unidentified victim dead and face down on the cabin floor. Jason Leon Watford was sitting in a corridor outside, scrolling through his phone, the affidavit states.
Watford was arrested after the vessel returned to port in Galveston early Monday, a day after departing on a planned seven-day cruise around Mexico and the Caribbean. He is charged with one count of felony homicide and was scheduled to make his first federal court appearance in Galveston on Tuesday afternoon.
The four-page criminal complaint, signed by FBI task force officer Thomas Plew, who is assigned to maritime crimes, states that Watford admitted he and the woman argued while eating in a restaurant Sunday evening while the ship was in the Gulf of Mexico. The argument continued after they returned to the cabin, and Watford said he “snapped.”
The complaint states that Watford struck the victim multiple times, causing blood to come from her mouth and onto his clothing and hands. An FBI team found bloodstained clothing belonging to the victim on the cabin floor.
According to the document, Watford also said he began to choke the victim with both hands and wrapped his right arm around her neck from behind while she was lying down. He stated that he applied pressure to her neck for approximately four to five minutes and released his hold only after becoming exhausted.
A female member of the housekeeping staff raised the alarm when she brought towels to the cabin. The affidavit says she saw blood on Watford’s hands and pants when he opened the door slightly, and glimpsed what appeared to be a woman lying motionless on the floor.
She alerted other crew members.
Three other crew members said they saw Watford leave the cabin wearing different clothes than when he answered the housekeeper’s door. The ship’s security team detained him, and he was handed over to the FBI after the Seascape docked in Galveston at about 5:30 a.m.
local time Monday. The ship returned to its itinerary later that day.
No attorney was listed for Watford. The prosecution is proceeding in federal court, which has jurisdiction over crimes committed aboard U.S.
vessels in international waters.
