The parents of Colorado father Chris Watts say they want him to retract his guilty plea for killing his pregnant wife and their children, claiming he was in an 'abusive' relationship with her and was 'railroaded' into taking a plea deal to avoid being executed.
Ronnie and Cynthia Watts said their son isn't a 'sociopath' despite him killing his 34-year-old wife Shanann when she was 15 weeks pregnant in August then hiding her body in a shallow grave and putting their young daughters' bodies in oil tanks.
Watts was arrested in August after making shifty television appearances pleading for them to return home when they were still missing. Once he was in custody, he told authorities that Shanann had strangled the girls in retaliation after he told her he was going to leave her for another woman.
He claimed he strangled his wife in a vengeful 'rage' then hid all of the bodies afterwards.
Last week, he suddenly changed his mind and pleaded guilty to all three murders in a deal which takes the death penalty out of the equation but will likely see him spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Now, his parents Ronnie and Cindy say that was a mistake and that there is more to the story than has been revealed including the nature of their son's marriage and how his wife 'isolated' him from them.
Ronnie and Cynthia Watts (pictured) have finally broken their silence just a week after their son, Chris Watts, pleaded guilty to murdering his pregnant wife and their two children
Christopher Watts (left, and right with his family) pleaded guilty to murdering his pregnant wife Shanann and their two children Bella and Celeste last Tuesday after striking a deal with prosecutors which means he will not face the death penalty
'I know he confessed, but he was railroaded into it,' Cynthia told the Denver Post on Monday in one of multiple interviews the couple took part in.
She said her son 'changed' when he met Shanann and that their marriage was 'hard'.
'It was a very hard relationship.
'It was a very hard relationship with her as far as I’m concerned.
'I couldn’t do anything right,' his mother Cindy told ABC in a separate interview.
Ronnie, Chris' father, added: 'Shanann, she was, you have to get to know her to be around her. Put it that way.'
Their comments about her were met with fury by her family who said their attempt to clear their son's name at the expense of her memory was 'grotesque'.
Chris' parents said they believe his claims that Shanann killed the girls.
'It's hard to me for believe that he would hurt those girls no matter what. The story, that he told me that night, I believed it.
Watts' parents say he 'changed' when he met his wife Shanann and that she isolated him from them
'The way he was crying and everything... I believed it,' his father Ronnie said, referring to the story Chris gave him once he was arrested days after the girls were last seen alive.
'If he didn't kill the children, I want him to face that and let them prove it,' he added.
His mother added that she had tried to talk him out of the guilty plea and ask him why he took it but that she was 'shut down' by his defense attorney.
'I asked Chris, "If you did not do this, do not confess to something you didn’t do,"' said Cindy Watts.
'(Chris Watts' defense attorney) shut me down. She completely shut me down.'
She said the only upside to the deal was him not being executed but that the alternative - life in prison - was as bad.
'He's going to die in prison. I just want him to fight.
'I don't want him to take this plea deal. I want him to plead not guilty to the children,' she said.
They admitted that they still do not have all the answers including why he hid the bodies and appeared on national television afterwards claiming he had no idea where they were.
'Everything happened too quick there, from a case status to a plea,' Ronnie added.
Shanann's family hit back angrily after the Watts' interviews.
'Monday evening, the parents of Chris Watts gave an interview in which they attempted to defend their son.
Chris Watts' mother (left) said that she just wants her son to fight as his father, Ronnie said: 'If he didn't kill the children, I want him to face that and let them prove it'
'In doing so, they felt the need to make vicious, grotesque and utterly false statements about Shanann.
'Their false statements, however hurtful and inaccurate, will never alter the truth about Shanann, and will never alter the truth about the crimes committed by their son, Chris Watts.
Shanann was 15 weeks pregnant with a baby boy she was going to name Nico at the time of her tragic death
'Shanann’s memory and reputation deserves to be protected. And her family is fully prepared to do so,' the family said in a statement.
Shanann, Celeste and Bella were found dead in August days after they were reported missing.
She was 15 weeks pregnant with a baby boy who she planned to name Nico. It later emerged that Watts had been cheating on his wife.
The plea deal was approved by Shanann's family who told the district attorney they did not want to end his life as he did their daughter's and grandchildren's.
They did not speak after the hearing last Tuesday but watched somberly as the DA announced the outcome of the hearing.
When the bodies were found, Watts changed his story to say his wife killed the girls after he told her he was leaving her.
He claimed he then killed her in a vengeful rage for murdering them.
As part of his defense, his lawyers refused to hand over DNA samples from his hands and feet, likely to stop prosecutors from being able to match it to any found on the girls or their mother's body.
Because the girls' bodies were in oil for three days before they were found, any DNA evidence left on them is likely to have been compromised.
Last Tuesday, Watts pleaded guilty to nine counts; four counts of murder (one for each child, his wife and their unborn child), unlawful termination of pregnancy, and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body.
Before the victims' bodies were found, Watts made a shifty appearance on television pleading for his family's safe return
Shanann's parents Frank and Sandra Rzucek are pictured at the press conference after Watts' hearing on Tuesday. They did not speak
As part of the deal, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the first four counts of murder.
Sentencing will begin for the other crimes on November 19.
Weld District Attorney Michael Rourke revealed after the hearing that Shanann's family did not want her husband to be executed.
He said her mother Sandra Rzucek told him: 'He made the choice to take those lives.
'I do not want to be in the position of choosing to take his.'
Rourke added that a factor in the decision was the impending gubernatorial election which could determine whether or not a governor would even enforce the death penalty if it applied.
Taking a stab at Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, who had repeatedly opposed the execution of another death row inmate Nathan Dunlap, Rourke said: 'We explained to them the extraordinary delays that currently exist in the state of Colorado as a result of in part the actions of our current governor.
'They were very strongly in favor of a resolution in this case short of the death penalty.
'That to me was the most important consideration in deciding how to proceed in this a case.
'I don't know how I could have sat in Sandy's kitchen and asked her to commit the next 25 years of her life to the criminal justice system without any assurance that the sentence would ever actually be imposed,' he said.
The killings sparked national sympathy. Above is the family home in Greeley, Colorado
Rourke said they had established a partial motive but would not say what that was.
The victims' autopsy reports remain under seal. Rourke said he was 'sick' and 'saddened' over the case.
'No one wins today. I never wanted to have to stand up and have a press conference like this. There is no cause for celebration.'
During the plea hearing on Tuesday, he said the falsehood that Shannan killed the children was corrected.
'The spotlight that he tried to shine on Shanann, falsely and incorrectly - a flat out lie - has been corrected. The spotlight shines squarely on him,' he said.
Shanann had returned home from a business trip when she was killed.
She was reported missing by a work colleague who became worried when she did not respond to messages.
At first, Watts said he and his wife had been up all night having an emotional conversation. He said he went off to work and only knew something was wrong when he was contacted later by her colleagues.
Link hienalouca.comhttps://hienalouca.com/2018/11/14/chris-watts-parents-say-he-was-in-an-abusive-relationship-with-pregnant-wife-when-he-killed-her/
Main photo article The parents of Colorado father Chris Watts say they want him to retract his guilty plea for killing his pregnant wife and their children, claiming he was in an ‘abusive’ relationship with her and was ‘railroaded’ into taking a plea deal to avoid being executed.
Ronnie a...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/11/14/00/6152830-6386861-image-a-1_1542156664073.jpg
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