Bus driver in Northern California crash that killed 11 ordered released early from prison
Quinton Watts, the driver of a casino-bound bus that crashed and killed 11 passengers, and the subject of a recent Sacramento Bee investigation, was told Friday that he would be released from prison next week.
Watts was driving with 40 Sacramento-area passengers on the outskirts of Colusa on Oct. 5, 2008. The bus veered out of control with an apparently unconscious Watts at the wheel and smashed into a ditch. Prosecutors convinced a jury that Watts fell asleep and that he’d been failing to properly tend to his insulin-dependent diabetes in the hours leading up to the wreck.
During a hastily rescheduled hearing on Monday, Colusa County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Thompson took nine years off Watts’ prison term. The judge said that while Watts was properly sentenced to 26 years, changes in state law about sentencing enhancements and an intervention from the head of California’s prisons prompted the reevaluation of Watts’ sentence.
“It should be noted 11 people died because of Watts’ criminal negligence,” Thompson said. “That being said, Mr. Watts is entitled to a benefit in a change in the law.”
The shortened sentence means that Watts technically became parole eligible in 2018 — not 2027 — according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Watts waited anxiously since Monday to find out just how soon he’d get out.
Then, on Friday morning, parole officials called him into a meeting and told him that he will walk out of California State Prison-Solano in Vacaville on Wednesday. He said they also told him they were looking into whether he could be transitioned into a residential drug treatment program because of his prior history of substance abuse years before the bus crash.
“Every morning, I wake up and pace the floor for hours,” Watts said in a brief interview from prison. “It’s been a hard, long road, but it’s almost over. It’s not like it’s gonna be easy when I get out. This will still be hard. But this is over with anyway.”
The Bee investigated another possible explanation for the crash. Despite a documented history of having a seizure disorder, Watts had been cleared to drive by a medical professional. Jurors never learned that the physician assistant had erred in the decision and was later reprimanded by the state medical board.
Prosecutors also leaned on statements from an interview that a medicated Watts, who had been injured in the crash, had given at the hospital only hours after he was taken out of a coma. At trial, there were no Black jurors to hear the case against Watts, who himself is Black. And experts said Watts’ attorney barely mounted a defense, calling just one witness — the paramedic who treated Watts and took him to the hospital.
Neither attorneys nor the judge addressed Watts’ medical history or the other circumstances of the case on Monday. They spoke only of the sentencing enhancement rule change.
Watts did not attend Monday’s hearing in person but learned of the details on a phone call with a reporter later in the day.
“I’m happy,” Watts said. “I couldn’t be more happy than I am now because I know that it’s coming soon.”
How the Watts’ resentencing came about
Kathleen Allison, the secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, last month called for Watts to be resentenced and granted authority to Colusa County Superior Court to revisit the case.
In early January, the judge scheduled the hearing for Feb. 8.
Then, confusion followed.
Albert Smith, Watts’ original public defender, was reappointed to handle the case. He wrote a letter to Watts asking him for permission to handle the resentencing on his behalf. “The most likely result is that you will be ordered released from prison,” Smith wrote.
But Smith never received a written reply.
Watts, it turns out, was mulling his response from his prison dormitory, which has been in various stages of lockdown for months amid a rise in COVID-19 cases. The letter raised more questions for Watts. It was riddled with typos. It was undated.
Still, Watts planned to drop his response in the mail over the weekend, giving Smith the nod to handle his case well ahead of the Feb. 8 hearing.
Meanwhile, 75 miles north of the prison, attorneys in Colusa County who’d heard nothing from Watts rescheduled the hearing for Monday. They expected it to be relatively uneventful since Watts hadn’t responded.
The judge would issue an order to have Watts transferred to Colusa County “eventually,” Smith wrote in an email last week to The Bee.
Math teacher helped in the case
One of Watt’s biggest advocates has been a local math teacher from France, Edric Cane. But when a reporter told Cane about the newly scheduled Monday hearing and the exchange with Smith, he sprang to action. He vowed to do all he could to make Monday’s hearing productive.
He emailed Smith and learned that Smith needed official authorization to proceed with the case.
During a weekend phone call with Watts, Cane recorded him giving the green light for Smith to represent him and move the case forward. “We’re on for this Monday,” Cane wrote a reporter Saturday night. “I will be there. I don’t know what will come out of it but hope for the best.”
When he walked into a crowded, oak-paneled courtroom Monday with plexiglass separators, Cane, who is 85 and wore a KN95 mask, played the recording on his cell phone for Smith. He strained to hear court staff who scolded him for not promptly turning it off. He could only understand a fraction of the muffled voices all morning.
But his effort worked. Watts’ case would be heard after all.
After a brief recess, Brendan Farrell, a deputy district attorney, and Smith agreed that Watts’ term should be shortened. The hearing was over in just a few minutes, with most of the time spent hashing out specific terms for specific charges. There was no grand revelation of when exactly Watts might be released. But it would be much sooner than originally planned, everyone agreed.
“You’ve gone way out of your way. And I want you to know I appreciate that,” Smith told Cane.
Smith did not return requests seeking comment for The Bee’s prior reporting on the Watts case.
Talk to The Bee? ‘Not a chance in the world’
A loquacious man in a wrinkled peach-tan-colored pinstripe suit, Smith struck up a conversation with seemingly every court employee during a recess Monday. About appellate rulings. About accidentally walking into a plexiglass pane. About a man’s shoes. At one point, he could be heard chatting about his disdain for local news coverage of cases he’s defended.
“My policy of not speaking to the press is the correct one,” he said toward the prosecutor’s table.
After the resentencing — a successful morning by defense standards — Smith waved away a reporter who approached him.
Asked if he had anything he wanted to say about the case, he stayed true to form.
“Not a chance in the world.”
On a phone call a few hours after the hearing, Cane told Watts about the day in court.
“Basically,” he said, “you won your case.”
The shorter sentence and early release were welcome news, but both men still believe the entire conviction should be overturned because of omissions at trial, many of which The Bee detailed previously.
Cane is consulting with an attorney about what options might still exist for Watts. He’s also working to line-up job interviews for Watts, who recently earned his custodial certificate — and 55 cents an hour — cleaning medical facilities used by inmates suspected of having COVID-19.
“We’ve got a lot of things on our plate,” Cane said.
“All I can do,” Watts replied, “is get out there and show you how much I appreciate it by being the person I should be.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 11:20 AM.