YORK, SC — Phillip Watts Jr., serving seven life prison sentences for shooting four people during a terrifying York County crime spree in 2007 and 2008, will not get a new trial, a judge ruled Friday. Only the fact that Watts – who confessed to all the crimes after his arrest only to later recant and claim mental problems – used a small-caliber handgun to wound his victims kept him from being a serial killer, police and prosecutors have said. Watts’ attempt to have his conviction overturned is seen by victims he maimed as a thinly veiled attempt to avoid dying in prison by using a mental competency scam. “That’s good; he doesn’t need a new...
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