Chris Watts spends jail time thinking about the past and wishing 'he had handled things differently', reveals family friend
Colorado dad Chris Watts had been arrested on August 15 and was subsequently charged with three counts of first-degree murder, aside from other crimes, in the deaths of his 34-year-old wife Shanann and his daughters, Bella and Celeste, who were both under the age of five. He was earlier in the Weld County Jail and is now currently in a Wisconsin prison on 23-hour lockdown.
He gets to go out of his cell for one hour a day just to exercise and shower. For the past 40 days, Watts' time out was arranged in a way that he doesn't get to interact with the other prisoners. Watts is being kept in the evaluation unit of the prison in Wisconsin. When Watts is inside his cell he has very little to do. He is allowed to have just a Bible and not much more. Earlier reports have stated how he speaks every day to photos of his murdered pregnant wife Shanann and their two daughters that he keeps with him in his prison cell.
And with all this free time on his hands, he spends a lot of time thinking about the past, said Kim, a family friend who is identified only by his first name.
In an interview with People, Kim revealed, "He’s sad that everyone is hurting. He wishes he could go back in time. He wish(es) he had handled things differently.”
33-year-old Watts is serving a number of life sentences after he pleaded guilty last November to the triple murder that took place on August 13, 2018. In an interview from inside the prison on February 18, 2019 Watts had revealed gruesome details of the murder to authorities from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
He had revealed in detail how his wife had returned from a work trip at 2 am on August 13, 2018, and an argument ensued between them when he admitted to having an extramarital affair. In response, Shanann threatened to leave him and deny him custody of their children, he said. This apparently caused him to snap and he strangled her. Watts then proceeded to transport her lifeless body to an oil field that belonged to his employer and buried her. At the time, their two children were still alive in the car. However, Watts then smothered his two children with a blanket and disposed of their bodies in oil tanks present at the site. He went on to reveal that he still speaks to the photos of his family when he's in the cell and reads a book out loud every night to his daughters.
Though Watts currently faces a 23-hour lockdown, there is a chance he will be able to challenge his case under a specific law known as Rule 35c. In the Colorado Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 35c provides the defendant with a chance to challenge his/her conviction and sentence. The 35c challenge is a little different than an appeal. So the defendant can ask questions about his conviction even if he pleaded guilty.
If Watts decides to challenge his case under Rule 35c, he must prove either that there is new evidence or that his conviction was unconstitutional. People previously reported how Watts was looking at legal options to appeal against his conviction. “He understands that this would be a Hail Mary,” the source said. “He’s smart enough to realize that it’s unlikely to ever change anything, but he’s sitting in prison with nothing but time. It’s sinking into him that he could be in that same cell for 50 years. And now he’s trying to decide whether there are any legal remedies for him.”
Watts is currently sentenced to life in the Wisconsin prison system and is not eligible for parole.