

Crazy is not legally insane.”īefore closing arguments, Lee dismissed a juror who, during lunch on Wednesday, approached a TV crew and told them which case he was hearing. “This is kind of insulting to people who are really suffering under mental health issues. “Where are the doctors?” she asked the jury.
BRITTANY WATTS PROFESSIONAL
He said he watched the ‘shooter’ firing senseless shots.”īut while a mental health professional reviewed Thandiwe on Wednesday evening to support adding new verdict choices for the jury, no one evaluated him or testified to his mental well-being. “He acted without being able to control what was going on. Thandiwe describing his out-of-body experience,” Bryant said.

In the insane mind of Nkosi Thandiwe, it was the right thing to do.”īryant pointed to witnesses – both strangers and acquaintances – who testified seeing Thandiwe while he was committing the shooting, describing his face as “blank,” or “intense” and even saying his client was “driving like a maniac.” “The State is right, because there is no sense in what happened. “The State got up and said this was a senseless act,” Bryant told the jury. Public defender Wes Bryant borrowed from the prosecutor’s opening statement to suggest that Thandiwe may have been out of his mind when he shot the women. Thursday morning, she added both choices to the verdict sheet the jurors would read during deliberation, and recommended to them that “if the jury determines ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ to stop deliberations.”
BRITTANY WATTS TRIAL
Lee, in an unusual move on Wednesday, moved to allow Thandiwe’s attorney to file an insanity defense late in the trial by ordering a mental evaluation be made overnight to determine whether the verdict options of “not guilty by reason of insanity” and “guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, but mentally ill” to the choices the jury had to consider. Thandiwe, 23, was accused of fatally shooting Watts in the neck in a Midtown parking deck as she left her office for lunch, then taking her car, apparently hitting her body as he pulled away, then firing into a crowd of women walking along Crescent Street as he sped off, striking Ferenczy and Garcia and leaving Garcia paralyzed from the waist down.įulton County Superior Court Judge Kelly A. “If race disorder was a, then the Ku Klux Klan could murder and kill with impunity.” “He told you he shot Brittney Watts, Lauren Garcia and Tiffany Ferenczy because he had adopted all these racist ideals,” Fulton County assistant district attorney Linda Dunikoski said to the jury, referring to Thandiwe’s testimony on Wednesday. He was charged with murder, felony murder – causing a death during the commission of a felony – several counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, armed robbery, carjacking and gun offenses.Ī juror was dismissed earlier Thursday on the fourth day of Thandiwe’s murder trial, and prosecutors told the court that his Jshooting spree was the result of racism, not insanity as his attorney claimed. Thandiwe was found guilty of all the counts against him and the sentencing phase of the trial began immediately. Nothing can be gained by putting him in jail for the rest of his life.” “He’s not the ‘Midtown Shooter,’” she said. His mother, Lynnae Thandiwe, pleaded with the judge for mercy. Our girls and I will appreciate any help.Thandiwe was convicted Thursday of fatally shooting Watts, paralyzing Lauren Garcia and injuring Tiffany Ferenczy. We now have to pay for funeral expenses that we were more than not prepared for.

While Rob was responsible and signed up for life insurance, he unfortunately did not get the opportunity to work at GEO long enough for that to help us in this tragic turn of events.
BRITTANY WATTS HOW TO
I am broken and not sure how to go on, but I do know that he would be telling me at this moment that that is not the woman he married and to be strong for our girls I am trying, but in trying, I need help which is difficult for me to say. He was the type of man that should still be here with me, with his girls and in the world for more people to experience. He was the type of man that would light up the room and never met a stranger.

He came from nothing and built everything on his own, earning his master's degree to show our daughters that anything was possible and that hard work pays off. He was the type of man that did everything and anything for his family with zero hesitation. How do you describe a man that was your entire world? He was brave, loyal, funny, brilliant and the type of man that would truly give you the shirt off his back I know this because I watched him do it. In writing this, I am honestly not sure what to say. My name is Brittany Watts, and I have the absolute pleasure of calling Robert Watts Jr my husband, best friend, soulmate and father to our two beautiful girls.
