Gabe Watson and wife Kim
Marvin Gentry/Reuters/Landov
After serving 18 months in an Australian jail for manslaughter in the 2003 death of wife Tina on their honeymoon, Gabe Watson was acquitted of murder Thursday in an American court.Prosecutors in Birmingham, Ala., had alleged that Watson, 34, turned off his 26-year-old wife's oxygen supply during a dive off Townsville, Australia, to collect insurance money.
But when the prosecution rested after two weeks of trial, the judge granted the defense's motion for an acquittal on the grounds the prosecution failed to prove its murder case.
"The evidence is sorely lacking that it was an intentional act," Judge Tommy Nail said, according to The Birmingham News. "The only way to convict him of intentional murder is to speculate. Nobody knows exactly what happened in the water. I'm sure we'll never know."
Watson's mother collapsed in tears outside of the courtroom following the news.
Watson was being tried in Alabama because that's where he had been married and where the alleged murder plan had been hatched.
He stunned members of Tina's family when he pleaded guilty in Australia in 2009 to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
Australian authorities agreed to release him to the United States to face charges here after American authorities waived seeking the death penalty and instead sought life in prison.
In 2008, while facing murder charges in Australia, Watson married Kim Lewis, with whom he had gone to high school.