NEW BOSTON, Texas -- A Bowie County jury found that a Texarkana man used his fists as a deadly weapon and sentenced him to 38 years in prison for the fatal January 2020 assault on his girlfriend.
Dontavious Dishawn Haney, 21, struggled with officers who attempted to take him into custody after 202nd District Judge John Tidwell dismissed the jury on Thursday. Haney yelled at and fought with at least six deputies and court officers as they removed him from the courtroom.
During the guilt or innocence phase of his trial, Haney described the fatal assault on 21-year-old Denise Watson.
"It was just a bad day. Things happen. Things happen for a reason," Haney said under questioning by First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp. The jury deliberated about an hour before finding Haney guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon with serious bodily injury, family violence, and a little more than an hour before returning with a 38-year sentence.
By the time police were called to an apartment in the 1600 block of Peach Street in Texarkana, Texas, about 9:30 a.m. Jan. 24, 2020, Watson was no longer breathing. Witnesses testified that she and Haney had been at odds since the night before, and Watson wanted Haney to leave the apartment she shared with her two children, a female family member and her mother, who was hospitalized at the time.
In a videotaped interview with Texarkana, Texas, detective Cody Harris played for the jury Thursday, Haney explained that he didn't want the relationship to end and had broken Watson's cellphone because she was paying more attention to it than to him.
When Watson locked herself in the bathroom to take a shower, Haney acquired a flathead screwdriver and picked the lock. In the interview with Harris, Haney denied that he "broke in" the bathroom while Watson was showering.
"I twisted the lock. I didn't break it down," Haney argued.
Harris testified Thursday that Haney used phrases such as "twisted the lock" when he broke into the bathroom and the word "touched" for punching Watson in the face with a closed fist, to minimize what he had done and blame the victim for her own injuries.
A neighbor testified that she heard Watson shout, "It hurts, it hurts. I want my momma, I want my momma," at approximately 8 a.m. Jan. 24, 2020.
A call to 911 was made shortly before 9:30 a.m. Watson died the following day.
Haney testified that he only punched Watson once in the face and that she somehow "fell" into a wall behind a couch. Jack Johnson, a woman who lived in the apartment, testified that she walked into the living room in time to see Watson slam into the wall behind the couch.
"Her nose, right here, was like broke. She had a gash and her eye was bleeding. She was bleeding out of her nose. I said 'Look at her face, look at her ... face,' and he said, 'She smacked the phone out of my hand.'"
Harris testified that he doesn't believe Watson could have fallen against the wall as Haney described and said it was more likely she was forcefully thrown or pushed.
"I got mad and broke her phone because she didn't want me no more," Haney said in the videotaped interview with Harris.
Haney told Harris in the interview that Watson told him she didn't want to be with him anymore because of physical abuse.
"I said, 'I don't want to beat on you. I don't,'" Haney told Harris in the interview.
Haney became quiet while being cross-examined by Crisp and asked about how hard he hit Watson.
"I'm trying to calm down," Haney said. "It was a reflex."
Crisp asked Haney if he "accidentally crushed her face and gave her a brain bleed."
Texarkana neurosurgeon Marc Smith and a Dallas medical examiner testified that Watson suffered a severe head injury, broken orbital socket and broken nasal bones.
Haney claimed in his testimony Thursday that he only punched Watson once and that he only did so as a "reflex" when she knocked his phone from his hand. He claimed that the reason the knuckles on both of his hands were bruised and bloody was because he had punched a wall with one of his hands and Watson's face with the other.
Haney said he got a wet towel, a glass of water and some ice for Watson as she laid on the couch, gurgling.
"I told her I was sorry but she knocked the phone out my hand," Haney testified.
Crisp addressed that statement in her closing argument.
"The last thing she may have heard was him blaming her for her own death," Crisp said.
Assistant Public Defender Clayton Haas asked the jury to consider that Haney was 19 at the time of Watson's death and that he has no previous felony convictions.
Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards asked the jury to send a message about what Bowie County citizens think of domestic violence.
Before the jury was brought into the courtroom for the final day of trial Thursday morning, Tidwell addressed a question asked of a witness late Wednesday afternoon by Assistant Public Defender Bart Craytor. During his cross-examination of Watson's neighbor, Craytor asked her if she knew Watson had been on parole.
The question caused Tidwell to abruptly adjourn court Wednesday and place the jury in an evening recess. Tidwell had made an earlier ruling that lawyers for either side should approach the bench if they intended to bring up disparaging information about a party in the case, including the victim.
Friday morning, Tidwell read a transcript of his ruling into the trial record and asked Craytor if he was unclear.
Craytor agreed he was not and told the court he was told by Haney that Watson had been on parole and did not seek confirmation from any other source. Watson has never been on parole.
"This jury has been misled as to the facts," Tidwell said. "It's hard to unring a bell."