By Tammy Curtis, Managing Editor
He may have escaped prosecution for nearly two decades and slid out of being put to death by lethal injection. In the end, it was an ailment that ended the life of convicted capital murderer Steven Wertz.
Wertz, was convicted of the brutal shotgun slaying of his wife’s ex-husband, Terry, and his new wife, Kathy Watts. He lived a seemingly normal life for nearly 17 years. It was after a long time detective who had him on the radar for years dug back into the Sharp County cold case at the urging of family in 2001, that led to his fate.
It would be five more years before his murderous past caught up to him and quickly ended his freedom. Wertz was arrested and charged with capital murder in one of Sharp County’s most heinous crimes and on Feb. 16, died in prison.
Steven Victor Wertz, 74, died of an illness while serving a life sentence in the Arkansas Department of Corrections for his 2007 conviction of the double shotgun slayings of the Watts. The Dec. 30, 1986 murders of the Watts set Wertz and his accomplice and lookout, James Guthrie Burr Snyder, II, on the run for nearly 20 years.
The Crime
According to evidence presented at the trial, Terry Watts answered a knock at the door of his home in Ash Flat and was shot as Wertz made his way into the home and also shot Kathy Watts.
The couple was found in the early morning hours of Dec. 31, 1986, by Watt’s mother, Judy Bone. Her almost one-year-old grandchild was found sleeping, unharmed, between his slain father’s legs.
The
Investigation
For nearly 20 years, Wertz was the main suspect in the murders. It wasn’t until April 25, 2006, under Sheriff Dale Weaver’s administration, that Sharp County Detective Sergeant David Huffmaster, who had worked many years on the case, and FBI Special Agent David W. Potts contacted Snyder, who was living in Kentucky. During their interview, Snyder confessed to his role as the lookout man during the murders and confirmed Wertz committed the killings.
The arrests
Sheriff Weaver and Huffmaster traveled to Kissimmee, Fla., on May 1, 2006 and arrested Wertz. He initially refused extradition to Arkansas but was eventually brought to justice in Sharp County. Snyder was arrested on May 2 in Georgetown. Ken. and was returned to Arkansas by Sheriff Weaver and Huffmaster.
On May 4, 2006, former Sheriff Dale Weaver announced the killers’ arrests and outlined a very long and detailed investigation by multiple agencies and the cooperation of Watt’s family. This interview with an FBI agent led them to Wertz, who had always been the prime suspect. Snyder confessed to his role in the crime on April 25, 2006, days before Wertz’s arrest.
The Motive
Evidence presented in the trial, including Synder’s testimony, proved to the jury that Wertz was married to Terry Watts’s ex-wife, Belinda, at the time of the murders. Wertz had made previous threats to Watts. He also had military and law enforcement experience and was well respected in the town of Oklahoma where he lived.
The custody of Terry Watts and Belinda Wertz, five-year-old daughter, was awarded to Terry and Kathy Watts on Dec. 18, 1986. The custody exchange was set to occur on Jan. 2, 1987, after spending the Christmas holiday with her mother in Oklahoma.
Wertz and Snyder, who were both living in Cushing, Okla., established a fake alibi. They drove to the couple’s Ash Flat home in the late night or early morning hours of Dec. 30 and Dec. 31 and returned after the murders, claiming Wertz was ill and had checked himself into an infirmary at Tinker Air Force Base.
Snyder’s role included getting the Watts to the door once they arrived for Wertz to commit the crime and acting as a lookout while the shots were fired and afterward.
The Trial
On July 18, 2007, after several setbacks, including a false confession from a man who claimed he had committed the murders, the trial began. Two weeks of intense testimony before a Sharp County jury ended with just 40 minutes of deliberation to find Wertz guilty of one of Sharp County’s few capital murder charges. He was then sentenced to death after an hour of deliberation.
Appeals Process
The case should have ended there. As Wertz inched closer to being put to death, nine years of hearings, filings, and various legal maneuvers and court appearances were used to determine if he had received effective or ineffective counsel and a fair trial.
In June of 2016, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in Wertz’s favor, reversing the death penalty over a technicality. The court agreed that a single set of penalty phase forms, instead of a set of three separate forms, were required to be used in capital cases where the death penalty was an option in sentencing to be used and provided to the jury. The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled this constituted a defect in the case.
In Wertz’s case, the jury was provided two sets of verdict forms, one for each murder. Arkansas law dictates that in death penalty cases, additional forms beyond the simple verdict forms for each crime be provided as jury instruction before sentencing.
The first set of instructions requires the jury to define aggravating factors beyond a reasonable doubt in their verdict. The second form defines mitigating factors in the crimes, and the third explains that the jury must decide that the crime’s aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors to warrant the death sentence. The jury was only provided the verdict forms by then-prosecuting attorney Henry Boyce.
On Dec. 13, 2016, the Watts family was forced to again sit in the same courtroom where Wertz was sentenced to death nine years earlier. Wertz was resentenced in both cases to life without parole, taking the death penalty off the table.
The family wept as they were forced once again to see Wertz’s face again as he was wheeled into the courtroom in a wheelchair. This exhausted his appeal process and Wertz was returned to prison. He remained there until his death on Feb. 16 at 1:01 a.m., according to the notification provided.
Watts was only 25, and his wife 22 when Wertz took their lives. Wertz was 56 when he was arrested for the murders and died at the age of 74, one day short of his 75th birthday. He spent 17 years and 7 months in prison for the crimes.
Snyder passed away in prison many years ago.
