Judge Denies Motion to Postpone Trial of TPD Officer's Killer

A Tuscaloosa County judge will not postpone the capital murder trial of a man who fatally shot a police officer more than six years ago, denying a request from his new defense lawyers.

As the Thread has extensively reported, suspect Luther Bernard Watkins, Jr. has been in the county jail without bond since September 2019, when he shot and killed Tuscaloosa Police investigator Dornell Cousette.

Watkins and two teams of attorneys who have since withdrawn from the case insist he was acting in self-defense. Cousette was off-duty and without official backup when he attempted to arrest Watkins on outstanding warrants and moved in against the orders of a supervisor who had warned him that, due to other ongoing calls, no backup was available.

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Attorneys also showed evidence in a hearing this summer that Cousette shot Watkins in the back as he fled into a West Tuscaloosa house, and stood over him to shoot him a second time when the robbery suspect raised a handgun of his own and shot Cousette in the head.

Circuit Judge Brad Almond denied a motion for pre-trial immunity on self-defense grounds and said Watkins was likely committing the crime of attempting to elude or resisting arrest when he fled from Cousette. If he was engaged in a criminal act at the time of the shooting, the self-defense case loses its merit.

Shortly after the ruling against pre-trial immunity, Watkins' defense team, led by Gar Blume, all withdrew from the case, citing differences with their client.

Appeals against the ruling have also been denied at the local and state levels.

A new group of attorneys - Christopher Daniel, Scott Brower, and Justin Forrester - filed a motion to continue, or postpone, the trial to give them more time to prepare a defense for Watkins.

"All three newly appointed attorneys agreed to represent Watkins on the understanding they would have sufficient time to prepare for trial and, at minimum, develop a relationship with the Defendant and have even a base level understanding of the expert material prepared and collected by his prior attorneys; which presumes newly appointed counsel intends to use the exact same experts and trial strategy as prior counsel," the new team wrote in a motion asking to postpone the trial. "It is simply impossible for counsel to effectively represent Watkins and prepare a constitutionally effective defense in 1/10th of the time as his prior counsel. Were Watkins on bond, there would at least be some prejudice or complaint the Government could make, but given the fact the man is in jail, there is no detriment to the Government for continuing this matter. Allowing newly appointed counsel time to actually prepare for Watkins’trial ' trial strengthens the inevitable future argument against ineffective assistance of counsel. Or, in other words, everyone wins."

They filed their six-page motion on Halloween, October 31st. Judge Almond denied the motion on Tuesday.

With their motion to continue denied, the capital murder trial against Watkins is expected to begin in February. The state has indicated that it will seek the death penalty if Watkins is convicted.

For more coverage of this case and other crime & court stories from West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.