CLEVELAND, Ohio — A witness whose testimony was key to convicting a man of murder in 2008 took the stand Wednesday and said he made the entire thing up to get out of a potential 20-year prison sentence he faced in a federal drug conspiracy case.
Earwin Watters, then 19, first told Cleveland police homicide detectives in February 2007 and a year later a jury that he saw Jojwan Martin shoot and kill Antonio Williams the previous fall.
“They wanted to me to testify that I seen[sic] something that I didn’t,” Watters, now 39, testified Wednesday. “I lied about everything.”
Watters’ comments came after an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor told the judge overseeing the case that the state believed it could charge Watters with perjury if he lies under oath.
After Martin was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, the then-assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor on the case sent an email to the the assistant U.S. Attorney overseeing Watters’ prosecution in federal court. The prosecutor wrote that he was “satisfied with the cooperation” that Watters showed, and that the email was part of a promise the state made to Watters in exchange for his testimony.
Watters was ultimately sentenced to three years in federal prison.
Watters reached out to Martin’s mother on his own in 2011, and told her that he had lied about her son’s involvement in the shooting.
“I just wanted to come forward and tell the truth,” Watters said.
Martin is relying on the emergence of the deal that was not disclosed and Watters’ recantation of his testimony to overturn his conviction for the slaying that he has consistently maintained that he did not commit.
“Justice requires this case to be tried again,” Joseph Patituce, who is representing Martin along with Megan Patituce, said in closing arguments that followed Watters’ testimony. “And to be tried fairly.”
Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Sarah Hutnik said that Watters’ statement that he lied in 2007 was not credible because he testified to several specific details about the shooting, and some of the details were corroborated by another witness.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Cassandra Collier-Williams will issue a decision later this summer.
How it started
Williams’ car crashed into a home about 2:45 p.m. Nov. 11, 2006, after he had been shot while driving near East 71st Street and Hecker Avenue in the city’s Slavic Village neighborhood.
Williams survived for several weeks with a bullet lodged in his spine, but died two months later of pneumonia that was caused by complications from his gunshot wounds.
On Jan. 10, 2007, the U.S. Attorney’s office announced that dozens of members of the 7-All street gang were arrested as part of a sweep. Among them was Watters, who also went by the name “Scooter.” He was charged with a host of crimes, including conspiracy to distribute cocaine and weapons charges.
A Cleveland FBI agent wrote in a report that Watters claimed to have information on two homicides, including the shooting of Williams.
Watters said that Cleveland police homicide detectives met with him in February 2007, and told him that they would “do everything in their power to keep me behind bars if I didn’t cooperate.”
He later said he was told that he would “get time cut off if I testified.”
Watters cooperates
Watters said detectives showed him Martin’s picture, and he told them that Martin was the shooter.
Watters said he walked to a corner store and saw Martin, whom he knew from the neighborhood, talking to a man inside a car outside. Watters said he was inside the store buying cigarettes when he heard a gunshot and tires squeal. He looked up and saw Martin fire two shots at the car as it drove away.
Watters entered a plea deal in federal court on March 15, 2007, weeks after meeting with Cleveland police detectives. A copy of the plea agreement shows that prosecutors said he faced a 60-month mandatory minimum sentence, and that federal sentencing guidelines put his sentencing recommendation at between 87 and 108 months.
He gave the same testimony to the jury at Martin’s trial in 2008. Watters told the jury that he had not been promised any benefit in exchange for his testimony, but admitted on cross-examination that it was possible his sentence could be reduced by as much as 30 months.
After Watters’ testimony but before his sentencing in federal court, then-Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Blaise Thomas sent the email to then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Pinjuh detailing Watters’ cooperation and his testimony. Thomas pointed out that the jury found Watters to be credible.
Then-U.S. District Judge Ann Aldrich then imposed on Watters a 36-month sentence, which was a 51-month reduction from the sentencing guidelines and 30 months below the mandatory minimum outlined in the plea deal.
Long-awaited hearing
Even though Watters ultimately came forward in 2011, Martin’s case is just getting to a hearing on his recantation because the attorney that his family hired to seek a new trial at the time, Michael Cheselka, waited too long to file the motion. The Ohio Supreme Court later suspended Cheselka’s law license for misconduct in. several cases, including Martin’s.
Hutnik went through Watters’ trial testimony in 2008 that included what clothes Martin was wearing and the direction Williams’ car traveled before it crashed and asked where he got the details of the shooting. He said he made up the details entirely on his own.
Hutnik called retired Cleveland police homicide detective Timothy Entenok, who denied making Watters any promises. He said he did not disclose any of the details about the investigation to Watters, but admitted that he showed Watters a photo of Martin during their interview.
Both Entenok and Thomas signed affidavits attesting that they made no guarantees to Watters in exchange for his testimony.
In her closing arguments, Hutnik argued that some of Watters’ original testimony was corroborated by a woman, who said she also saw Martin running down the street with a gun. She called Watters’ recantation a “fraud” that Martin was attempting to commit on the court.
“The state is just as interested in the truth as anyone else,” Hutnik said.
Hutnik also attempted to cast doubt on Watters’ claim that his false testimony weighed on his conscience because he waited until “he couldn’t face any negative consequences” for doing so to come forward and recant his testimony.
Collier-Williams interrupted Hutnik and told her that it made sense he would wait until he couldn’t go back to prison or have his sentence lengthened. Patituce also later pointed out that Hutnik had asked Collier-Williams to appoint an attorney to advise Watters that he could be charged with a crime if he testifies untruthfully, and that when he first came forward, he was still able to be charged with perjury.
“For the last eight years, this man has been waiting to be charged,” Patituce said. “Mr. Martin’s spent 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and now we know, under oath and with the threat of prosecution, that Mr. Watters is telling the truth.”
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