Prosecutor speaks at Chris Watts' sentencing

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: that you would like to make on behalf of the prosecution? Yes, please. Your Honor, there are no words to adequately describe the unimaginable tragedy that brings us before this court today. By my comments, I'm not even going to try to express the horror, the pain, or the suffering that the defendant has caused to these families, to this community, and to all who are a part of this investigation. However, I do want to spend a few minutes sharing with the court the details of the crime, as so far you've only had an opportunity to review the affidavit and a few facts here and there that have been offered to the court in the motions and pleadings that have been filed. The questions that have screamed out to anyone who will listen since August 13th of 2018 are why and how. Why did this have to happen? How could a seemingly normal husband and father annihilate his entire family? For what? These are the questions that only one individual in this courtroom or on this planet knows the answers to. I fully expect we will not receive the answers to these questions today, nor will we at any point in the future. I don't expect that he will ever tell the truth about what truly happened or why. Even if he did, there is no irrational way that any human being could find those answers acceptable responses to such horrific questions. The best we can do is try to piece together some kind of understanding from the evidence that is available to us. And the evidence tells us this. The defendant coldly and deliberately ended four lives. Not in a fit of rage, not by way of accident, but in a calculated and sickening manner. Shanann was 34 years old. She had married the defendant in November of 2012. Over the weekend leading up to August 13th, she had been at a work conference in Phoenix, Arizona and returned home in the early morning hours of August 13th. We know that she got home about 1.45 in the morning. The doorbell camera on their home shows her arriving back home from the airport. Shortly thereafter, at least according to the defendant, they had a, what he referred to as an emotional conversation about the state of their marriage and about what their lives would look like going forward. What was said during that emotional conversation, only he knows. What we do know is that shortly after that, the defendant strangled her to death with his own hands. We know that he slowly took her life the morning of August 13th. We know that this was not done in an uncontrolled, vengeful manner that he tried to describe to agents from CBI and the FBI. If that were the case, you would expect to see vicious, horrible bruising about her neck, shoulders and face. You would expect to see the hyoid bone in her neck broken. You would expect to see some kind of defensive wounds on his body as she struggled and fought for her own life. None of those are present. The only injuries that were on Shanann's body were one set of finger or bruising, what appeared to be fingernail or finger mark bruising, to the right side of her neck. We know that our experts will tell us that it takes two to four minutes to strangle someone to death manually with their own hands. The horror that she felt is the man that she loved wrapped his hands around her throat and choked the life out of her must have been unimaginable. Even worse, what must Bella, age four, and Celeste, age three, must have experienced or thought is their father, the one man on this planet who was supposed to nurture and protect them was snuffing out their lives. They both died from smothering. Let me say that again. The man seated to my right smothered his daughters. Why? Imagine the horror in Bella's mind as her father took her last breaths away. Your Honor, I understand very clearly. Bella fought back for her life. The frenulum, the connective tissue between her upper lip and her gum, had an inch and a half, excuse me, a centimeter and a half laceration. She bit her tongue multiple times before she died. She fought back for her life as her father smothered her. Celeste had no such injuries. In fact, she had no external injuries at all. But according to the medical examiner, she was smothered nonetheless. The defendant then methodically and calmly loaded their bodies into his work truck, not in a hasty or disorganized way. He was seen from the neighbor's doorbell camera backing his truck into the driveway, going back and forth into the house and back out to the truck three different times. One time for each of their bodies. He then drove them away from their family home one final time, intent on hiding any evidence of the crimes that he had just committed. In one final sign of callousness for his wife, his daughters, and their unborn son and their remains, he drove them to a location that he thought no one would ever find them to one of the oil tank batteries with which he was so familiar. He knew this was safe. He had texted a co-worker the night before saying, I'll head out to that site. I'll take care of it. He had carefully ensured that he would be alone in the middle of the plains to secrete away the remains of his family in a place that he hoped they would never be found. In one final measure of disrespect for the family he once had, he ensured that they would not be together even in death, or so he thought. He disposed of them in different locations. He buried Shanann and Nico in a shallow grave away from the oil tanks. Bella and Celeste were thrown away in the oil tanks at this facility. Different tanks so these little girls wouldn't be together in death. Imagine this, Your Honor. This defendant took those little girls and put them through a hatch at the top of an oil tank eight inches in diameter. Bella had scratches on her left buttocks from being shoved through this hole. A tuft of blonde hair was found on the edge of one of these hatches. The defendant told investigators that Bella's tank seemed emptier than CeCe's because of the sound that the splashes made. These were his daughters. Significantly, when his co-workers arrived at the tank battery later that morning to a person, they all described him as acting completely normally. it was a normal work day. Even while his daughter sank in the oil and water not far away from him. And then his efforts at deception truly began. We've all seen the emotionless interviews that the defendant gives to the local media asking for help in locating his family. We watched as he claimed that the house was empty without them and that he hoped that they were somewhere safe and that he just wanted them to come home. He told investigators that they were at home sleeping when he left for work that morning and that Shanann had told him that she was taking the girls to a friend's house for the day. What is striking about this case, Your Honor, beyond the horrors that I've already described to you, is the number of collateral victims that he created by his actions. While he stood in front of TV cameras asking for the safe return of his family, scores of law enforcement officers, neighbors, friends, and families scoured the area and fretted for their safe return. They texted him begging for any information and sending him their best wishes all the while he hid what he had done. The list of indirect victims does not end there. Think of the firefighters and the Colorado State Patrol hazmat experts who had to don protective suits and who were called upon to pull Bella and Celeste out of those oil tanks or the coroner employees who had to conduct these autopsies or the victim assistants who frantically attempted to ease the suffering of those affected. All of this, Your Honor, for what? Why? Why did this have to happen? His motive was simple, Your Honor. He had a desire for a fresh start to begin a relationship with a new love that overpowered all decency and feelings for his wife, his daughters, and unborn son. While Shanann texted the defendant over and over again in the days and weeks leading up to her death attempting to save her marriage, the defendant secreted pictures of his girlfriend into his phone and searched and texted, excuse me, texted her at all hours of the night. While Shanann sent the defendant self-help and relationship counseling books, one of which, ironically enough, was thrown in the garbage. He was searching the internet for secluded vacation spots to take his new love in researching jewelry. And while Shanann took the girls to visit family in North Carolina, the defendant went to car museums and the sand dunes with his new girl. girlfriend. The stark contrast between the subjects of their internet and text content is absolutely stunning. Even the morning after he killed them and disposed of their bodies, he made several phone calls. One was to the school where the girls were supposed to start, telling the school that the girls would not be coming to school anymore, that they were being unenrolled, presumably to give him some more time before law enforcement notification about them going missing. He contacted a realtor to start discussing the selling of his house and he texted with his girlfriend about their future. None of this answers the questions of why, however. If he was this happy and wanted a new start, get a divorce. You don't annihilate your family and throw them away like garbage. Why did Nico, Celeste, Bella, and Shanann have to lose their lives in order for him to get what he wanted? Your Honor, Justice demands the maximum sentence under the agreement reached by the parties. As you will recall, the agreement calls for life sentences as to Shanann, Bella, and Celeste and all of those to run consecutively to one another. It also calls for the count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy as to Nico to run consecutively to counts one, two, and three. I would suggest that the extreme aggravation present in the defendant's conduct and in the efforts that I have described mandate that the sentences for counts seven, eight, and nine, the tampering with the deceased human body, each be the maximum of 12 years and that those sentences run consecutively to one another. It is very clear that each of these acts, excuse me, that these were not the subject of one act, but each oil tank that he walked up with his daughter's bodies and the hole that he dug for his wife and unborn son mandate a mandatory consecutive sentence. It's been alluded to this morning, but the defendant was certainly eligible for the death penalty in this case under the existing law in the state of Colorado. As you heard, Shanann's family strongly opposed my office seeking the death penalty and being bound to the criminal justice system for the next several decades. That's in large part as you've heard why we have reached the agreement that we have. Four lives were lost at the hands of the defendant on August 13th for reasons that we will never fully understand nor will we know. In the end, the Rusek family was much more merciful towards him than he was towards his wife, his daughters, and his unborn son. Prison for the remainder of his life is exactly where he belongs for murdering his entire family. Thank you. Are you seeking 91 days to file a request for restitution? I am, Your Honor. Please.