Watkins v. State

Following a jury trial, Jason Donte Watkins appeals his conviction for the murder of his girlfriend, Tamarisol Durham, contending that his right to confrontation was violated because the jurors considered extra-judicial information during deliberations and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel.1 We affirm. In the light most favorable to the verdict, the record shows that, on the night of April 15, 2008, Watkins returned home where Durham, her two children, and her sister were waiting. Durham and Watkins went into the bedroom. Sitting in the living room, Durham’s sister heard the couple arguing, and she heard Durham say that she was trying to leave the bedroom. Durham’s sister next heard someone calling her name and a loud thump on the wall. Two to three minutes later, she heard a gunshot. She ran into the bedroom and found Durham laying at the bottom of the bed with a gun shot wound to her head. Watkins was kneeling on the floor with his hands on his head. When the police arrived, Watkins came out of his daughter’s bedroom with his hands up. Sitting in the patrol car, Watkins stated, “I wish I would have killed me too. I wish I would have got me, then I wouldn’t have to feel this way.”

At the crime scene, detectives found a semi-automatic handgun and an empty shell casing at the foot of the bed. A firearm examiner with the State crime lab opined that the bullet taken from Durham’s body likely had been fired from the gun recovered at the scene. Receipts recovered from the home showed Watkins had purchased this handgun.