{"id":82431,"date":"2018-10-21T06:18:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-21T10:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=82431"},"modified":"2022-01-13T20:33:05","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T01:33:05","slug":"sunday-morning-feel-good-stories-178","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=82431","title":{"rendered":"Sunday morning feel good stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

From\u00a0COLORADO SPRINGS, CO<\/a><\/p>\n

A one-time bride-to-be accused of killing her fiance will not be charged with a crime, prosecutors said Friday.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, there just was not enough evidence to file murder charges against Jacqueline Souza, said Deputy District Attorney Andrew Vaughan.<\/p>\n

“Under the circumstances of this case, I would be required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Souza did not act in self-defense \u2026 the facts are not sufficient to support a conviction in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Souza, 31, could have faced second-degree murder charges in the\u00a0stabbing death of Brandon Watkins<\/a>\u00a0over the summer. Arrest papers obtained by 11 News in July state Souza admitted to having a fight with her groom-to-be over the invitation list just before he died. Vaughan said evidence casts doubt that what happened next fits the criteria for a murder charge.<\/p>\n

“Ms. Souza consented to have a medical examination done, forensic medical examination done. The results of the medical examination of Ms. Souza showed that she did have pinpoint bruising to the neck. Which is one sign of strangulation, some evidence of strangulation.”<\/p>\n

Vaughan said the medical findings backed up Souza’s claims that Watkins strangled her during the fight, and that along with physical evidence, witnesses also corroborated her account. Neighbors told authorities they heard a man yelling angrily from the couple’s garage that same night, Vaughan said in court Friday.<\/p>\n

“Other evidence that I used to examine witness statements that supported Ms. Souza\u2019s statement that there was an altercation inside the garage where she was being strangled by Mr. Watkins prior to Mr. Watkins’ death,” he told 11 News.<\/p>\n

The victim’s family pleaded with the judge Friday to change the course of action. After much discussion, the judge said it was not in her power to make that decision, and the prosecuting attorney is the only one who can press charges in this situation.<\/p>\n

“Murder in Colorado is acceptable,” an enraged Roger Watkins told 11 News after the hearing. “A veteran can get killed, she can admit it, and the [deputy district attorney] can get her off. How to get away with murder, come to Colorado Springs.”<\/p>\n

Brandon Watkins’ mother, Susanne Franzolin, said she was heartbroken by the decision.<\/p>\n

“I feel nauseous, and we are not giving up.”<\/p>\n

Both parents had harsh words for Vaughan.<\/p>\n

“The DA is [Souza’s] best defense,” Roger Watkins said.<\/p>\n

“I believe that he never really cared about Brandon, and he was so afraid of losing that he wouldn\u2019t file the charges; he was afraid of losing.”<\/p>\n

Vaughan told 11 News that he was sorry for the family’s loss, but he could not convince a jury of 12 people that there was no doubt Souza murdered Watkins unprovoked.<\/p>\n

“In the state of Colorado you can rely on self-defense to protect yourself from what you believe is an unlawful use of force. The degree of force that you use has to be a reasonable use of force. But based on the evidence in this case, allegations of strangulation, allegations of Mr. Watkins was using a knife, we have come to the determination that the use of force, we would not be able to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that she used a unreasonable amount of force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vaughan said he encourages the family to pursue “any avenue” they feel would be justice for Watkins.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From\u00a0COLORADO SPRINGS, CO A one-time bride-to-be accused of killing her fiance will not be charged with … Sunday morning feel good stories<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":667,"featured_media":82197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feel-good-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/667"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/82197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}