NORRISTOWN, PA (KYW Newsradio) — The trial of Blair Watts is underway. Watts, 33, from Royersford, is accused of murdering his business partner, Jennifer Brown, 43, then trying to cover it up, while her loved ones frantically searched for her for two weeks.
Prosecutor Kelly Lloyd said Brown dreamed of leaving her job in sales and opening a restaurant. In her opening statement, Lloyd said Brown signed a contract with Watts, giving him $14,000 for a 25% stake in a restaurant he was planning to open in late 2022.
However, Lloyd says, by the end of December, Watts hadn’t even signed a lease on the restaurant, and the landlord had told Watts he wasn’t renting to him.
Lloyd described Watts as a liar and a “broke narcissist who only cared about the image he projected.” His numerous lies were unraveling, she said, and when he realized Brown was about to expose him, “he had no choice” but to kill her.
Brown was reported missing on Jan. 4, after she didn’t pick up her son from the bus stop. Her body was found behind an industrial building in Royersford on Jan. 18. Lloyd says Watts told police she was a heavy drug user and led investigators to believe her neighbor was the lead suspect.
But, Lloyd said, they have cell phone records and video from two days after Brown was last seen that puts Watts near where Brown’s body was found, and records show Watts transferred $17,000 from Brown’s account after she was dead.
Watts’ lawyer, Michael Coard, told jurors that even if Watts was a broke narcissist, that doesn’t make him a murderer and that prosecutors will still need to prove their case. Coard said jurors are not there on a morals charge, but a murder case, and a verdict can’t be based on anything other than facts.