Federal Murder Charge: Shocking Details Unveiled in Court

I also want to tell you about a story that continues to make headlines on Fox26Houston.com. We're talking about the man who is now charged with murder in regards to this alleged killing here that happened on the MSC Seascape. That is a cruise ship that left Galveston. Sacra Gray was in court today following this case. Sacra, can you fill us in on what's going on here? Yeah, so 48 year old Jason Watford appeared in federal court today for the first time. He's facing a federal murder charge. Now we weren't able to bring cameras inside that federal courtroom, but he was in handcuffs, legs shackled. And he was also wearing the same clothes that we can see in video of him as he was taken into custody yesterday. So again, those same clothes. And today he was read the charge, made the judge made sure that he understood the charge. And with that, if convicted, he could face life in prison and a $250,000 fine. He's now in custody of the US Marshal and his next hearing here in Galveston Federal Court is scheduled for Monday. You know, Sakura, there's a lot of new details coming out about this and what happened there on the ship. What are the details? Can you tell us about that? Yeah, we read through the federal charging documents that certainly give us a clear picture of what investigators say happened aboard that ship. If we read through them, we know that the Galveston ship took off around 4 PM on Sunday. And a few hours after that, court documents say that Watford and a female companion were having dinner aboard the ship. They allegedly had an argument and they eventually went back to their cabin one by one. Now here's the kicker is that Watford actually spoke with FBI investigators in an interview. And during that interview, he shared what happened behind those cabin doors. He said that the fight escalated and that he quote snapped. He said he allegedly hit the woman repeatedly and choked her for four to five minutes. Now later that evening, court records say a housekeeper came to their door. That housekeeper saw blood on Watford's hands and the woman lying motionless on the floor. That housekeeper eventually went on to alert staff. But during that time, Watford, according to surveillance video, changed clothes, walked out the door and sat in the hallway scrolling on his phone, never calling for medical help. It was staff that eventually discovered that woman's body. And we do know that ship ended up turning around, returning back here to Galveston's port. Many of the people aboard that ship having no idea of all of the violence that took place aboard that ship. When they got back here to Galveston, the captain made an announcement saying that there had been an incident aboard that ship. But now as those passengers are back out on the water continuing their seven day travel, they now know some of those harrowing details and that it was much more stark than an incident. Back to you. Wow, Sacra Gray. Thank you so much for those reports.