By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
TRENTON — A 40-year-old man accused of criminal sexual assault inadvertently presented himself to police, who had just responded to a missing person’s complaint involving the victim.
Police, including K-9 units, chased and caught up with Phillip Matthew Watson, 40, who may face up to life in prison if tried and convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Watson was arraigned March 5 before 33rd District Court Judge Jennifer Coleman-Hesson. Charges included first- and third-degree CSC, fleeing and eluding, and assault with intent to do great bodily harm.
Watson remained in custody on $500,000 cash bond — the amount was doubled after Watson threatened Coleman-Hesson during the arraignment, Police Chief Steven Voss said.
“He began to threaten the judge, who raised the bond,” Voss said.
Getting Watson to court was a combination of luck and responsive police work, Voss said.
About 10:30 p.m. March 4, police responded to a man who said he and his wife had left the house 10 days earlier, “on a drinking binge,” according to police reports, after they’d had arguments over her use of alcohol and “continuous threats to harm him.”
The man told police she had been staying at Trenton Motor Lodge on Veterans Parkway, but that afternoon he’d been told she had checked out. He told police he was afraid she might harm himself.
While police officers met outside to begin preparing a missing person’s report, a red Ford Mustang pulled up in front of the house. The man’s wife stepped out of the vehicle, which then drove off at a high rate of speed.
“There was luck, too,” Voss said of the timing, “that he chose to drop her off at that time. Without that, who knows what information we would have gotten.”
The woman appeared to have been injured, and officers took immediate action.
“When they saw the woman dropped off they knew she had been beaten up,” Voss said.
A separate patrol car on the road — alerted to the situation — passed the Mustang, turned and gave chase. Voss said the Mustang’s headlights had been turned off as the driver tried to distance himself from police.
A second patrol car that included K-9 officer Truax joined the pursuit. The Mustang reached speeds of up to 70 mph in residential areas before pulling into a driveway in the 3200 block of Edison Avenue.
Police arrived as Watson was fumbling with keys to get inside. He ignored police commands to stop, and Truax was deployed just as Watson opened the door. The dog grabbed hold of Watson before he could get inside, and police then arrested Watson.
Voss said the situation could have turned out much worse.
“Without the use of our canine, if he’d gotten into the residence we would have had a stand-off,” Voss said.
According to police reports, Watson told officers that his encounter with the woman had gotten out of hand.
“I’m stupid,” Watson was quoted in police reports. “I picked her up at the Motor Inn. I was trying to get her to move in with me and we had sex. I thought she stole my pills so I slapped her and she got a bloody nose.”
Investigators who had remained at Watson’s residence reported finding a “mattress covered with blood” in the bedroom.
After a preliminary examination Tuesday Watson was ordered to undergo a forensic competency evaluation to determine if he is able to understand the charges against him and participate in his own defense. The next preliminary examination date awaits that report, and Watson remained in custody.
(James Mitchell can be reached at [email protected].)